TAKE IT BACK By Kia Abdullah

TAKE IT BACK By Kia Abdullah

SYNOPSIS

The Victim: A sixteen year old girl with facial deformities, neglected by an alcoholic mother. Who accuses the boys of something unthinkable.

The Defendants: Four handsome teenage boys from hardworking immigrant families. All with corroborating stories.

Whose side would you take?

Zara Kaleel one of London’s brightest young legal minds, shattered the expectations placed on her by her family and forged a glittering career at the Bar. All before hanging up her barristers wig to help victims like Jodie Wolfe.

Jodie’s own best friends doesn’t even believe her claims that their classmates carried out such a crime. But Zara does. And Zara is determined to fight for her.

Jodie and Zara become the centre of the most explosive criminal trial of the year, in which ugly divisions within British society are exposed. As everything around Zara begins to unravel she becomes even more determined to get Jodie the justice she is looking for. But at what price?

MY REVIEW

Where to start with this review. It is a very complex multilayered story so brilliantly written that it just goes round in your head even when you have finished reading. It’s not just a courtroom drama, or a psychological thriller, it’s so much more. It shows how society reacts to ugly divisions and prejudice that’s happening around the world in society today, this could easily be an article we pick up and read in a daily newspaper, incorporating disabilities, race, religion,politics, class. But the story is so well woven around every character in the book. You get so engrossed you just don’t want this book to end.

Jodie is a 16 year old girl who has severe facial disfigurements. She has had an awful life being bullied and name called for as long as she can remember. But at times she comes across as a very        

strong girl a survivor in a cruel world. Then other times she is so vulnerable and seems so worn down by everything. All she wants is to be loved. Her own mother an alcoholic doesn’t even like or love  her own daughter, she is as bad as the children in the playgrounds would have been as Jodie was growing up. So when Jodie accuses four Muslim sixteen year old boys of raping her even her mother calls her a liar and attention seeker. At no point in the story is here mother there for her. Her best friend Nina turns her back on her and calls her a liar when Jodie tells her what happened on the fateful night of June 27th. Is Nina Jealous? Because one of the accused is Amir Rabbani who Nina has also fancied but he has never shown her any interest, much to her dismay. Jodie has had a crush on Amir since primary school, and this has never been a secret. Jodie doesn’t tell anyone what happened until nearly a week after the events took place. Why? Jodie is subjected to a lot once the news gets out about the story, the press hammering on the door, her mother wondering if she can make some money from selling the story, internet trolls. 

Zara Kaleel a Muslim herself, was a high flying barrister but turned her back on that career to work as a rape counsellor. She had previously agreed with, and went ahead with an arranged marriage which only lasted a short time. Bringing shame to her family. The story highlights the differences between the men and women in the Muslim community how women are viewed and the difficulties they have. Zara’s father had passed away before she had even had a chance to make up with him, she had always been his favourite, but the failure of the marriage, and quitting her career had damaged the relationship. Her brother looks down on her and calls her names when she visits the family home. Her sisters I feel want to be there for her but are restricted in what they can say and do even more so if the brother is there. Zara is not a happy person, she is driven and comes across as very tough and hard, but then you see a glimpses of a softer side but they are only very fleeting moments. As a woman and a Muslim she has had to work harder to get where she is. When she takes on Jodie’s case she is accused of many things by the Muslim community because she is representing Jodie, the white girl, against four Muslim boys. Some of the things that both Zara and Jodie have to deal with are disturbing and you feel for them both. In Zara’s eyes she is just doing her job, if it had been a Muslim girl that had come to her accusing four white boys I think she would have taken the case on in exactly the same way.   

     

We then have the four accused boys Amir Rabbani is a very good looking young man and knows it, he has no problem getting the girls, he is very assured throughout most of the story. He is also the leader of the gang as such, the one the other boys look up to and follow. Hassan Tanweer again comes across as very assured and looks down on women, but is this just his culture, the way these boys are raised to see women as their lesser. Mohammed Ahmed is a follower he goes along because he seems afraid not to to a certain extent. Fared Khan he is the only one who is not accused of rape but watched and did nothing to stop what was happening. But are these boys capable of rape. Or are they just high spirited young boys coming up to manhood. They all come from hardworking immigrant family backgrounds.

The first half of the book is focused on Jodie when she goes to the centre where Zara works. When Zara is assigned her case she listens to what Jodie has to say. She then works with her, supporting her, and believing her throughout the process. Going with her to the Police, showing her around the courtroom and explaining the whole process. Zara believes her story, even when Jodie tells the police a slightly different version of events to what she has told her. She still believes her. Jodie has never had anyone on her side before, so this is new to her. We follow the story that Jodie tells, with glimpses of the boys lives intertwined in the chapters. Jodie’s friend Nina’s reaction when she tells her what has happened, she doesn’t believe her and doesn’t stand by her at all.

The second half of the book is the trial and it literally feels like you are there. The first half the prosecutors side, the cross examination of Jodie is hard to read, occasional glimpses of the reactions from the jury, as Zara is reading it. You are going back and forth as to who to believe. Is Jodie lying? Has she made it up for attention? Could these boys have done this? It’s he said/they said so four against one. Then the defence and the boys behaving like they are all sweet and innocent, can they be rattled when cross examined? Are they being honest?

The reactions outside the courtroom are as tough as inside when emotions between different cultures
 are running high. The Muslim community calling Zara a traitor to her religion and many things more. Other events which happen but if I write them will be spoilers and that isn’t the idea of a review. This is book you have to read for yourself to see the cultural differences within the plot.

Towards the end the drama escalates even further even though you didn’t think it possible. What will the verdict be? Will anyone come out if this any better than when they went in.

This has to be one of my top recommended books for 2019 and I think it’s one people should read  to try and understand just a little bit some of the difficulties that can be had by different cultures, disabilities, and class. How cruel the world can be. Because even though this is a work of fiction as I pointed out earlier in my review this could be something that could easily happen in real life in the society we have today.

I think Kia Abdullah is a writer to watch out for because this is an absolutely brilliant read, and can certainly give some of the top names in writing a run for their money. I will certainly be looking out for the next book she writes.

I would like to thank #netgalley #HQ #kiaabdullah #Takeitback for letting me have an ARC of this book all views and opinions are my own and unbiased.

THE AUTHOR

Kia Abdullah is an author and travel writer. She has contributed to The Guardian, BBC, and Channel 4 News, and most recently The New York Times commenting on a variety of issues affecting the Muslim community. Kia currently travels the world as one half of the travel blog Atlas &Boots, which receives over 200,000 views per month. kiaabdullah.com