I am always on the lookout for books that depict realistic and positive female friendship. This was the main reason I was drawn to this book as it promised an interesting story centered around a friendship between Maryam and Zahra, spanning forty years.
The book opens in 1988 Karachi where we meet Maryam and Zahra as 14 year old girls experiencing puberty, first crushes and school drama against the backdrop of political change. The fears and difficulties of becoming young women who draw the attention of men around them is depicted really well and is woven well into the somewhat YA descriptions of their day to day lives.
The story then moves to London in the present day with the girls now grown up and living with the ghosts of their shared past and a night that changed everything. My biggest issue with this part of the story was that I didn't feel like I got to know the girls well enough in the first part to really connect with them and so the whole story just fell flat for me.
On the whole, this was a very slow paced book and I was quite frequently bored as the character depth was lacking and little of interest happened in the plot for long sections so it felt like a slog to get through at times. It is a shame as there were some intriguing and clever themes at play but it didn't feel like they were used to their full potential.
Thank you to Readers First for the copy of this book.
The book opens in 1988 Karachi where we meet Maryam and Zahra as 14 year old girls experiencing puberty, first crushes and school drama against the backdrop of political change. The fears and difficulties of becoming young women who draw the attention of men around them is depicted really well and is woven well into the somewhat YA descriptions of their day to day lives.
The story then moves to London in the present day with the girls now grown up and living with the ghosts of their shared past and a night that changed everything. My biggest issue with this part of the story was that I didn't feel like I got to know the girls well enough in the first part to really connect with them and so the whole story just fell flat for me.
On the whole, this was a very slow paced book and I was quite frequently bored as the character depth was lacking and little of interest happened in the plot for long sections so it felt like a slog to get through at times. It is a shame as there were some intriguing and clever themes at play but it didn't feel like they were used to their full potential.
Thank you to Readers First for the copy of this book.