Review of "Take It Back: A Novel of Suspense" by Kia Abdullah

If youths in your minority ethnoreligious group are accused of raping a girl, do you support the boys no matter what? That's the problem faced by Zara Kaleel.....



.....a Muslim lawyer who volunteers as a rape victim advocate at a London rape crisis center.



Zara is assigned the case of 16-year-old Jodie Wolfe, a girl with a severely deformed face.....



.....who accuses four Muslim schoolmates of raping her.



Jodie and the boys agree that they were together in an abandoned warehouse after a party, but how they all came to be there, and what happened in the building, is in dispute.



Jodie says the boys violently assaulted her; the boys say they didn't.

Zara chooses to believe Jodie, helps the girl report the incident to the police, and advises her afterwards. Jodie REALLY needs Zara because her own mother is a lazy alcoholic who can't be bothered with her daughter's problems.



And Jodie's best friend - who has a crush on one of the boys - refuses to believe her.



The incident incites furor on both sides of the ethnic divide: the Caucasian community raises hell about Muslim boys raping a disabled white girl;



and Muslims claim the girl is lying.



As for Zara, she's between a rock and a hard place. The advocate feels obligated to help Jodie - who's come to rely on her - but the Muslim community calls Zara a traitor. Moreover, Zara's own mother advises her to drop the case and let someone else handle it.



Zara's already on the outs with her family for flouting Muslim traditions about women being subservient to men, and for leaving her arranged marriage after a couple of weeks.



Unfortunately, Zara furthering Jodie's case just makes things worse.

The book highlights the culture clash between the Muslim and non-Muslim community. The Muslims, who already face discrimination because of their religion and skin color, are livid about 'good Muslim boys' - from hard-working immigrant families - being accused of a heinous sexual crime.



And Jodie's supporters, who cite a newspaper article about a gang rape of a Bolton woman by Asian men - claim Muslim perpetrators purposely target white women.

On top of all that, the issue of Jodie being 'ugly' adds fuel to the fire. The boys' advocates insist the teenagers wouldn't have relations with 'a dog' and rape experts assert that sexual assault is a crime of violence, not sex.



The hoopla surrounding the accusations, stoked by online agitators and poster-carrying demonstrators, eventually leads to violence.

The book is compelling and suspenseful, and though the subject matter is disturbing, well worth reading.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Kia Abdullah), and the publisher (HarperCollins Publishers) for a copy of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars