Take It Back by Kia Abdullah

If you love legal thrillers, this is one you won’t want to miss! Take It Back by Kia Abdullah is riveting, character-driven, and builds to an explosive ending. I read it in one afternoon.

My thoughts

Impressive writing. The story drew me in. While the story revolves around a current issue, the story is character-driven.

This book has great characterization. The four accused boys aren’t all alike in their reactions to Jodie’s accusations: Farid withdraws, Amir and Hassan lash out at others, and Mo seems genuinely troubled by whatever transpired between he, Jodie, and the other boys. Of all the accused, Mo is one that is almost sympathetic. Almost.

Jodie is sympathetic. She’s alone in the world. Her BFF Nina proves to be no friend at all, and her alcoholic mother blames her for every woe in their lives. Her facial deformities make her subject to bullying, and she’s almost nonchalant about the scrutiny she faces whenever she meets someone new. But Abdullah does a great job of making Jodie more complicated, more than simply “victim.” She has her own motives and goals.

Zara is a complex individual. Against her family’s wishes, she chooses to represent Jodie and bring accusations against the four Muslim boys. To her family and many others, it appears that she, a Muslim, is rejecting her community and culture. Her white boyfriend loves her, but she’s ambivalent about him, refusing to totally trust him. Her friend Safran, a colleague, is the only one she seems to trust; but sometimes she’s a little too open with him, to her own (and other people’s) detriment. (Incidentally, it’s nice to see a female-male friendship in fiction that doesn’t involve romance or sex.) She abuses medicine to deal with her stress. She genuinely cares about Jodie, but she finds it difficult to believe everything the girl says. In short, she’s a nuanced character.

Every time I thought things couldn’t get worse for the characters, they do. Abdullah raises the stakes over and over as we wind our way though conflicting claims, different data interpretations, mixed motives and emotionally-charged reactions, with Zara right at the heart of the confusion. After a few chapters, I did my usual skip-to-the-end routine. But despite knowing the ending, Abdullah kept my attention. I couldn’t look away from the book. I couldn’t bear to.

This is a thought-provoking and troubling book that underscores the divisions in society, and shows what happens when we see only the groups that are different from us, and not the individual humans within those groups. Nothing good comes from that. Hatred, violence, chaos.

With brutal honesty, the book shows what rape victims fight against when they come forward. If the standard is that the accused is innocent until proven guilty, then the accuser–the victim–is, by default, a liar until she/he proves the truth. The courtroom scenes are gut-wrenching. If this is how victims are treated in their pursuit of justice, it’s little wonder that many don’t come forward at all.

This is a tough book to read. Readers should be aware that there are racial and sexual pejoratives used, along with some brutal violence. After reading so many crime thrillers, depictions of violence don’t easily upset me. But certain scenes left me shaking. I imagine these might be triggering for those who have survived rape.

Totally engrossing, well-written, and riveting. I highly recommend this to all fans of legal thrillers.

(It also looks like this book has a newly-released sequel, too!)

Note: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions are my own.

Like this? Read that!

You might also enjoy the highly-emotional and explosive legal thriller The Night Lawyer by Alex Churchill.

If you liked this review, a comment or share on social media would be fabulous!