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abhirupa's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I feel like I was just waiting for something to happen in this book and then nothing ever really did. It moves so slowly and the characterizations of the side characters are nice, but they don’t lead anywhere. I think the main and pretty much the only redeeming quality about this book were the characterizations of Karachi and the historical fiction aspect of it all, especially when they were describing Benazhir’s election. That felt so real and actually made me wish I could’ve witnessed it. Overall, unfortunately a snooze fest.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Sexual assault
amyvl93's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This had a really strong start that was slightly dampened by an unconvincing time jump.
Best of Friends opens following Maryam and Zahra, two close friends entering their final years at secondary school. Maryam is drawing men's attention for the first time, and comes from a wealthy family who run a leather company - overseen by an iron-fisted patriarch who sees Maryam as his preferred successor. Zahra is more retiring, makes less of a splash, and whose parents are a teacher and a much-loved cricket commentator. As time passes, their youth coincides with the end of the Pakistani dictatorship, ushering in a world of potential opportunities.
Shamsie does a great job of capturing all the intricacies of teenage female friendship, and of teenagehood in general - where you question how much your parents can really know, and where the world feels so big and so small all at once. The central event in this novel is well crafted at reminder Maryam and Zahra, and the reader - of the realities of being a woman in a patriarchal society - where power may rest with a woman in government, but that may not make much change to women on the ground.
The time jump to contemporary London is less successful. We find Maryam as a tech venture capitalist (there's a fairly heavy handed signpost to this when she mentions programming earlier in the novel) desperate to convince the government not to introduce privacy legislation, and Zahra as running a civil liberties organisation (think Liberty) who views the government as inhumane.
Shamsie introduces a host of other issues into the novel at this point - the asylum process, ethical technology, how we protect young people online and off, surveillance culture, as well as more obvious links to the early part of the novel around female sexuality and the diaspora experience. I found this muddied the waters somewhat, and made the ultimate ending of the novel to fall quite flat. It seemed strange that a formative event could have taken place in the girls' youth, which they never chose to discuss until the 'now' of the second half.
Best of Friends opens following Maryam and Zahra, two close friends entering their final years at secondary school. Maryam is drawing men's attention for the first time, and comes from a wealthy family who run a leather company - overseen by an iron-fisted patriarch who sees Maryam as his preferred successor. Zahra is more retiring, makes less of a splash, and whose parents are a teacher and a much-loved cricket commentator. As time passes, their youth coincides with the end of the Pakistani dictatorship, ushering in a world of potential opportunities.
Shamsie does a great job of capturing all the intricacies of teenage female friendship, and of teenagehood in general - where you question how much your parents can really know, and where the world feels so big and so small all at once. The central event in this novel is well crafted at reminder Maryam and Zahra, and the reader - of the realities of being a woman in a patriarchal society - where power may rest with a woman in government, but that may not make much change to women on the ground.
The time jump to contemporary London is less successful. We find Maryam as a tech venture capitalist (there's a fairly heavy handed signpost to this when she mentions programming earlier in the novel) desperate to convince the government not to introduce privacy legislation, and Zahra as running a civil liberties organisation (think Liberty) who views the government as inhumane.
Shamsie introduces a host of other issues into the novel at this point - the asylum process, ethical technology, how we protect young people online and off, surveillance culture, as well as more obvious links to the early part of the novel around female sexuality and the diaspora experience. I found this muddied the waters somewhat, and made the ultimate ending of the novel to fall quite flat. It seemed strange that a formative event could have taken place in the girls' youth, which they never chose to discuss until the 'now' of the second half.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual harassment and Torture
Moderate: Racism, Sexual assault, Violence, and Misogyny
ambamsaurus's review against another edition
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment
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