A review by bibliobrandie
Hollow Fires by Samira Ahmed

5.0

This book was really hard to read at times but I am so glad that I did. Set in Chicago and amidst escalating white supremacy activity and hate crimes, high-school journalist and Indian American Safiya is determined to find the killer of an Iraqi refugee classmate who was murdered. There are some brutal scenes but Ahmed does an excellent job of keeping it from being graphic or sensational. Told in alternating perspectives, you have Safiya's voice as well as the ghost of the murdered boy, Jawad. The story is also interspersed with multimedia clippings, some taken from real-world sources. This supernatural thriller is a page-turner that educates as much as it captivates. There is a lot going on in these pages and Ahmed handles it all beautifully.
Note: There is a new book by Candace Fleming about the real life killers that this story is loosely based on. a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58492091-murder-among-friends?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=6V1KnaMbIj&rank=18"