I flew through this book. The main characters were real and interesting, and I loved that the plot twist or whodunnit of the story was clear without taking away any tension. Often when I can figure the mystery out before the main character it’s annoying, but here it made perfect sense why Safiya believed what she did and made the choices she did. 

Ahmed also did a great job of pulling in many issues and explaining them or digging into them without it becoming a lecture each time. Knowing some of the real life stories Jawad was based on, the book was emotional and difficult to read at parts, but the writing and characters made it easy to pick back up. 

The one place this book really fell short for me was on prison abolition. It was jarring, after how the police and criminal systems were shown to be biased, untrustworthy, and often wildly harmful to minorities, guilty verdicts and prison time were still celebrated. What an opportunity this could have been to show restorative justice. Please see melbev's review to read more about how this shaped the end of the novel.