Internment takes place in an almost dystopian world in the vein of The Handmaid’s Tale, where the near future is something that isn’t so unbelievable. However, I have to say this one strikes much closer to home for me. It feels so much more possible. And it feels like it could happen tomorrow.

I’m at odds with this book. On the one hand it is a compelling look at what our reality can become and what is already happening in our country. Ahmed interweaves real-life events like the Muslim Ban and mass shootings into her narrative, while adding fictional events that the reader doesn’t have to try too hard to imagine could happen. And it all feels eerily real.

On the other hand, I wish it never had to be written. The circumstances that allowed this book to come into existence honestly make me embarrassed to call myself an American. The current administration has its hands all over this book, and Samira Ahmed condemns the current president without ever mentioning his or any other names. This story is brimming with possibility. But not the good kind.

This book made me cry, it made me uncomfortable, it made me examine my privilege, and it made me grateful for all the people that speak out against what they know is wrong. And while the near future imagined in this book could very clearly come to pass, I sincerely hope it doesn’t.

Samira Ahmed quotes John Adams at the beginning of this book, and I believe this is something we all would do well to remember:
“There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” And at the moment ours seems well on the way to a path of destruction.