I bought this book after being blown away by Sarvat Hasin's story in the anthology Outsiders, called The Lady Is Not for Burning. Although it might seem odd to say I enjoyed a short story more than a novel, I think that between the time This Wide Night was published and Outsiders was published, Hasin found her stride more as an author. So while This Wide Night was not amazing for me, the potential here combined with the skill displayed in The Lady Is Not for Burning means I'm incredibly excited for Hasin's next full-length work coming out next year with Dialogue!
.
Usually when a blurb claims a book is influenced by x y and z or is the next x y or z, I'm sceptical. This Wide Night is touted as The Virgin Suicides meets Little Women, but set in Karachi, Pakistan and actually those influences are more than visible... maybe too visible. I also had the same issue I had with The Virgin Suicides - I'd have much rather read the story from the perspective of one of the sisters, rather than the male narrator of both that book and This Wide Night. I get that the point is we never get close to the sisters, they remain enigmatic... But it's just down to personal narrator preference. The Little Women similarities were clear too, but I spent a lot of reading time going 'oh, there's another reference!' that the book lost a bit of its own identity.
.
But! Hasin's style is very readable, and the story gets stronger as it goes on, culminating in an ending that I absolutely loved. I wanted more of the darkness and unease that Hasin displayed in her short story, and by the ending of This Wide Night she had delivered. The mysterious ending will definitely stick with me!