Reviews

A who dun it with so many twists that can't be predicted if you are a non-desi reader, which is kind of fun! Very creepy. A few too many exclamation points for my taste.

samantha1020's review against another edition

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4.0

The premise of this book and the fact that it involved a true crime podcast really made me want to pick this book up. It's told from two different timelines: one in the present with the excerpts from the podcast and then one in the past where it shows Dunia's life leading up to the attack and then afterwards. It was one of those books that I easily found myself caught up in especially because of Dunia as the main character. Her struggle to understand why she had been attacked and then to deal with the aftermath of it all felt so real to me. I couldn't help but want to know what had happened to her and the whys behind it all. The glimpses that we got into Dunia's childhood and her family were also really intriguing to read about. I will say that I figured out part of the ending on my own but it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book. I think I'm landing on four stars overall for this one. I'm looking forward to going back and catching up with her backlist sometime soon as well.

Readers who enjoy books featuring true crime podcasts or who are looking for a suspenseful, fascinating read should pick this book up. I keep wanting to compare it to Jackal by Erin E. Adams so if you enjoyed that one you might want to give this one a try as well. Recommended!

CW - Suicide

mbpartlow's review against another edition

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5.0

I don't give a whole ton of 5-star reviews, but Holy Heck! Engrossing! Good twists. I learned stuff I didn't know. I had a hard time putting it down! What are you waiting for? Read this!!!! The story unfolds over time, with flashbacks to the main character's childhood.

My only quibble was the portrayal of the podcasters. They were rude and heartless and greedy. As a podcaster myself, I may have been a little extra sensitive. But damn, those chapters WORKED!

manadabomb's review against another edition

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3.0

Almost Surely Dead by Amina Akhtar came to me from Amazon Prime’s First Reads. If you have Prime and didn’t know you could get pre-published books for free each month, now you do. Just search Amazon for “January First Reads” to get this one.

Almost Surely Dead will be published on February 1st and it’s a doozy. Interestingly, it’s published by Mindy Kahling’s Mindy’s Book Studio (an imprint of Amazon). This is the first time I knew that Kahling had a publishing company!

Dunia Ahmed is a pharmacist living in NYC and we first meet her when someone on the subway is trying to kill her by shoving her on the rails as a train approaches. That’s a fine introduction to what is about to be the mess that is Dunia’s life. Instead of her dying, her would be killer throws himself in front of the train.

We go back and forth between Dunia at age 5 and the events that led her mother to call her crazy (or pagal) along with transcriptions of a true crime podcast called Find Dunia! At the time of the podcast, Dunia has been missing for over a year. Keep the timelines straight in your head because Dunia herself will clear it all up for you.

In fairly rapid succession, Dunia is attacked and nearly killed twice more and then goes missing.

There were parts of this book that I groaned at, what I thought were such obvious red flags that I was irritated at Dunia for missing them. But as it delved more into Pakistani history and culture, into evil spirits and what makes a person do what they do, the more interesting this became. I finished the last 50% in one sitting just to find out what the hell was really happening.

Give this a whirl when it comes out, there’s enough twists and weirdness to keep you hooked.

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