This review is written with thanks to Pigeonhole for the opportunity to read and review Take It Back. 

Blurb:

The Victim: A sixteen-year-old girl with facial deformities, neglected by an alcoholic mother. Who accuses the boys of something unthinkable.

The Defendants: Four handsome teenage boys from hardworking immigrant families. All with corroborating stories.

Whose side would you take?

Zara Kaleel, one of London’s brightest young legal minds, shattered the expectations placed on her by her family and forged a glittering career at the Bar. All before hanging up her barrister’s wig to help the victims who needed her most. Victims like Jodie Wolfe.

Jodie’s own best friend doesn’t even believe her claims that their classmates carried out such a crime. But Zara does. And Zara is determined to fight for her.

Jodie and Zara become the centre of the most explosive criminal trial of the year, in which ugly divisions within British society are exposed. As everything around Zara begins to unravel she becomes even more determined to get Jodie the justice she’s looking for. But at what price?

Review:

Take It Back is another of those books where I do not have enough words to describe how amazing it is.

I chose to listen to the audio accompaniment to Take It Back which added an extra dimension to the reading experience. Whilst the book is not written from different perspectives as such, there is a clear shift in the different points of view: from Zara to Jodie to the boys Jodie accuses  Each of these viewpoints are read by a different narrator, thus helping to highlight the shift and increase the dramatic effect of the novel.

Kia Abdullah has chosen to explore a number of emotive themes in Take It Back. Issues such as racism, consent and disability are so relevant in modern society and their inclusion in the novel make it an intense, and sometimes tough read  However, she has handled the subjects with immense sensitivity, allowing for lots of food for thought

Throughout the novel, I had no idea what would happen and who was telling the truth and this meant Take It Back was full of tension. I did not want the staves to end.

Take It Back is a book that will stay with me for some time and I cannot wait to see what Kia Abdullah does next!

Take It Back is available from Amazon. .