Take It Back is a fast-paced legal thriller centered around a she-said/they-said rape case. Teenager Jodie Wolfe is severely disabled; her facial deformities are the first thing people notice about her. It impacts her ability to speak clearly and be understood. Jodie has accused four Muslim classmates of raping her. She is represented by Zara Kaleel, one of London’s brightest legal minds.

Zara Kaleel’s personal story infuses the plot and will undoubtedly be a factor in forthcoming eponymous mysteries. Like the four defendants, she’s the child of Muslim immigrants.

Zara Kaleel had been a planner. In youth, she had mapped her life with the foresight of a shaman. She had known which path to take at every fork in the road, single-mindedly intent on reaching her goals. She finished law school top of her class and secured a place on Bedford Row, the only brown face at her prestigious chambers. She earned six figures and bought a fast car.

That was then: “When she lost her father six months after their estrangement, something inside her slid apart.” Estrangement is a pale word for the earthshattering choice Zara made—she walked out on her arranged marriage. Her family was, and is, horrified. Unraveling a marriage simply isn’t done and her personal decision “came at a high cost.” Zara no longer wanted the prestige of being a barrister at a marquee firm.

She now works at Artemis House, a sexual assault center, helping victims who need her the most.

She had moved three miles from chambers and found herself in the real East End, a place in which sentiment and emotion were unvarnished by decorum. You couldn’t coast here. There was no shield of bureaucracy, no room for bluff or bluster. Here, there was nothing behind which to hide.

Zara faces life with sardonic humor and sarcasm, bravery, doggedness, and intelligence. She has developed a shield between her emotions and her life. Her weapons are sex (without long term commitment), alcohol, weed, briefly cocaine but it was too tempting, and pharmaceuticals—i.e., Diazepam. Abdullah’s description of cocaine crystallizes its allure: “It wasn’t a bolt of lightning that fused you to your poison but a mellow descent into its seductive grip.” Kudos to Zara for pushing away from that descent into madness. As she says to herself, “East London didn’t need yet another junkie.” The Diazepam is dangerous enough bringing with it on some days peace, and others senseless fog. For the moment, it’s a lifeline.

She glanced up at Jodie’s flat, then took out a brown glass bottle. She shook it once to gauge the number of pills inside. Satisfied with the dull clink of a healthy supply, she lay it on her lap for later. Calmed by the soft weight resting against her legs, she put the car in gear and moved smoothly off.

Zara’s tenuous relationship with her boyfriend fizzles away, leaving her more upset than she anticipated. She receives upsetting news about her client from her investigator Erin: “Here’s the thing: I’m not sure your girl is being a hundred per cent honest.” Sexual assault cases can be cauldrons of unprovable accusations and statements about truth. DNA evidence and signs of assault can only take a lawyer so far, recalling Mark Twain’s famous quote about lies: “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” Unfortunately, this is something that Zara had already noted and called Jodie on but for the socially uncomfortable teen, it’s incredibly difficult to admit her longing for boy/girl attention given her profound isolation since birth.

Like her client, Zara feels isolated and she’s mucking up noticeably at work The case is getting to her. Her boss Stuart wants to know what’s up.

“What are you not telling me?” he asked.

Zara shook her head. “I overslept. Really, that’s all.”

“Yes, and the first time it happened, I believed you. We’ve been through this, Zara. You’re one of the best lawyers I’ve ever met and you’re sure as hell the best advisor we’ve had in this place, but this isn’t a shift at Tesco. You’re not stacking shelves. If you don’t turn up to work, the women we look after don’t get the level of care they’re owed.”

Zara bit down her shame. “I’m sorry. I am. It won’t happen again.”

He leaned forward, his voice softening a notch. “That’s what you said last time.”

Zara can’t sluff off his criticism, since “Stuart was one of the few truly selfless people in her life. He wasn’t concerned with feeding his ego or chasing profits; he simply wanted to help their clients.” Zara’s demons are threatening to consume her.

The trial is “harrowing and twisting” and that’s just inside the courtroom. Zara Kaleel’s involvement in the case brings on an avalanche of abuse from the Muslim community. Her family begs her to withdraw from the case. It’s Zara’s belief in Jodie’s story that prevents her from walking away, no matter the personal pain. Events escalate and readers can feel Zara’s visceral pain: “And as issues of sex, race and social justice collide, the most explosive criminal trial of the year builds to a shocking conclusion.”

Readers will look forward to learning more about Artemis House and the cast of characters that surround Kaleel, like investigator Erin Quinto and Detective Constable Mia Scavo. All applause to the launch of this fascinating new series.

4 1/2 "thought provoking" stars...

Take It Back is one impressive read. However, it isn't easily categorized. It's so much more than a classic legal drama. On the surface, this book is about Jodie, a white teenage girl with facial deformities, who accuses four of her classmates of rape. This accusation sparks other issues as these young men are all Muslim. Racial relations are damaged and their community is at odds. The fact that Jodie is know to not be attractive makes many doubt her story. She finds herself regretting the accusation almost immediately as she gets little to no support from her mother or best friend.

Zara, who has recently left her successful job as a barrister, is now working as a legal advisor for an organization known as Artemis House. It is here that she meets and begins to work with Jodie. This is all complicated by the fact that Zara is Muslim herself. In addition, she has some personal issues with her own past experiences. She's so emotionally scarred that she resorts to substance abuse to numb herself and struggles with relationships. When it becomes known that she's working with a white girl who is accusing young Muslim men, Zara become a target within her own community. Even her own family doesn't understand that she's not taking a stand against the Muslim community, she's trying to take a stand for all women.

Throughout the story, I changed my mind multiple times about what I thought really happened. There are so many viewpoints involved that it really keeps you guessing. It was a heartbreaking and difficult read at times. Not only was Jodie's story tragic, so were the stories of some of the other characters. I felt like the author took a difficult topic and really put her heart and soul into the story.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

What a freaking page turner. Book had me guessing from page to page and I never wanted to put it down. Literally did not see the end coming. At all. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Many cultural issues between Muslims, other religions, races, male vs female roles, in various communities are explored through the characters. One of the main characters is confused about her past and her current role. It is confusing to follow her personality quirks that seem to source from her religion and cultural upbringing. In addition,there is the girl.with a disease that makes her physical appearance disfiguring. As if this isn't enough, there is a rape involving several boys who also have cultural and role issues abounding. Twists and turns with two steps forward, one step back,... who to believe?? If you can wade through the issues it is an interesting book. The ending has a bit of a twist and you're left to draw your own conclusions as to the future events. The cover gives a good description,so I will not repeat.
I was provided an Advanced Reader Copy and was under no obligation to provide a review.
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

"Take It Back" by Kia Abdullah kept me absorbed the entire novel. Zara, the main character, had left her high powered lawyer career to have a new career helping those sexually assaulted. She gets the case of Jodie, a teenage girl who has a deformed face. The novel follows the case throughout the trial. And also goes into Zara's family and background. The book had enough tricks and turns to hold your attention.

I read a lot of psychological thrillers so this was a little different. I loved the legal aspect. This book wasn’t predictable so that was great. This author is new to me and I’m really impressed.

Zara Kaleel was aLondon barrister and was doing great job but was unhappy so she decides to walk away and become an advisor at a center for sexual assault victims. She meets Jodi who says she was attacked by a group 9f boys at her school. This books follows the story of both characters and was very good

I didn't like this, nor did I hate it.
I won't discuss plot points as they have been discussed in numerous reviews before this one. Being a true crime fan, I will say the courtroom scenes fell flat.
It was a strong book, and covered several difficult topics - but it kind of felt all over the place.

This was a rough read – gang rape, facial disfigurement, abuse at home and school. My heart went out to Jodie This is the first time that I had a hard time reading a book with these trigger warnings. I went through lots of bullying when I was younger so I guess that part of the story hit too close to home for me.

Zara Kaleel, a former lawyer, takes on Jodie’s case. She is now working with abuse victims. While it seems that no one else believes Jodie, Zara does. Zara is also Muslim, as are the guys accused of raping Jodie. This creates a powerful subplot to the story – a Muslim prosecutor, a non-Muslim victim, and Muslim defendants. This leads to Zara being ostracized in her community. Zara in my opinion goes through a rough transformation herself which was also hard to read.

Surprisingly, I had a hard time getting into the book. I think it just tried to cover too much. Rape, abuse, religion, islamophobia, race. Perhaps fewer issues dealt with more thoroughly would have made it better. Just my opinion. While a good read just covered too much and didn’t give everything enough time to breathe in my opinion. Now let’s talk about the end…. Don’t get me wrong we all love a good plot twist but when it comes as the last two sentences it leaves the reader confused and needing more answers. A solid three star read just rough from start to finish.

The subject matter was a little tough to process at times but I loved it anyway. Courtroom dramas where you get so lost in the story that you desire more are the most realist kind. I look forward to reading more from Kia Abdullah.

From author Kia Abdullah, Take It Back is a harrowing and twisting courtroom thriller that keeps you guessing until the last page is turned.
One victim.
Four accused.
Who is telling the truth?
Zara Kaleel, one of London's brightest legal minds, shattered the expectations placed on her by her family and forged a brilliant legal career. But her decisions came at a high cost, and now, battling her own demons, she has exchanged her high profile career for a job at a sexual assault center, helping victims who need her the most. Victims like Jodie Wolfe.
When Jodie, a sixteen-year-old girl with facial deformities, accuses four boys in her class of an unthinkable crime, the community is torn apart. After all, these four teenage defendants are from hard-working immigrant families and they all have proven alibis. Even Jodie's best friend doesn't believe her.
But Zara does—and she is determined to fight for Jodie—to find the truth in the face of public outcry. And as issues of sex, race and social justice collide, the most explosive criminal trial of the year builds to a shocking conclusion.

Author Bio

KIA ABDULLAH is an author and travel writer. She has contributed to The Guardian, BBC, Channel 4 News, and The New York Times. Kia currently travels the world as one half of the travel blog Atlas & Boots, which receives over 200,000 views per month.

I'm always a bit unsettled as I start to read legal thrillers that center around rape/sexual assault, especially if I know the legal system is a key part of the story as it is in Take It Back. It's a bit like sitting down to watch an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit—something I used to do regularly—and realizing it's a ripped from the headlines plot, with the requisite extra heap of drama for the cameras (or, in the case of a book, ink). My hesitation comes from knowing the truth about false rape claims: that they're vanishingly rare, and yet so many people believe that they're quite common. Books and TV shows, especially those that depict courtroom proceedings realistically, almost have to play into the idea that an accuser may be making it all up—after all, the court must presume innocence, and the alleged perpetrators are entitled to a vigorous legal defense. In the case of a mystery/thriller, the genre itself demands twists and intrigue.

With all of this in mind, I was nervous when I picked up Kia Abdullah's Take It Back, a book in which nearly everything goes off the rails during a rape investigation and court case. The novel's main protagonist is Zara Kaleel, a former corporate attorney who now works at Athena House, a rape crisis center, as a victim advocate. She has a bit of a drug habit and major family baggage, but she's extremely dedicated to her job—even if it means being further alienated from her family and community of origin. That's exactly what happens when Jodie Wolfe walks into her office. Jodie is a disabled (she has neurofibromatosis) and poor white girl who meets with Zara after being raped at a party. She says the assault was committed by three boys while a fourth watched and did nothing to intervene. When Zara hears the boys' names, she knows she's handling a grenade—the boys are Muslim, like her, and the assault will devastate their families and community. Zara believes her involvement in the case will be helpful to her employer, the legal case, and the victim, but could cause yet another major rift in her family and lead to a media storm. This is a novel set in England in the age of Brexit. Although the political atmosphere is not explicitly mentioned, the bigotry toward Muslim immigrants, their children, and their communities plays out on the page and in the legal case, often violently.

While I was mostly satisfied by the ending here, there were moments in the second half of the book when I felt incredibly uneasy about the way Jodie was presented. The veracity of Jodie's claims is the central issue driving the plot forward. In the last 3o or so pages, it is the subject of not one but two major "twists"—even describing sexual assault this way makes me feel a bit ill. I think this kind of plotting is a difficult thing to avoid in a legal thriller. No matter how sensitively a thriller handles the subject of rape—and both Abdullah and her protagonist do handle it about as sensitively as possible—the conventions of the genre are themselves insensitive. In spite of my discomfort with the idea of sexual assault in thrillers, it's obvious to me that Abdullah is handling it far better than most authors. I know this is the first book in a series following Zara Kaleel, and I'm eager to read the second when it becomes available stateside.

This legal thriller is incredibly compelling, with an assortment of characters that are all both unreliable and intriguing. The pacing of this is well done, with it mostly moving along at a consistent clip with some added fast paced and heartpounding moments. Alongside the courtroom drama, the author also packs in issues of race and religion as well. I'll definitely be seeking out the author's next work!

A Rape Case, An Explosive Trial, and Racial Tension

Zara Kaleel is a brilliant lawyer and a Muslim. Being a traditional Muslim woman didn’t work for her. She gave up her arranged marriage and her brilliant career as a barrister to work as an advisor at a center for victims of assault. She is estranged from her family and finds ways to cope with her inner tension with pills and unsuitable men.

Jodie Wolfe is sixteen. She lives with her alcoholic mother. Her father disappeared long ago and worse she has a facial deformity caused by neurofibromatosis. Jodie has few friends. When she accuses four popular Muslim boys of rape no one believes her except Zara.

This is a hard-hitting thriller. Because Jodie is white and the boys are Muslim the community splits along racial lines and it gets ugly. Zara also has to contend with prejudice. The community is enraged that a Muslim woman would defend a white girl against the boys of her own race.

The story is told from multiple points of view. As we hear the stories of Jodie and the boys each side seems plausible. Who do you believe? The ending is shocking and something you won’t guess.

The book is well written. It could have turned into a political polemic, but the author avoided that trap. The story is sensitively told and will make you questions your beliefs about how safe you are in society.

I received this book from Net Galley for this review.

This legal thriller was a fascinating read. Zara, the lead character was multifaceted and compelling. She is a Muslim woman but somewhat estranged from her community by her behavior. Having left her arranged marriage, she has a top career as a prestigious attorney. She leaves her firm and takes a job with a rape referral center. She is not the most stable person as she is somewhat scarred by what she has been through in her life. Her newest client Jodie is facially deformed and has been gang raped by four Muslim boys. These boys are her schoolmates and have come from nice stable families. The book goes into each character in depth to form a psychological profile. The subjects of rape and community pressure while uncomfortable are delved into quite deeply. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Reviewed on B&N under 1IrishEyes430 and Kobo under IrishEyes430

I honestly didn’t know who to believe in this courtroom thriller until the author took mercy on me and spelled it out. I absolutely love her character Zara Kaleel, a sharp and savvy lawyer who proves to be a bit too human for her own good.
Four young Muslim men with promising grades and futures are suddenly accused of sexually assaulting a handicapped young girl from their school. The victim Jody has facial deformities that have caused her to be the butt of cruel and tasteless jokes her entire life. It doesn’t help that she has a worthless and unsupportive drunk for a mother.
As the story unfolds, first from one perspective and then another, the author drops tidbits of doubt in either direction. Her characters are very relatable, we all know someone we see in each of the people in this emotional story. But who’s telling the truth? Is it as simple as black and white? Are some rape victims liars? Are all men bad?
Ms. Abdullah thanks so much for a great thriller- I definitely want to see more books about Zara!
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was good! I was very hesitant to read it after seeing all the trigger warnings but it just sounded so good I had to read it. I'm really glad I did! While all the trigger warnings are very real- it was written so well that I was able to read past them without too much of an issue. This story is just so real which made this book all the more frightening. If you're looking for a good legal thriller, this is it for you!

When truth and lies intermingle to the point you cannot recognize one from the other, where does that leave you? A gang rape case, with a disabled white girl and Muslim boys sets off a maelstrom of racial tension, gender attacks and unchecked hatred which leaves a city and those involved forever changed.
Abdullah writes with clarity and intelligence, weaving clues and facts throughout the story, until you’re not sure where one truth ends and another lie begins. Vindication comes in many forms and when you can’t take back what’s begun, perhaps you need to finish it.

This tension filled courtroom drama was unputdownable! Centered around the alleged sexual assault of a 16 year old girl by 4 teen boys, this was a gripping story. Told in multiple perspectives, I flip flopped on who was telling the truth until the end. The conclusion was beyond shocking! Triggers abound in this one, if you have any triggers it’s probably explored in this book. This was a 4⭐️ read for me. Why not 5 stars you ask? Ultimately, I think the author tried to tackle too many heavy topics in one book and it became too much. Also, I’m over the unreliable female narrator with addiction issues trope. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more in this series. The story was well told and I was riveted. But the plot became too bogged down by the multitude of heavy topics explored. My thanks to the publisher for the advance reader in exchange for my honest review.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Now this is how you write a courtroom drama. This book was powerful. It was shocking with tons of twists. It was suspenseful where you couldn't figure out which side was telling the truth. This book was more than just a he said/she said rape case. It was also about race. Jodie Wolfe, a disabled white girl accuses 4 Muslim boys of rape. Zara Kaleel works for victims of sexual assault. As a Muslim woman herself, she takes on Jodie's case and fights for justice. But to her community, this mean turning her back against her people and becoming a traitor.

I highly recommend this book if you like courtroom thrillers.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Kia Abdullah for a copy of "Take It Back" in exchange of an honest review.

Take it Back is a captivating story about struggles that women face still today. The story will keep you questioning what actually happened until the end of the book. Kia Abdullah weaves a tale that left me ready to read her next book.