I am in two minds about this book. I thoroughly enjoyed the first 3/4s and flew through it. The last 1/4 was as if it was written by a different author! It became cheesy and rushed, I have not read a book that follows a storyline like this before so I would still recommend. 7/10

It is not often I read a book in a day but that is exactly what happened with Honor.

This is not an easy read. The subject matter is at times horrifying and some of the violence is very graphic but without it I think the book would have been lacking. Being confronted with the rampant misogyny and the way in which the men are excused for their behaviour makes for chilling reading.

It does paint India in a particularly favourable light but it does point out that India is not alone in these problems just how they play out to such an extreme in some parts of the country and how that contrasts with the lives of the wealthy and educated for whom much more liberal views are the norm. India is like many countries a tale of wealth and education beside one of poverty and ignorance. In that regard I particularly liked Mohan's journey from a man proud of his country who saw it through privileged eyes to one who was forced to confront it's dark side and how that changed him as a person.

This is a powerful and at times difficult read but one that will definitely stay with me.

CW: Religious intolerance, religious motivated violence, torture, murder, sexual assault of a minor, emotional and physical family abuse, trauma, graphic scene of physical violence.

I had a few download issues with the book and by the time it was sorted, the file had unfortunately been achieved. Happy to re-review if it becomes available again. Thank you :)

I really liked this book. Indian American journalist Smita is called to Mumbai by a colleague who is about to have an operation. Smita's family left India when she was 13 and she swore never to return. Her colleague has asked her to complete a story she has been working on. In a small village Meena, a Hindu, fell in love and married Abdul, a Muslim. Meena's brothers killed Abdul and left Meena badly injured and she bravely has taken them to court. Smita, along with her colleague's friend Mohan become involved, interviewing the people concerned. They are shocked that this kind of thing is still happening in India and try to do their best to help Meena. I recommend this book as a must read, but it is a heart breaking story. Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
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I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher.
This was an incredibly visceral portrayal of life in rural India and the caste systems, religious enmity and patriarchy that women still experience. The discomfort of modern India vs. old, and the indignity and outrage you feel as a reader and from the narrator's perspective.
A highly uncomfortable read at times, but challenging and eye-opening. 4 stars (nearly 5).

It feels wrong to say I enjoyed Honor given the subject matter but I was engrossed from the outset. Smita is an Indian American investigative journalist who reluctantly returns to India to assist a friend and finds herself covering the story of an honour killing and the court case. As we learn more about the killing and the circumstances around it, Smita's own childhood experiences of prejudice are slowly revealed and how they play out in her life are explored. This is an uncomfortable read with the corruption, prejudice and violence equally disturbing and saddening. This is measured with a potential love interest for Smita with a 'will they/won't they' but ultimately you know the outcome. Difficult subject matter handled well, and this story will remain with me for some time. Thanks to Swift Press and Net Galley for the arc. #swiftpress #netgalley #thrityumrigar

This book is beautiful, moving, poignant, ferocious, heartbreaking and ultimately flawless in how it tells the tale of those too often overlooked; the voiceless.

Indian-American journalist Smita Agarwal returns to India after 20 years at the behest of her colleague and dear friend, Shann0n, who is undergoing surgery and Smita presumes she will be taking care of her friend in a time of need. In fact, Shannon needs Smita to step in for her on a case she is reporting on; the honour killing of a Muslim man, Abdul, by his in-laws. Meena, his wife and a Hindu woman, has miraculously survived the fire instigated by her brothers, and is now taking them to court for murder. The journey that Smita reluctantly finds herself on, with the people that she will meet along the way, is one which will make her question her identity, her beliefs and will change her life forever.

'Honor' cuts deep into your core. The book is filled with sensitive topics and, usually, I find it is a fine-line between an author offending a reader and/or becoming the recipient of angry critique and yet I found Umrigar writes with a care and finesse which does not tip-toe around the reality of important themes that command attention and yet does not make it an author's rant via characters/aggressive or vulgar in the execution (I find a lot of South Asian authors have done this in their narrative and I also DNF what becomes a crude and unpleasant read). I could not put this book down, it is a visually stimulating in how everything is described, you see the story playing out before your eyes as you read. The build-up is gradual and gripping, the characters are all believable and some are likeable so you find yourself rooting for them. It is not an easy read because the realisation that the story is a truth for many, is probably which affected me and yet spurred me on to read it to the end; for that reason, it is also the easiest recommendation I could ever make. A crucial, powerful read.

I was highlighting and re-reading so many passages. This was my first read of Thrity Umrigar's and I can't wait to read more of her work.

Thank you @Netgalley and @SwiftPress for an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions shared are my own.

Ooof this book. It sucks you in, chews you up, breaks your heart, and then spits you back out. It's intense, heartbreaking, and I loved every second of it.
I had to take a day to process it before I could review it.

Well. This was an absolute masterpiece of a novel!

Thanks to Netgalley I was able to read an ARC of this novel, and I could not put it down (a 6 hour plane delay helped, but even without that, I'd have been absolutely hooked). It was a beautiful and unflinching homage to identity and belonging and how confusing these can be. Thrity Umrigar deals with huge topics like home and love, and treats them with such care, teasing the strands so masterfully whilst also writing a story so compelling you'll hold your breath throughout. Would hugely recommend!

(For other nosey parkers out there, I also enjoyed reading this post on the author's website, about the inspiration behind the story: http://umrigar.com/honor-essay)

Smita is an Indian born American journalist roped in at the last minute to cover a story outside of Mumbai her colleague, though Smita has vowed never to return to an India that forced her and her family to leave when she was a young teen. And much to her chagrin she’s drawn into the powerful politics of gender and race that scramble all her journalistic objectivity when she encounters the heart breaking story of Meena, a Hindu woman whose brothers burned alive her Muslim husband and nearly her. Accompanying Smita is Mohan, a middle class Indian who is friends with the other journalist and volunteers to ferry her around in a rural region unsafe for single women, so that she can interview the various subjects of the news story. The journey they endure is one that covers not only the physical landscape but also the emotional one. Mohan, who is passionate about his India is confronted with horrors he never imagined, while Smita’s prejudices are all confirmed, but at the same time the small graces and intimate unique positives wend their way into her defences and charm her.

This powerful book is an elegantly written work that shows a love of India despite and because of all its flaws. Such an examination is shown through the microcosm of the stories of four people, both dealing with the flaws of the country on different levels, but with essentially the same struggle: to come to terms with an India that contains such strong racism and misogyny embedded in its history that to struggle against it seems futile. But essentially the struggle makes these people who they are and their strength is a testament to a complex and complicated country. I have read many of Urmrigar’s books and can say that this offering is the author at her best.

"Life is a beautiful journey. Who knows what will happen tomorrow..."

Everyone should read this book. This was a beautiful, powerful and thought-provoking story which left me completely speechless, breathless and heartbroken.

Smita grew up in India but her family moved to America when she was a teenager. She hasn't been back since even though she has spent many years travelling around the world as a journalist. When a friend of hers, another journalist, needs surgery and can't continue with a trial case she's been working on, Smita agrees to help. The case is that of Meena, a young woman with a small child. Meena's brothers burned her husband alive - almost killing her, too, leaving her badly scarred - because in their mind she, a Hindu woman, had disgraced her family by marrying a Muslim. The more involved Smita gets the more she understands the hopelessness of ever bringing such men to justice in rural India.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC and thank you Thrity Umrigar for the story.

The subject matter sounded interesting, important and right up my street: cultural and class divisions, honour killing, misogyny and Islamophobia. It’s had rave reviews but it just wasn’t the book for me. I didn’t enjoy the writing and I found it all a bit heavy-handed, dull and flat. For me, it lacked nuance and complexity - and the “love story” element finished me off. You may love it but I didn’t.
However, thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. All views are my own.

I'm definitely in the minority here, but I really struggled to get into this book. The premise sounded right up my street; intense and emotive. I got 40% of the way in and just didn't felt compelled to finish. Just not the book for me unfortunately.

Reading Honor really makes you appreciate living in a country where you have the liberty to make your own choices and decisions, which is not the case everywhere in the world for women unfortunately.
It is a difficult book to read, since it deals with honour killings and injustice, but it's beautifully written, eye-opening and thought provoking, so I would definitely, definitely recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Not an easy read, some very disturbing scenes. Smita, an Indian born journalist, reluctantly agrees to cover the story of Meena, a Hindu woman tortured by her own brothers for marrying a Muslim man.
Gut-wrenching exploration of the inequalities women suffer and the conflicts between Muslims and Hindus.

It's not often that Reese's bookclub and I agree on our appreciation of a book, but this was a 5-star read for me.

When Smita gets a call from her friend Shannon asking her to come see her in Mumbai, she thinks she's going to take care of Shannon after her surgery. She soon discovers that Shannon wants her to cover the story of Meena, a woman who is suing her brothers for the murder of her Muslim husband and attempting to murder her in the process.

This is an excellent book, with a great sense of place (smells, colours, humidity...) that transported me to India. The characters are vivid and have depth. Through the book, we, the readers, evolve and learn just like Smita does. We're horrified by the things she sees and experiences coming back to her home country, by the patriarchal society in which these women live.

The writing style is straight to the point and not fancy, and I think that's exactly what this story needed.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

I like travelling to places via books and this book is set in India so I requested it on Netgalley. It was different to what I expected. It opened my eyes to the awful treatment of women, to religious beliefs still affecting who you can love and to how lucky we are in Western world.
I liked this book. It was an educational read, I’m sure it was a fictional story but it happens in remote villages all the time I’m guessing. Thankfully this novel - and Honor had a happy ending.

This is a good book. The subject matter is pertinent and treated sensitively. I liked the characters but I did think the ending was rushed and the revelation came too late in the plot to really grip me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read this copy.
This book is written so beautifully, the characters are wonderful and it is a great insight into the Indian culture. Will definitely be reading more by this author.

Honor by Thrity Umrigar is a powerhouse of a book, spellbinding, heart breaking and magnificent. It is my first experience of the author's work but it will certainly not be the last.
In this memorable book we follow Smita, an Indian American journalist who travels back to India for the first time since childhood to help a friend , but once there she is roped into covering the story of Meena, a young Hindu woman who married a Muslim man against her family's wishes, only for them to be attacked, killing him and leaving her scarred both physically and emotionally. Despite the cultural expectations and the prevailing traditions Meena is determined to try to bring justice for her husband, if only so that she can look their daughter in the eye and say she tried. Since the attackers were her own brothers and her village elders , Meena is forced to throw herself on the mercy of her mother in law, a woman who blames her for the death of her son. As the date of their trial draws closer, tensions in the small village rise and Smita is forced to revisit the traumas of her past while trying to support Meena through the difficult process. Returning to India makes Smita re- evaluate many of her choices, particularly as she finds herself growing closer to not just Meena and her daughter but also Mohan, a friend of a friend who acts as her guide on her travel's to Meena's remote village.
From the moment Smita stepped off the plane I felt like I was right there in India with her, so successfully were the sights and sounds brought to life on the page. Both Meena and Smita were incredibly charismatic and engaging characters, and I was very quickly invested in their stories. Rarely has a book made me cry but this one had me shedding tears by the end , it really packed an emotional punch with moments of deep sorrow counterbalanced by a hopeful ending. Easily one of the best and most memorable books I have read this year. I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.