This was a very tough book to read. This is a very detailed and interesting book a parents fight to get their son released from a Kurdish prison.

Such a moving read, highlighting this desperate mothers fight to help her son. It absolutely made me rethink everything I though I knew about the justice system, and really shone a light on the flaws. This book made me angry, heartbroken and helpless all in one go and will definitely be one I recommend to everybody.

This story blew me away. What an ongoing ordeal this Letts family has had to endure, which has been sustained over so many traumatic years! It compiles as an autobiography of frustrations, disappointments, betrayals, disregard, unconcern, not only by one goverment, but two! Journalistic whistle-blowers got in on the shaming and defaming too, without varifying facts. How can this family get their son Jack back?

One stupid mistake had turned Jack into an alleged terriorist, and Islamophobia by governments and populace alike, corkscrewing the situation into an overwhelming mix. "Guilty until proven innocent" seemed to be the verdict stamped upon the family by a large number of people. Truly a horrendous situation!

Reading this story I could feel the mother's total anguish over her dearly beloved son. The book reads somewhat like a journal, as mother Sally records many daily details of the continuing tumultuous saga. This does slow the reading down and one could get bogged down. However, even though I skipped sections I could still follow the living nightmare and sympathize with the family's plight.

"O, be he dead or alive, WHEN will Jack come home?!"



~Eunice C., Reviewer/Blogger~

December 2022

Disclaimer: This is my honest opinion based on the complimentary review copy sent by NetGalley and the publisher.

A detailed and interesting read about the journey of two parents to get their son out of a Kurdish prison. The memoir was very well written and did provide some thought provoking facts about the decisions that people make asn the age at which they make them, providing examples of some people that a lot of people would recognise from media and so forth.
It did make me question some of my own thoughts and beliefs at times and some of the things that were written I found myself agreeing with or at least understanding, however, at times I also found the wirter to be very naive and possibly too trusting, but, then I guess we all would be in those situations, and doesn't everybody always want to think the very best of their children.

This book is a tough one to review. Being Oxfordian myself I remember this story being all over the local news and much discussed in my workplace. On one hand I can identify with Sally’s experience so much, she is right the police do lie to you and they do manipulate both people and situations in order to get an arrest so I have very little doubt that she and her husband were treated as badly by them as she describes.
It is also very easy to find yourself agreeing with Sally that Jack clearly didn’t go to Syria to join Isul until she or Jack say something so off kilter that you just want to shake her and knock her out of her naïveté. Is she really as clueless as she seems or is she simply using blanket denials as a way to make sure that Jack has the best chance of being extradited?
All in all it is a very well written and compelling narrative and does give the reader a good view into the working end of a terror investigation and a look into the lives of those left behind by people who leave their safe country and go to war zones whether to help or to live out fanatical dreams.
The debate over Shamima Begum has made me examine my opinions on the subject of terror suspects being allowed back onto their native soil and Sally did help reinforce my perspective that they should be allowed back if they were under age 25 when they left. Twenty five being the age that the prefrontal cortex is fully developed and before that I find it hard to accept that they had a good grasp of the affects of their actions. I was pleased to read that Jack may be repatriated to Canada soon having been stripped of his British citizenship, a move I find morally reprehensible and performative.
Only Jack knows why he left home and went abroad and I’m sure he hasn’t been completely honest with his parents and that Sally is guilty of writing with rose tinted parental spectacles on but I’m still more inclined to believe them than the police and gutter press.

This is a very detailed memoir about what two British parents went through when their son left home and relocated to Syria. Adopting Islam as his faith and being fluent in Arabic, Jack, dubbed "Jihadi Jack" by the British media, found himself labeled a terrorist. While battling with the British government, Lane and her husband lost their friends and their trust in others who they thought were helping them. After trying to send money to their son, they were accused of "helping a terrorist" and were imprisoned for a time. Lane and her husband were in constant worry that Jack would be murdered by ISIS or the Kurds. Despite the infrequent messages from him and the helplessness they felt, Jack's parents did whatever they could to help him return to the UK safely.

The horrible ordeal that Jack and his parents went through was documented throughout the book. Their struggle was traumatic and real for all of them. I found myself skipping parts, however, hoping to learn and read more about what Jack experienced while in Syria and Iraq.