Sabqat Ruba

The book keeps you hooked in the beginning with Gulnaz’s story and Zeba’s husband transforming into an evil character. But then.. it doesn’t get anywhere. I did not understand why thy these plots existed: 1. Gulnaz’s emerald eyes and her magical powers - neither was useful. 2. Zeba’s father suddenly appearing one day to add no value to the story’s progress. 3. Zeba seeing the darkness take over her home. What was it? 4. Yusuf coming back to “make a change” but doesn’t really do anything on these lines. 5. Yusuf and Elena’s story abrubtly ends and he moves on - what was the point? 6. Zeba does magic once and then.. nothing. All that was needed to convince the judge to serve justice was an honest plea from Gulnaz. The. Why the emerald eyes and magical powers and husband running away? For the amount of injustice happening with women, I did expect strong witchcraft of Gulnaz or Zeba to change the situation. Or at least Yusuf’s determination. But none of it happened. With each page of the 400-page book, I expected a significant twist. But there was nothing.

*spoilers alert* I just think this is a very ordinary story but with a lot of things left unexplained. 1. The reason why everyone blamed Julie for Sam’s death is a little absurd. Taylor says Julie couldn’t let Sam enjoy with them (this was a little stupid tbh). 2. Julie never cried a tear. She clearly didn’t blame herself but the way it’s written makes you feel that she didn’t care at all. 3. How did Sam connect with her, what was the static, where was he going. I was expecting him to explain these things. I didn’t understand the point of the story. Was it to deliver the message that different people deal with loss differently? Or that dead people also crave a connection or a goodbye? Or that Sam just wanted Julie to move on? Or did the writer want to explain that some things cannot be explained? It’s too confusing. I was expecting the phone connection to be linked with the death scene. I was expecting Sam’s reason for talking to Julie over phone was to reconnect her with the world. At least that’s what I like to assume. Basically, there are too many gaps in the story.

Amazing narration. Quite thrilling. But… Aidan Thomas is a serial killer. Okay. Why is he like that? Why does he kill? Why does he decide to keep Rachel? Which women does he choose to kill? No answers. The author definitely owes us a sequel with Aidan’s background and POV. Basically, reading the summary = Reading the entire book.