Review Summary: A rare historical setting and an atmospheric read that unfortunately doesn’t fulfill its promise
Official Summary:
"As the partition of India nears in 1947 bringing violence even to Jalandhar, Tariq, a Muslim, finds himself caught between his forbidden interest in Anupreet, a Sikh girl, and Margaret, a British girl whose affection for him might help with his dream of studying at Oxford.”
Review:
The date of 1947 will jump out to most western readers as not long after the end of WWII. The British Empire has withdrawn from India after ruling since 1858, and now India is to be partitioned to create a new dominion, Pakistan, so Muslim Indians may be separate from the Sikh Indians. Bradbury chose a fantastic historical event for the basis of her novel. Not only is the partition of India an interesting and still culturally-relevant event, but any Young Adult historical fiction taking place outside of America and Great Britain is a welcome change of pace and opportunity for settings and characters that aren’t white.
The atmosphere of barely restrained violence is palpable, the threat of the next violent upset constantly hangs over every character’s head, over every moment. Pakistan has already been promised, the new borders are being drawn and Pakistan will come into being in a few weeks, in a fews days - but still they fight. Even those who are vacating land no longer theirs - Muslims from India to Pakistan and Sikhs from Pakistan to India - are slaughtered and enslaved by the trainload in an unending circle of revenge. It is horrifying, what people will do to one another in the name of religion. This novel does a wonderful job of portraying that horror in both subtle and momentous ways.
Each of the three POV characters have an interesting premise - Tariq: a muslim boy whose grandfather has instilled in him the dream of studying at Oxford University in England while his peers have their sights set on the new land of Pakistan; Anupreet: a Sikh girl so beautiful she and her family must always be on their guard to protect her, recently attacked in the fighting between Sikhs and Muslims and left with a facial scar; and Margaret: an English girl whose father is one of the cartographers charged with carving Pakistan from India, brought to India by her mother as a publicity opportunity to raise her family’s standing in English society and rehabilitate Margaret’s own reputation, after she was romantically involved with a soldier 10 years her senior while she was a volunteer nurse during WWII. Their characters, both alone and in relation to each other, build up and develop at first, but largely fail to achieve any deep or satisfying character development. Anu never develops much of a personality, and isn’t afforded any opportunities to display any agency and make decisions for herself the way the other two characters do. Tariq was the only one working towards something, and while I didn't expect him to be at Oxford by the end of the story, his character arc felt unresolved. Margaret, despite her interesting setup with great potential, mostly just serves the purpose of being the white POV. Since Margaret’s character arc didn’t turn out to be anything special I would have preferred not to have a white POV at all.
The book also offers some interesting secondary characters; I personally enjoyed Margaret’s father and Tariq’s brother.
As a YA novel there is, of course, romance. Margaret is drawn to Tariq’s handsomeness, Tariq is drawn to Anupreet’s beauty, and Anupreet has bigger things to worry about and barely notices any of this. (Atta girl.) No romantic relationships are actually formed and the pining is not overbearing. And, as a subplot should be, the romantic subplot is actually relevant to the narrative. Tariq and Anupreet are on opposite sides of the Muslim/Sikh conflict; Margaret seems to Tariq a potential ticket to England and Oxford. Nobody is needlessly blinded or made cruel by love. A small miracle, honestly.
Overall the prose is not bad but nothing special either. It told the story but lacked depth and the appropriate emotional impact for such events. It often devolved into paragraphs of short sentences of unvaried length, creating a monotonous rhythm, and employed one of my most hated YA writing trends of constantly starting a new line for dramatic effect~, except it’s used so often it removes all drama from the device, and it’s an amateur technique in the first place.
The ending was left very open, and if everything had been more fully-realized on the way there this would have been fine, but as the novel stands the ending was unsatisfying and had the unfortunate side-effect of making everything that had come before it all the weaker. The novel is not long - only around 60 thousand words - so it moves quickly and none of the novel’s underdeveloped elements create slow or boring areas. I think this novel would only be satisfying to the lower end of the Young Adult demographic (maybe 14 and under - depending on the person, of course), and as a reading and learning experience perfect for “Middle Grade” readers. That is, depending on if the amount of violence in this book is appropriate for children that age. (I couldn't tell you, personally.)
Weaker points:
Characters and development
Plot
Ending
Stronger points:
Setting
Atmosphere
Pacing
Historical event
Representation/diversity
Content/age appropriateness warnings: graphic violence, injury and death, explosions, threatened sexual violence against women, references to kidnapping for the purposes of slavery and sex work
Official Summary:
"As the partition of India nears in 1947 bringing violence even to Jalandhar, Tariq, a Muslim, finds himself caught between his forbidden interest in Anupreet, a Sikh girl, and Margaret, a British girl whose affection for him might help with his dream of studying at Oxford.”
Review:
The date of 1947 will jump out to most western readers as not long after the end of WWII. The British Empire has withdrawn from India after ruling since 1858, and now India is to be partitioned to create a new dominion, Pakistan, so Muslim Indians may be separate from the Sikh Indians. Bradbury chose a fantastic historical event for the basis of her novel. Not only is the partition of India an interesting and still culturally-relevant event, but any Young Adult historical fiction taking place outside of America and Great Britain is a welcome change of pace and opportunity for settings and characters that aren’t white.
The atmosphere of barely restrained violence is palpable, the threat of the next violent upset constantly hangs over every character’s head, over every moment. Pakistan has already been promised, the new borders are being drawn and Pakistan will come into being in a few weeks, in a fews days - but still they fight. Even those who are vacating land no longer theirs - Muslims from India to Pakistan and Sikhs from Pakistan to India - are slaughtered and enslaved by the trainload in an unending circle of revenge. It is horrifying, what people will do to one another in the name of religion. This novel does a wonderful job of portraying that horror in both subtle and momentous ways.
Each of the three POV characters have an interesting premise - Tariq: a muslim boy whose grandfather has instilled in him the dream of studying at Oxford University in England while his peers have their sights set on the new land of Pakistan; Anupreet: a Sikh girl so beautiful she and her family must always be on their guard to protect her, recently attacked in the fighting between Sikhs and Muslims and left with a facial scar; and Margaret: an English girl whose father is one of the cartographers charged with carving Pakistan from India, brought to India by her mother as a publicity opportunity to raise her family’s standing in English society and rehabilitate Margaret’s own reputation, after she was romantically involved with a soldier 10 years her senior while she was a volunteer nurse during WWII. Their characters, both alone and in relation to each other, build up and develop at first, but largely fail to achieve any deep or satisfying character development. Anu never develops much of a personality, and isn’t afforded any opportunities to display any agency and make decisions for herself the way the other two characters do. Tariq was the only one working towards something, and while I didn't expect him to be at Oxford by the end of the story, his character arc felt unresolved. Margaret, despite her interesting setup with great potential, mostly just serves the purpose of being the white POV. Since Margaret’s character arc didn’t turn out to be anything special I would have preferred not to have a white POV at all.
The book also offers some interesting secondary characters; I personally enjoyed Margaret’s father and Tariq’s brother.
As a YA novel there is, of course, romance. Margaret is drawn to Tariq’s handsomeness, Tariq is drawn to Anupreet’s beauty, and Anupreet has bigger things to worry about and barely notices any of this. (Atta girl.) No romantic relationships are actually formed and the pining is not overbearing. And, as a subplot should be, the romantic subplot is actually relevant to the narrative. Tariq and Anupreet are on opposite sides of the Muslim/Sikh conflict; Margaret seems to Tariq a potential ticket to England and Oxford. Nobody is needlessly blinded or made cruel by love. A small miracle, honestly.
Overall the prose is not bad but nothing special either. It told the story but lacked depth and the appropriate emotional impact for such events. It often devolved into paragraphs of short sentences of unvaried length, creating a monotonous rhythm, and employed one of my most hated YA writing trends of constantly starting a new line for dramatic effect~, except it’s used so often it removes all drama from the device, and it’s an amateur technique in the first place.
The ending was left very open, and if everything had been more fully-realized on the way there this would have been fine, but as the novel stands the ending was unsatisfying and had the unfortunate side-effect of making everything that had come before it all the weaker. The novel is not long - only around 60 thousand words - so it moves quickly and none of the novel’s underdeveloped elements create slow or boring areas. I think this novel would only be satisfying to the lower end of the Young Adult demographic (maybe 14 and under - depending on the person, of course), and as a reading and learning experience perfect for “Middle Grade” readers. That is, depending on if the amount of violence in this book is appropriate for children that age. (I couldn't tell you, personally.)
Weaker points:
Characters and development
Plot
Ending
Stronger points:
Setting
Atmosphere
Pacing
Historical event
Representation/diversity
Content/age appropriateness warnings: graphic violence, injury and death, explosions, threatened sexual violence against women, references to kidnapping for the purposes of slavery and sex work
