#Blogtour #Review - Someone Like Her by Awais Khan

Someone Like Her
Awais Khan
Orenda Books, 17 August 2023
Available as: PB, 320pp audio, e   
Source: Advance copy
ISBN(PB): 9781914585784PB)

I'm grateful to Karen at Orenda Books for sending me a copy of Someone Like Her to consider for review, and to Anne Cater for inviting me to join the book's blogtour.

Awais Khan's new novel is a frank and unflinching look at the treatment of women in Pakistani society.

Following Ayesha, a young woman living in a conservative city but determined to make her own way in life, we see a young man making use of the power of patriarchy - and the power and influence of his wealthy family - to indulge his desires.

And we see the mayhem that ensues.

Ayesha is a determined, outgoing woman, until she encounters Raza. He is rich, spoiled and indulged and sees no reason not to press for what he wants. I found Ayesha's dilemma heartbreaking. Knowing how much power Raza and his family have, she does not want her own family to be endangered yet she also wants her own life. Breaking away to London may be part of a solution, yet Ayesha knows that she treads a knife edge of danger and scandal.

The London end of this story introduces Kamil, a young man whose family have distant connections to Ayesha's. Kamil also has secrets and tragedy behind him, and it was fascinating to see how Khan gradually reveals these and how they both strengthen, and undermine, him in his relationship with Ayesha. Both main characters have a real streak of courage but are also grappling with scary things - societal structures, relationships gone wrong, shame and finding their place in the world - and the author shows that is far from certain what the outcome of that will be.

The romance in this book (of course there is romance!) is sensitively drawn, tender and brave, between two young people who have been taught that what they want doesn't;t matter, can't matter and that others' wants and needs will always come first. It is an awakening, glorious to see but so fragile, so endangered.

Lightened by moments of genuine humour as Ayesha and Kamal negotiate life among parents, Aunties, siblings and more, Someone Like Her moves at a cracking pace with a story that has great drive and urgency. But it has space too to draw out important, passing things: behaviour on the Tube in London, the taste of the air in a different city, social customs (I'd never heard of kitty parties before) and the genuine, if often unstated, love between parent and a child.

I would give a CW for Someone Like Her has it includes unflinching depictions of domestic violence, and of rape - they are not gratuitous and certainly not graphic, but Khan is under no illusions that the sort of freedom that Ayesha wants can be had without pushback from those who benefit from the oppression of women.

For more information about Someone Like Her, see the publisher's website here - and of course the other stops on the blogtour which you can see listed on the poster below. 

You can buy Someone Like Her from your local high street bookshop or online from Bookshop UK, Hive Books, Blackwell's, Foyle's, WH Smith, Waterstones or Amazon.