Book Reviews

Fake Me To Church

Synopsis:

When Ahmed entered EdgeWay academy he thought the biggest obstacle he'd have to overcome would be the school bully Steven Hall. No one could have foretold that soon he'd have to contend with a murder as well.

Grammar:

I didn't notice any grammar mistakes at all in this book. I give Fake Me To Church five out of five on grammar.

Plot:

The plot of the story was very well paced. The way the author layered in the flashback chapters from twelve years ago with the chapters set in the present was particularly skillful. I was on the edge of my seat until the epilogue of the story. My only criticism of the plot is that I didn't like how Alice showed up at the end. There was really no build up to her entrance. I think her appearance at the end of the book would have been much more impactful had the author layered in some clues to her existence besides the preface. I give this story four out of five stars on it's plot.

Theme:

There were two main themes in this novel. The first theme was that the immoral acts of church leaders and people in positions of power can have devastating impacts on their victims. As well as that being a priest, or a bishop, or nun, or pope, or really any type of religious leader is not  synonymous with a being a good person.

The second theme was that holding on to anger an hatred can have terrible affects on peoples minds. I generally like and agree with this theme but I didn't like the way the author conveyed it. They tried to get the moral across by juxtaposing Ahmed and Steven. Casting Ahmed as the good forgiving Christian and Steven as the bad hatefull one.

This was especially prevalent in the scene with Ahmed and Prudence in which Ahmed was encouraged to be nicer Steven. Prudence basically said that Ahmed should not judge  Steven too harshly  because he was going through alot. I found this to be problematic because up to that point in the story Steven had not indicated that he was going to stop terrorizing Ahmed. If Steven had simply been pushing Ahmed around a little bit and calling him a dork I might be a little more lenient. But seeing as Ahmed is an Indian boy and Steven called him Osama, wrote the word terrorist on his locker, and physically assaulted him with no punishment I found Prudence's advice to be very problematic.

After 9/11 according to the FBI hate crimes against Muslim people increased by 1,600% percent. Many of the victims of these attacks lost their lives as a result. The FBI has also released a report stating that in 2019 51 Muslims died from hate murders. These are just the hate crimes that have been reported to the FBI and furthermore just the ones against Muslims. After 9/11 many Arab people and Indian people were attacked as well regardless of their religious affiliation. This is why I found it extremely inappropriate that the author painted a victim of hate crimes (Ahmed), being told to not be to harsh to the person that hurt them  (Steven) problematic.  It seemed especially wrong to me because Ahmed was never violent towards Steven. He never expressed that he wanted revenge. All he did was say  that Steven was a Jerk and bad things were happening to him because of his behavior which later turned out to be true. Personally anyone telling a victim of a racial hate crime to not judge their oppressors' too harshly will never sit right with me. 

I know the author wanted to convey that Ahmed should not be bitter or vengeful  through Prudence.  But I think when it comes situations like Ahmed's and Steven's harsh judgment is sometimes necessary. Up to that point in the book Steven's violence towards Ahmed had really only escalated.  I don't think it's wrong to  harshly judge someone who physically assaults other people. At that point you're not being bitter you're choosing not to associate with them for your own safety.  I give this book  book one star out of five on theme.

Character Development:

I really liked the characters at the beginning of the story and the author did a great job of making sure that all the different point of views in the book were unique and interesting.  However, as the story progressed I felt like Ahmed and Alice's arcs got worse.

Ahmed: I didn't understand why after finding out about how Steven tried to rape Irina Ahmed didn't have any reaction. I know that Ahmed would never try to physically harm Steven out of anger for what he did to Irina but I feel that he should have  at least verbally confronted him. Given the romantic tension between Ahmed and Irina and Ahmed's past history with Steven. It didn't seem plausible that he would be able to continue to be friends with Steven without batting an eye after finding out what he did to Irina. Especially considering that Steven never so much as apologized to Irina for trying to rape her.

Alice: My last problem with the characters was Alice. Alice just felt flat to me because she was basically just a carbon copy of Lane but older. I would have appreciated it if Alice had more personality traits to differentiate herself from Lane.

All in all I give this book three point five stars out of five on character development.

Conclusion:

In Conclusion I give this book three stars out of five. It was entertaining but the character development flaws and problematic morals really hampered my enjoyment. I feel pretty lukewarm about this novel. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone but I also wouldn't tell anyone not to read it.