Book Review: Almost Surely Dead by Amina Akhtar

Dunia Ahmed, like many different single New Yorkers her age, appears to be like ahead each morning to the gentle flirtation she has occurring with a cute man who occurs to take the identical subway line as she does into work. Largely, they only smile howdy at one another, so the very last thing she expects is for him to out of the blue seize her in the future and attempt to throw her below the wheels of an oncoming practice. When his efforts are stopped because of the intervention of bystanders, he flings himself below the practice as an alternative. 

Dunia is shaken to her core. Her interactions along with her would-be assassin have been all the time optimistic up till that morning and had been a small spark of happiness after the demise of her mom and her subsequent breakup along with her fiancé. The NYPD, with Detective Alvarez heading her case, takes the incident critically and finds that the lifeless man had an excellent larger curiosity in her than she’d ever imagined.

Having a stalker can be unhealthy sufficient, however when extra makes an attempt are made on her life, each Dunia and the NYPD are on excessive alert for the opportunity of one thing even worse. Who might need to hurt a mild-mannered pharmacist like herself? When Dunia subsequently disappears, her case captures the general public creativeness, with successful podcast main the cost in asking questions of the folks concerned:

DANIELLE MCGUIRE: Did you suppose something about her background was an element right here?

 

DETECTIVE ALVAREZ: Her background?

 

AMANDA ROBERTS: Dunia was Muslim, right? Was there any investigation into that a part of her life?

 

DETECTIVE ALVAREZ: Her faith wasn’t related to the case.

 

DANIELLE MCGUIRE: However she had some beliefs within the supernatural that some folks have recommended clarify issues, or at the very least her conduct.

 

DETECTIVE ALVAREZ: I examine folks, crimes, not ghost tales.

Whereas the great detective focuses on details, Dunia herself–previous to her disappearance–can’t assist however wonder if the childhood legends that her father had fortunately relayed to her, regardless of her mom’s disapproval, have been extra than simply fiction. Dunia has lengthy been disconnected from her cultural background, however the inexplicable visions which were accompanying the makes an attempt on her life hearken again to a few of her father’s bedtime tales. When she will get the chance to be taught extra from a household buddy, she’s initially relieved…till she discovers the extent to which so most of the folks she’s trusted have been mendacity to her about nearly every thing.

A superb mix of recent media crime thriller with paranormal parts based mostly on Pakistani-Muslim cultural beliefs, Virtually Absolutely Lifeless cleverly skewers a lot of contemporary American life. Amina Akhtar vividly particulars most of the inescapable exasperations of latest residing, from disingenuously rapacious podcasters to the never-ending complexities of contemporary romance. Dunia’s frustrations with work and her love life and simply attempting to outlive within the Twenty first-century really feel very relatable, even because the frissons of horror–from each mundane criminals and the supernatural–elevate her story to a different degree of refined leisure.

Nevertheless it was Dunia’s fraught relationship along with her deceased mom that actually spoke to me, as she candidly narrates their tough previous:

[O]nce I obtained engaged, it was as if I had grow to be her excellent baby. She began doting on me in methods she by no means had earlier than. Eager to FaceTime with me and assist me pick shaadi garments. This all despatched me into matches of panic. I feel I most popular being ignored. I knew easy methods to navigate that.

 

I can’t say I missed my mother. Not precisely. I liked her, in fact, However I couldn’t let you know if she felt the identical. It was difficult. She liked [my sister] Nadia, although. So at the very least I witnessed her being an incredible mom to somebody. Me? I used to be the leftover, the forgotten. I used to be the kid who ought to have had the grace to die together with my father.

I liked Ms Akhtar’s earlier novel, Kismet, and proceed to be impressed by her depictions of American girls of Muslim descent doing their finest to juggle the various calls for positioned on us by household and society. She continues to masterfully mix chillingly reasonable tales of prison mischief with simply the correct quantity of the otherworldly, making for absorbing, extremely entertaining tales which might be practically unimaginable to place down.

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