Amal Unbound

by Aisha Saeed

[nannah]

This book has been on my to-read since it came out, and it was finally free for me to check out from my library (which is a very good thing!).

Amal Unbound tells the story of a young girl from a small Pakistani village. For the most part, Amal’s life is happy: she has her family, her friends at school, and her dreams of becoming a teacher. But when she accidentally insults the village’s rich and corrupt landlord, she’s taken back to his estate as punishment and as a way for her family pay back their debts. At the estate, Amal realizes just how unethical the landlord and his dealings really are. But making one wrong move trying to expose his crimes could mean even more punishment for her family.

I have some mixed feelings about this book. While it was never boring, always entertaining (and always heartfelt), it also felt like it ended way too quickly. There were definitely pacing problems, and some of the characters introduced in the beginning never had any purpose in the second half (other than perhaps being compared to Amal in an afterthought).

Pacing was great in the first half, but I had about one-fourth left in the book when I realized there still had to be a climax and the build-up to a climax and nothing had been introduced yet! There was mention of the landlord’s crimes and Amal wanting to do something about it, but there was so little page time left! In the end, the climax was something Amal didn’t see herself, and she was just … released.

I know in real life, speaking out against something can be enough (and it even says so in-book), especially since this is aimed at a middle-grade audience, but the story really did feel over too soon. Where was Omar, Amal’s best friend? He vanished halfway. With all the talk of the inappropriateness of them being friends despite them being different genders, I thought there would be at least something more about that.

Despite these things though, it was a very enjoyable short read.