Truth Be Told by Kia Abdullah
Published by HQ
Publication date 3rd September 2020
Genre: Mystery & Thriller/Courtroom drama
My thanks to publisher HQ who kindly approved my request to read and review this publication prior to publication. All thoughts and opinions are my own and unbiased.
Book Description:
ARE YOU READY TO START THIS CONVERSATION?
Kamran Hadid feels invincible. He attends Hampton school, an elite all-boys boarding school in London, he comes from a wealthy family, and he has a place at Oxford next year. The world is at his feet. And then a night of revelry leads to a drunken encounter and he must ask himself a horrific question.
With the help of assault counsellor, Zara Kaleel, Kamran reports the incident in the hopes that will be the end of it. But it’s only the beginning…
Powerful, explosive and important, Truth Be Told is a contemporary courtroom drama that vividly captures today’s society. You will not stop thinking about it for a long time to come.
My Thoughts:
If ever there was a book which makes you look at how different sections of society conduct themselves this would be it - on more than one level. It made me look at different genders, religions, classes and sexual preferences and that's before taking into account the shocking events of one raucous night at a public school where one man's boundaries are breached by another's blatant sense of entitlement - well, that's one side of the story any way.
Kamran and Finn are both students at a prestigious boarding school which upholds strict rules for the majority of term time, with the odd exception when parties are held and everyone turns a blind eye to excess drinking and related naughtiness. But the events of one such night get out of hand when one student enters another's personal quarters uninvited and takes advantage of the resident who is in bed feeling worse for wear after a heavy night of partying.
The book then follows events as the violated student deliberates how to deal with what he sees as rape. The taboo of male rape is dealt with in a very sensitive manner - and with religious views on homosexuality also being thrown into the mix together with overbearing parents who expect their very well-to-do children to behave within extremely strict rules, this is a minefield that many authors would shy away from.
The author explores the feelings of both parties involved - the feelings of guilt on both sides, the soul searching of both men and how events affect them both as the situation suddenly gets thrown into the public spotlight of the media and the courts. All of these things are handled in a well balanced way I felt and made me explore my own opinions and thoughts on the issues involved.
The ending I found heartbreaking as things come to a very emotional conclusion and the families of both men have to come to terms with the decisions made back at the boarding school.
Who is right and could anyone have handled things differently? There are so many viewpoints to be had on those questions but either way I felt the author presented both sides in a confident yet sensitive way.
It seems wrong to say I enjoyed this book due to the content but overall I liked the way the (maybe slightly stereotypical) characters were drawn and feel the author achieved what she set out to do by getting me to analyse my thoughts on the storyline.About the Author:
Kia Abdullah is an author and travel writer from London. She has contributed to The New York Times, The Guardian, BBC and Lonely Planet, and is the founding editor of outdoor travel blog Atlas & Boots, read by 250,000 people a month. Kia's new novel, Take It Back, is out now (HQ/HarperCollins, March 2020).
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