After revealing her Muslim identity and putting her family's life in danger, Hanifa Ducktrinor together with her parents and three siblings have to begin a new life under the Secular rule which is non-religious, brutal and sadistic. Hanifa is tired of running to keep alive and has decided to conquer evil within her school and across borders.
This book is a blend between sci-fi, dark arts and religion. I enjoyed the fast-paced telling of the story and I eagerly anticipated the ending. The Quraanic references build the complexity of the plot. The descriptions in the story were so real and I was drawn into living the experience with Hanifa. I wanted more detail to some of the scenes and I found pauses at times in the text when the story jumped between scenes without definition.

I drew parallels between the character description of Katniss Everdeen in Hunger Games and Hanifa Ducktrinor - both are courageous young women warriors who fight for their beliefs.
I believe that stories like these are what we need in present day societies to rattle our consciences and jolt us out of our comfort zones - to gratingly remind us that it is our moral right to take the reigns and make a difference to our lives and to the lives of those around us.
Hanifa is the woman in all of us, she can be presumptuous, bossy and at times conceited. She is human and experiences emotions of love and attraction - emotions which are real but are often condemned in Islam. However, and of more significance is her facility to rise above her mortal being, to reveal resilience to the struggle and steadfastness to her Islamic beliefs.
A must read - recommended for both male and female over 18.

Dr. Zaheera Jina