An instant New York Times bestseller!
“Internment sets itself apart…terrifying, thrilling and urgent.”–Entertainment Weekly
Rebellions are built on hope. Set in a horrifying near-future United States, seventeen-year-old Layla Amin and her parents are forced into an internment camp for Muslim American citizens. With the help of newly made friends also trapped within the internment camp, … forced into an internment camp for Muslim American citizens.
With the help of newly made friends also trapped within the internment camp, her boyfriend on the outside, and an unexpected alliance, Layla begins a journey to fight for freedom, leading a revolution against the camp’s Director and his guards.
Heart-racing and emotional, Internment challenges readers to fight complicit silence that exists in our society today.
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Internment is a scathing indictment of our current political times. Ahmed has gifted us Layla, a courageous young revolutionary who fights against all boundaries of hate and ignorance. A must read for activists who continue to push back against the big What-Ifs.
Internment is a visceral, essential book, both horrifying and hopeful. Ahmed deserves a spot on every book shelf in America.
Scary and eye opening
I loved this book. With some more editing, this book would have turned out perfect.
The Story
11 minutes into America’s future, fascism reigns. Muslim bans are active and the Muslim US citizens have strict curfews. Internment camps are set up and Layla’s family is trapped in one.
The Good
I love Samira Ahmed’s writing style! It is very entertaining and had its funny moments. I absolutely adored the story. I wasn’t able to put it down! With the exception of Layla (occasionally), all of the characters were very likable. My personal favorite was Ayesha. I definitely enjoyed this book more than the author’s first book, Love, Hate, and Other Filters.
The Bad
1. Towards the first half of the beginning of the story, Layla was a little obsessed with her boyfriend it was annoying. I guess I understand this as when you really love someone, you never forget about them or something.
2. there were times when the author was telling rather than showing, but it only happened a few times so it’s not a big deal.
Internment is a book that will break your heart, but also make you wonder how anyone could have the courage that Layla does. It is set in the near future and all Muslims are forced to go into internment camps. Layla rebels against being there along with other internees and the help of a guard.
OMG!!!!!! I JUST FINISHED THIS BOOK WHILE I’M WRITING MY REVIEW AND MY HEART IS SHATTERED!!!!!!!
These horrifying events that are happens in the book unfortunately happens today in our present moment and even worse. It is such an important political topic that everyone should know about and I highly recommend reading this book if you want to start getting knowledgeable about it.
This story is about Layla and how she and her family, along with other Muslims, are sent to an Interment camp with their rights being stripped away in addition to getting harsh treatment from those racist people.
I loved our main character Layla. She has such a powerful voice along with other Muslims such as Ayesha, Souhel, Suraya and more. Their resistance to such harsh treatment was very powerful and inspirational and it lit a burning fire inside me.
But my favorite character has to be Jake. I LOVE and ADORE him so much, and he deserves the best!!!! But that’s all I’m gonna say because if I said more I’m gonna spoil it for you and I don’t want that!!!
Towards the ending and the ending itself was where my emotions were all over the place. It was a mixture of inspiration, shock, heart wrenching and shattering, and overall it messed me up and I loved and hated it at the same time. The ending could not have been more perfect than that!!!!!!
My only complaint is that I wished we got to know more of the characters. Yeah their voice was powerful and they discussed important topics, but I feel they would have been more fleshed out and the story would have been enhanced even more if we got to know more about them. I especially wanted to know more about Jake to be honest. But I understand that the goal of this book is to send a political message and it did which I am very pleased.
I also want to include the authors notes by the end of the book, where she discusses her research and history of the internment camps before WWII up to today, which inspired this book to come to life and I learned a lot from just those notes and would like to be more knowledgeable about it!!!!
Overall, I give this book a solid 4 stars and would highly recommend checking it out, especially since the book has been picked up by Gotham Group to be turned into a film, which I’m more happy that a wider audience, in addition to readers, would get to see the story come to life in the big screen. This is the time where people should know what is happening to our world today and how we can make it better.
I’m going to make a bold statement: this book is the book I wish everyone would read in 2019. Layla is the protagonist we all need today, whether her glimpse into a (hopefully dystopian) future is a window or a mirror. Muslim readers will find a much-needed heroine and non-Muslim readers will hopefully gain some empathy and understanding of where hateful rhetoric could lead and what it feels like to be on the receiving end of this hate. As a writer and reader of historical fiction, I of course know where this kind of rhetoric has led in the past, and Samira Ahmed does an incredible job in calling to mind so many of those same details from history in this chilling imagining of a future where history repeats itself. Please don’t allow this to happen! As she says in the Author’s Note, “There are sides. Make a choice.” Please do, and please share this book with young people everywhere!
A riveting and cautionary tale. Internment urges us to speak up and speak out, to ask questions and demand answers, and when those answers prove unsatisfactory, to resist.
A testament to what girls are capable of when they are overlooked, Internment is a masterwork of dignity and grit.
A powerful and poignant exploration of a nightmare made real. It’s a testament to Ahmed’s writing then, that the heart of the story is one of hope. Read Internment. Raise a fist.
Internment is very scary look into a near future reality that seems to be knocking on our door right now. When politicians vilinize the Muslim community, people begin to view them all with suspicion. A registry is formed. They lose their jobs/schools. And they are sent to camps.
Samira Ahmed does an amazing job showing just how the American public allowed this to happen. Between a mixture of hatred, being uninformed, and people assuming it could never happen here – they allowed it to happen.
We see these events unfold through the eyes of Layal – an American whose country turns on her for committing no crime. Viewing the life of the camp and the small rebellions leading to revolution as she experiences them was so very hard.
I think this book comes at a great time in history to show that “not doing anything” isn’t any better than “doing the bad thing.” Looking the other way or assuming that it can’t happen here is a faulty way of thinking/acting, and Samira Ahmed shows us why. I alternated between anger at what people dared to do and sadness that anyone would be treated in this way.
Thank goodness it’s fiction….for now. I only hope that continues to be the case and we never have to see events like the ones in Internment ever happen.
**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**