This book should absolutely be on your radar for 2021! It's an excellent crime read. It's my turn on the BlogTour Can You See me Now by Trisha Sakhlecha.
About the Author
Trisha Sakhlecha grew up in New Delhi and now lives in London. For her new novel she draws upon a true story – a famous scandal that erupted at her own high school and which changed India. She works in fashion and is a graduate of the acclaimed Faber Academy writing course. In the past, Trisha has worked as a designer, trend forecaster, and lecturer. She is the author of Your Truth Or Mine?.
Follow @trishasakhlecha on Twitter, on Instagram, Visit www.trishasakhlecha.com, Buy Can You See Me Now
About the book
Three Indian girls. One horrific scandal. And fifteen years later, secrets that refuse to stay buried…
Fifteen years ago, three sixteen-year-old girls meet at Wescott, an exclusive private school in India. Two, Sabah and Noor, are the most popular girls in their year. One, Alia, is a new arrival from England, who feels her happiness depends on their acceptance.
Before she knows it, Sabah and Noor’s intoxicating world of privilege and intimacy opens up to Alia and, for the first time, after years of neglect from her parents, she feels she is exactly where, and with whom, she belongs.
But with intimacy comes jealousy, and with privilege, resentment, and Alia finds that it only takes one night for her bright new world to shatter around her.
Now Alia, a cabinet minister in the Indian government, is about to find her secrets have no intention of staying buried . . .
Three young girls become friends or as friendly as teenage girls can be until someone gets upset, and of course when one person is intruding on a tight twosome there is always going to be trouble. Two rich girls and a poor girl full of resentment and ambition, what could possibly go wrong?
The story goes from present to past with Sabah and Alia as one of them decides to revisit a traumatic event in their past, and the other fears the truth could implode her chances of climbing the political ladder.
This book is a stark reminder of why the female of the human species, especially during their teenage years, are one of the most vicious species on the planet. Willing to humiliate, bully, control, hurt and then revel in the aforementioned - yes, they are quite something to behold and experience. Given the right circumstances and motivation they will destroy within the blink of an eye and in the next moment cry genuine tears of remorse at the damage they have caused.
The author uses that element of teenage hysteria, vengeance and lack of good judgement or choices to create an atmosphere of mistrust, paranoia and a need to belong. All of those factors lead in to the culture of victimisation of women, especially in India, which plays an important role in this story.
The rape culture, the victim blaming, the general attitude towards women and young girls who are sexually assaulted, raped and in the majority of cases murdered. Whether Alia uses this platform in an attempt to cleanse her own conscience or just because it is a popular one - it is one that needs to spoken about. The author does an excellent job of showing the disparity between gender, class, wealth and of the course the patriarchal tomb of silence that allows perpetrators to walk away unpunished, whilst women suffer and die.
I loved this book. It is a well written intriguing crime read and social commentary. I very much hope to read more by this author in the future.
Buy Can You See Me Now at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Pan Macmillan, pub date 4 February 2021, paperback original, £8.99. Buy at Amazon com. Hive. Bookshop org. Waterstones.
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