Six Truths and a Lie

It'a a Fourth of July celebration at a popular California Beach. Although the official fireworks show hasn't started random people in the crowd have started shooting off their own fireworks. The crowd is in a festive mood until an off shore oil rig and a pier explode, creating chaos as the injured seek help and everyone tries to flee the nightmarish scene.
Even before all the dust has cleared the police have six Muslim high school students in custody, claiming that since the incident was a terrorist attack and poses a threat to national security they are not eligible for bail. Nasreem is the only Muslim student in a private Catholic school with a high acceptance rate at the Ivies her parents are determined to see her in. Quays is a handsome and popular golden boy athlete. Muzhda is a peer he tutored in language arts. Although her parents are undocumented, her sibling are born in the USA. Samia is a hijab wearing social media influencer. Zamzam carries too much responsibility in a family which has lost its father and oldest sibling. Abdullahi gives his older sister's name to the police because he doesn't want his parents involved.
As they struggle to come to terms with all that has happened people are working to wrap the event in a narrative that most Americans have come to expect. They are connected with each other and with an International terrorist organization. So sending them to prison for life will mean the rest of us are once again safe. This is the narrative that federal agent Kandi Favreau is determined that they and eventually the jury buy into. "If we need to be a little bit flexible with the law, so be it."
The lawyers the six get seem willing to throw the others under the bus if doing so will exonerate their clients. Their strategies seem based on one of these kids is not like the others. One deserves to be found not guilty.
But the teens know they're all innocent. And some of them are willing to take great risks to uncover the truths that will set them all free.
Ream Shukairy's Six Truths and a Lie is a very worthy follow up to her debut novel, The Next New Syrian Girl. The plot is suspenseful and engaging. The characters are complex and nuanced. The narrative is very thought provoking. I'd recommend it for diversity programs and book clubs. It's meant to be discussed. Fans of Angie Thomas and Samira Ahmed are in for a real treat.
But the best reason to read the book lies in this quote from the author's note.
"Like my characters, my life has been shaped by marginalized identities. I grew up in a visibly Muslim family, and I've always lived in an America that views me as different. I've navigated a world that doesn't accept Muslims as we are. I've had to learn how to exist as myself every day without prejudice dictating what I do and how I do it."
On a purrrsonal note, I hate the way so many Americans stereotype Muslims as terrorists. The people who commit the most mass murders are white males who are Christian if anything. But we don't hold their affiliations against them. We didn't get all panicked about evangelical Christians after Timothy killed 168 people in his Oklahoma City bombing.
A great big shout out goes out to Ream Shukairy for her most enlightening narratives. Hopefully she is working on another as I write this.
Jules Hathaway