Review: Torn by David Massey

Torn
By: David Massey
Publisher: Chicken House
Release Date: July 30th, 2013

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Short Summary:

War-torn Afghanistan. A mysterious child and secrets.

The Summary (via Goodreads):

Witnesses to a mystery on the battlefield, a British medic and an American Navy SEAL confront Afghanistan’s fog of war.

In war-torn Afghanistan, a girl walks right into a hail of bullets: Elinor watches it with her own eyes. The young British army medic risks the line of fire to rescue her, only to realize the girl is gone.

To find the missing, mysterious child, Elinor enlists the help of an American Navy SEAL. But in all the confusion, with coalition troops fighting every day to maintain a fragile peace, does Ben have something to hide?

Elinor came to Afghanistan with the hope of changing hearts and minds: What she’s about to discover will make her question everything she ever believed about love and war.

A war thriller. A cross-cultural love story with an undercurrent of magic realism. A powerful debut set in modern-day, battle-scarred Afghanistan. This is TORN.

Review:

Just yesterday, I was telling a friend how I don’t like war stories. Damn. David Massey proved me wrong and I love him for it! Torn is bloody (excuse the pun) brilliant!

Ellie is a British medic who gets to see a lot more than she has been prepared for in her initial days in Afghanistan. Something that she wasn’t prepared for at all was that there would be ammunition in the hands of children and they would not be afraid to use it.

I absolutely loved how Ellie was able to form a relationship with one of the children who was caught. A young boy named Husna (Isn’t that a girl’s name? In Pakistan, it is.) It was cute to see how he began to trust her overtime and be comfortable around her. As a character, Ellie develops a lot throughout the book, which makes her so much more real.  And she likes My Chemical Romance! How can I not like someone who likes My Chemical Romance and goes on to quote one of my favorite songs?

There’s a lot of action throughout. And for someone who lives right across the border from Afghanistan and smack dab in the middle of the War on Terror, Taliban and drone attacks, it wasn’t an easy read. I don’t mean that in terms of writing, the pace and flow was as good as it gets. But parts of the book were a bit painful for me.

And then there was this one instance where Husna doesn’t take Ellie’s extended hand, which she blames on ‘a hundred years of sexist brain-washing.’ I might be wrong, but I didn’t like this because it isn’t sexist brainwashing. It’s culture. In the sub-continent and Islamic countries, men and women do not shake hands, or touch.

Other than that, I didn’t find a single fault with the book.

Oh and have I mentioned the mysterious girl in the blue dress? Hats off to David Massey for such an ingenious idea. I absolutely loved it!

The love story that was inter-weaved was really interesting too.

The Final Word:

This is a must read if you want a light-yet-serious take on war and how the lives of soldiers and civilians are impacted by war. It is gripping, at the very least. I was hooked!