After reading the first few chapters of Kismet I knew two things with absolute cosmic certainty; the muscles in my face responsible for cringing were going to be tested to their limits and that I was going to love every second of it.
Ronnie Khan needed something in her life to change. What she didn’t expect was to find that the catalyst would end up being a wellness guru by the name of Marley Dewhurst. With a newly founded confidence, buoyed by a budding friendship with the blond socialite, Ronnie has decided to leave her tired existence in Queen and start fresh with Marley in the mountains of Sedona, Arizona.
Upon entering her new life, Ronnie was expecting things like the endless hikes, tasteless health shakes, or tortuous beauty routines to be the death of her, but when she begins having prophetic dreams and actual bodies start appearing in the picturesque landscapes… the banality of the wellness culture will be the least of her worries.
Anyone who follows my reviews knows that a novel based around the wellness industry and rich white ladies in the desert is not really something to be considered as part of my “usual” reads… and they would be absolutely right. The fact that Kismet is pretty far afield from my normal reading habits makes my love for this book that much stronger.
Only a handful of pages in, Amina Akhtar had me chuckling out loud as a person burying a body uttered the most relatable phrase I've ever read in a book. That takes skill. The biting criticisms, hilarious dialogue, and ridiculous events in the story gave me a serious case of fremdschämen in almost every chapter.
Another phenomenal attribute of this book is that I often found myself so caught up in the personal and emotional drama that I almost forgot about the mutilated bodies popping up around town. The interpersonal dynamics, socio economic critiques, and plot twists are just brilliant. You can’t help but root for this New Yorker in a new land. Ronnie may be a fish out of water, but we’re all right there with her. As someone who mainly reads espionage, military, and violent crime books, this was an absolutely perfect changeup in my reading habits and I cannot wait to read more from Amina. Much like the protagonist in this story, sometimes you have to get outside of your comfort zone to find something truly remarkable.
On a personal note… having grown up around kids from all over the world, being married to an immigrant, and having lived abroad, I have experienced similar scenarios as those described in Kismet. I like to think the hilarity of those memories enhanced my reading experience. And if you read this book, which you absolutely should, and you don’t feel some form of embarrassment on behalf of the ladies running around looking for energy vortexes in the hills, you might be part of the problem.
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Barrington Books
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