Good People
By Patmeena Sabit
Crown, February 2026, 400pp.
The Short of It:
Carefully constructed. Left me wanting more.
The Rest of It:
“The Sharaf family is the picture of success. Prosperous, rich, happy. They came to this country as refugees with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. And now, after years of hard work, they live in the most exclusive neighborhood, their growing family attending the most prestigious schools. Zorah, the eldest daughter, is the apple of her father’s eye.
Zorah Sharaf could do no wrong. Zorah Sharaf brought shame upon her family. What’s the truth? Depends on who you ask.” ~the publisher
The structure of this story was interesting. It’s told through alternating points of view, and some chapters are only one or two sentences long. I liked the buildup and the surprise of those short chapters, but the story became a bit too episodic for me, much like a series of eyewitness accounts.
Everyone gets a say in what happened: brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, and frankly, the entire community. It reminded me of the game Operator, where one piece of information gets passed down the communication chain until, by the end, no one knows what to believe.
I didn’t mind the format, but I was never fully invested in any of the characters. This book has received a lot of praise, but overall, it was good, just not particularly memorable for me.
Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.
