The set-up of the plot is electrifying - and horribly plausible - but for me, a reader far older than the target demographic, the YA-ness of the writing defuses the power of the narrative. It's just too stylistically matter-of-fact which gives it a shallowness that undermines the issues it addresses. The plot gets less believable as the MC behaves with immature impulsiveness and the true horror of internment camps seems dialed down for the age group. That said, the issues it addresses are significant and this book lays them out for discussion in no uncertain terms. I am sure the intended audience will find this book in turn horrifying, intellectually stimulating and, ultimately, empowering.

I no longer have an interest in reviewing this title but would like to thank the publisher and author for the opportunity, it is now far past the publication and archive date. I have awarded 3 stars to keep this review neutral.

This book really made me feel a rainbow of emotions. sadness, disgust, fear, and sometimes, a little glimmer of happiness. I would definitely recommend but be ready for the post reading depression and to cry your eyes out.

Such an intriguing and effective read. Truly brilliant. I adored this by Ahmed. Absolutely excellent book and a brilliant read. Recommend!

I'm not sure how I feel about internment camp story about Muslims but that might have more to do about the incredible lack of positive, non traumatic Muslim rep. Not to mention the literal internment of Muslims in China at present (though of c this was published in 2019 so I am sympathetic towards the author.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

This was an interesting book! I definitely enjoyed it and it did open my eyes a lot! I would definitely recommend.

A great thought provoking look at what could be if we let fear rule.
Well written with a great cast of characters. My only gripe is that it all ended too quickly, with no "what happened next"

Internment is another 2.5 star book. Although I liked it more than Like Other Girls, I still can’t justify rounding it up to 3 stars.

Set in America in the near-future, Internment follows Layla Amin as she and her family are placed into an internment camp for being Muslims. Considering that anti-Muslim rhetoric has been on the rise in America during Trump’s presidency, this is a horrifying ‘what-if’ novel which explores an important and timely subject, showing a snapshot of what life could have become for hundreds of thousands of American citizens… I just think that it could have been done better.


Layla is supposed to be 17, but she reads as much younger (I kept thinking she was either 14 or 15). She is separated from her boyfriend, David, and she befriends a guard called Jake solely so that she can contact David and let him know that she is okay. This eventually sparks a bit of revolution – Layla manages to smuggle articles to David with Jake’s help, so he can send the inside story to the media and show just how horrifying life is inside the internment camp – but to start with Layla comes across as quite self-absorbed, risking her family’s safety just so that she can contact her boyfriend. This might have made sense if she was a little bit younger, but most 17-year-olds don’t seem to be quite that impulsive.

I was also frustrated by David’s parents. David is Jewish and members of his family lost their lives in the German concentration camps during World War II, but his parents don’t want to get involved in the plight of the Muslims and David makes it sound as though they don’t really care that Layla has been abducted in the middle of the night. If you had lost family members to an atrocity like this in the past, I don’t think you would be ambivalent! Your voice would be one of the loudest, denouncing the entire scheme.

I did knock an entire star off for the way that Samira Ahmed describes the Director of the internment camp. If I’d taken a shot every time his ‘purple lips’ were mentioned, I wouldn’t have been able to finish the book because I wouldn’t have been able to see straight. He’s a caricature, and it’s hard to take him seriously because of that: despite the fact that he’s a violent, bigoted man, you know that he’s going to get his comeuppance because men like that always do. Ahmed attempts to make him suave and charismatic in front of the media but his anger fuels him and his facade shatters: he would have been far more terrifying if he’d been able to keep his cool.

Meanwhile, the idea of the internment camp being constructed using mobile homes on blocks seems a bit too sanitary: if you see the horrifying pictures from the detention centres that the Trump administration have opened on the Mexican border, it seems far more likely that the internment camps might have looked more like that.

This could have been more effective as an adult novel, because some of the older characters would have made really interesting protagonists. I think it’s brilliant that this novel was aimed at younger people, because it is important to educate them to the reality of internment camps, but I just think it might have worked better with an older audience in mind. If this had been aimed at adults Ahmed might have had a no holds barred approach, but this is the best-worst case scenario. It is infuriating and enraging to think that people could be controlled like this because of their religion, but I think the reality of internment camps is far more heart-wrenching and devastating.

I have found it so hard to review this novel. This is such an important subject and I’m so glad than an own voices author decided to tackle it, but the execution is very poor.

Thank you to netgalley for the free arc.

This book is based around Trump's rhetoric on migrants, people of different religions, women, and people with disabilities. The premise of this book sounded gripping - an Internment camp created by the government as way of appeasing the American people in a supposed arrangement to remove the threat of terrorism.

I really wanted to enjoy this book more than I actually did. The message of this book is so important, and in it's references to past protests and internments I found myself learning about others history (as a non-American), which I feel is important for hindsight.

It started off really well, but I found myself finding losing focus especially near the end. Also, I felt like it could have been written tighter in parts, sometimes the narrative was a little too obsessed with her boyfriend, or it seemed to have nothing to do with the story.

As soon as I read the blurb for Internment, I knew that I had to request an early copy of it, and I am so glad that I did. I know that I only read it two months before the release date, but it meant that I could rave about it for two months and convinced loads of my friends to pre-order or buy it when it came out in the shops.

Content warnings: death, murder, islamophobia, racism, violence, torture, internment camps. 

Set in a horrifying near-future United States, seventeen-year-old Layla Amin and her parents are forced into an internment camp for Muslim American citizens.

With the help of newly made friends also trapped within the internment camp, her boyfriend on the outside, and an unexpected alliance, Layla begins a journey to fight for freedom, leading a revolution against the internment camp's Director and his guards.

I find it so much harder to write reviews about books that I absolutely loved, because all I want to say is how amazing it was, but I know that I can't just do that.

But I am going to say this: I knew that when I requested Internment, it would be a hard read. It would drain me emotionally and I was right. I pretty much cried from start to finish because of how real and painful it was.



“The scariest monsters are the ones who seem the most like you.”
― Samira Ahmed, Internment



Of course, I have no idea what the main character is going through as I am a white individual with no religious beliefs. HOWEVER, one of my best friends is Muslim and the amount of times that she has cried down the phone to me because of how she has been treated, how she has been victim of Islamophobia whilst she's just been walking down the streets. This book just confirmed how dangerous the times we live in are and it really is heart-breaking.

Samira Ahmed conveys the feelings of a normal teenager living in the United States who's colour of her skin offends people and it made me so angry of just how real it was. The relationships throughout this book, the friendships, the learning curve of being able to trust others around you, and the language used during the telling of this harrowing story was exceptional.



“One detail that’s impossible to miss? Just like in the train station, every person with a gun is white, and not white like maybe they’re Bosnian—the kind of white that thinks internment camps are going to make America great again.”
― Samira Ahmed, Internment



When you have finished reading the main story, please do not skip over Ahmed's note at the end of the novel. She speaks about how there are already camps across the U.S. for refugee children, and how - even though this is classed as a dystopia novel - these things are happening RIGHT NOW and we need to be made aware of them.

I think that everyone needs to read this book, it doesn't matter if 'YA isn't your thing', you need to read this book.

I cried. A lot.

I don't think I will ever read a book like this again.

Disclaimer: this book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

I really wanted to like the book but I just didn't care for the main character and how much the book seemed to focus on her love story.

In this dystopian fiction, Muslims have been declared ‘a threat to America,' a scenario it describes is only a few steps away from the present. This must-read novel for young adults merges events that have already taken place in America — the separation of refugee families, the vilification of migrants, the rise of Islamophobia — with what they might lead to: the incarceration by the current regime of all Muslim Americans in detention camps as a “national security measure”.

We follow the story of 17-year-old Layla, of South Asian descent, who is transported with her parents to a camp at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, near where Japanese Americans were interned after Pearl Harbour. Author Samira Ahmed shows the heterogeneity of the jailed co-religionists, who hail from many different cultures and backgrounds. Protagonist Layla, her new friends Ayesha and Soheil and a sympathetic guard use every social media technique at their disposal to fight back highlighting the courage of youth. It is chillingly plausible.

Internment is the kind of book, that is unfortunately very relevant in today's world. It deals with the fear mongering that runs rampant through society and how when a group of people get labeled as a problem...well, they stopped getting treated like people.

The best part of this book, aside from how emotional it made me, was the voice. This novel has a strong voice and it's easy to get lost in it as you turn through the pages.

I feel like it's something a lot of people should try if they haven't already and even if they walk away not liking the story, or the characters or anything about the book itself, they'll close it with their eyes just a little more open than they were beforehand.

I received a free ebook version of this book from Netgalley. Thankyou t0 both Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this! My review is still honest.

I'm going to start this off by saying that I am in an awful slump. I've barely read anything for a few months and I'm finding it difficult to motivate myself to open my Kindle and just start reading. I think it's a testament to how good this book is that even in the midst of that and with a whole host of personal issues going on, I still sat and devoured this every time I did open that Kindle.
Internment is such an important novel, one dealing with Islamophobia and persecution, presenting a world of internment camps that really isn't so far from what is currently happening in America. I live in England, but the ripples of Islamophobia and hate are felt all throughout the West. What's happening in America right now is deeply concerning, and too few people are using their voices to protest. What Ahmed has done with this hard-hitting novel is open my eyes, and I'm sure it will for so many others.
Of course the social context is so significant in this novel, but it is also just a very well written book. The characters are all vivid and realistic, and I really enjoyed reading a book from a Muslim character's perspective. Layla is so innocent yet so brave, and her strength is truly inspiring. It pulls at the heart strings in all the right ways, and every little cruelty or injustice carries a massive punch and a message to make you think about yourself and the world around you. It was very easy readable, fluent and compelling.
This book is needed in times like these. I can only hope that it makes the world pay attention.

An interesting premise for a novel.
This YA novel taps into lots of current political, ideological and religious debates and issues.
I didn't entirely enjoy the novel as I wasn't as invested in the main character as I would have liked. At times she is quite irritating and immature. Its definitely a book that gets you thinking.

Thanks Netgalley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review

Trigger Warnings: This book features racism, Islamophobia, imprisonment, violence, violence against women, death, discussion of torture, discussion of internment camps - specifically Manzanar internment camp and Nazi concentration camps, and discussion of the Holocaust.

I absolutely loved Samira Ahmed's debut novel, Love, Hate & Other Filters, and Internment sounded so good, so I was so looking forward to reading it. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped.

Firstly, I want to discuss how horrific this story is. It's set in the not too distant future in America where things that have been mentioned by someone in power have come about. There is a Muslim ban. There is a wall at the Mexican border. There are no refugees or asylum seekers. There is a curfew; there is book burning; there is mandatory watching of the president's address. Islamophobia is law. Layla's father lost his job as an English professor. Layla has been taken out of school for fear of what could come next, because she had been suspended just for kissing her Jewish boyfriend in public. The world Layla lives in is terrifying. And then men with guns turn up at their house, and under a new law that's come through, Layla's family must be "relocated", and are taken to a Muslim internment camp. Ahmed does a wonderful job of taking things that have been said, and showing what that would look like in reality. And it's all the more terrifying because it's not a huge leap from what has been said, to Internment becoming a reality - especially when this has already happened before, with Nazi concentration camps, and the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II, which Layla thinks about and discusses with the friends she's made. With what's been said and with what's in our not too distant past, the premise of Internment is so very believable. And this is why Internment is an important story; this is what could be. This is what shouldn't be. It doesn't flinch away from how petrifying this whole situation is. The removal of rights, the cameras in their caravan homes, the cameras on drones watching their every move, the guards who are absolutely everywhere. The threats to enforce obedience, the public violence, the people who disappear with no explanation, never seen again. Ahmed doesn't sugar coat any of it, and it's so, so powerful.

Unfortunately, for me, Internment was very slow. I get that they're in an internment camp, and there's not a huge amount they can do, but I'm referring to the rebellion. I think the description is misleading, because it's not the kind of rebellion we would expect having read other dystopian novels. It's a lot quieter and a lot smaller. But it took such a long time for the acts of rebellion to happen, and the pace just felt really off to me. It was a quick read, but it was one I did have to force myself to read at times, because I was losing interest.

And then there are some inconsistencies. There are things Layla does that are against the rules, but she doesn't get found out. I didn't want her to get found out, but with all the guards and the drones, she is extremely lucky to have not been caught. It's almost miraculous. It just doesn't quite make sense. However, if she had done quite a lot of reconnaissance, figured out times of guard changes, times of patrols, patterns of the drones, and figured out when the best time to do things was, it would have made sense that she didn't get caught. But she doesn't do that. This comes into play later into the story, but it's not her who does it, and there are the instancies earlier on where she got lucky.

Later in the book, after some of the quiet acts of rebellion take place, she is questioned a number of times in relation to what's happened, while almost no-one else is. It's true that Layla is one of the people - and in some cases the only person - leading these acts of rebellion, but those in charge don't know that, and have no reason to know that. No-one else taking part in these acts of rebellions would grass her up, and as they happened, there was never a clear leader. I don't understand why she specifically was singled out for questioning.

So while the whole premise overall is so believable as to be terrifying, there were a number of things that happened that, for me, didn't quite make sense. And that along with the very slow pacing led to me not enjoying this book very much, and feeling quite disappointed. But it is important, and there are parts of it that are really powerful. And there are a lot of people who loved it, so perhaps it's just me. So do read other reviews before deciding whether or not you'll read this.

Thank you to Atom via NetGalley for the eProof.

Set ‘15 minutes into the future’, Internment tells the story of 17-year-old Layla, who is sent to a Muslim-American internment camp in the middle of the Californian desert. Similar to the real Japanese-American internment camps of World War II, this camp is a dangerous place to stand out. Layla’s parents want her to keep her head down and not attract the attention of the vicious camp director. But Layla is prepared to risk her life for her freedom. A powerful page-turner about the price of turning a blind eye to bigotry.

This is a book set in a dystopian early future, where Islamaphobia has gripped the United States, and thousands of Muslims have been coralled in an internment camp in the desert. The rules are vicious, and the young people find it hard, as they are not allowed mobile phones, or access to the Internet, and the only television they are allowed to watch is broadcast by the Director, and his personal staff.
Some young people try to bring about change, but fail at every term. There are, though some staff who are sympathetic to their plight, and try to help them, often endangering their lives.
The characterization in this book is great, and the tension is ramped up at every stage of the story. It is impossible not to feel a lot of sympathy for the internees.

I went into Internment knowing that it was going to break me, and in some ways it definitely did. Samira Ahmed poured so much into this book and it made me feel a lot of feelings. I think the main thing that got to me was that it felt so real. The things that happen in Internment could definitely happen in the USA, especially since they’re already happening in other countries around the world today, namely China. It wouldn’t be too much of a leap for US citizens to be treated this way.

Internment was a hard hitting read that evoked so many emotions, although I feel like it could have been more developed. I really wish Ahmed had delved into things a bit deeper, because I feel like it was too short of a book to really impact people to its full extent. Literally my only criticism is that Interment could have been longer.

Internment was such a powerful read. Layla was an incredible main character to read about. She’s very angry and aggressive, and I think some readers will be put off by that, but honestly I think her anger and aggression are justified. She didn’t want to take anything lying down, and she felt as though those around her weren’t fighting hard enough for their freedom.

I’d highly recommend Internment, even if it could have been longer. It’s a brilliant read and I think it’s a very important one. Even if you don’t like the main character, I think you’d get a lot out of the book.