Book Depository delivered the copy of Shazaf Fatima Haider's second book before she even had her own copy! And it took one long sitting for me to finish it. Perhaps the only time in last two weeks I was thankful that hubby is travelling and I do not need to get off my couch.
'A Firefly in the Dark' is totally different from her debut book, 'How it Happened'. It is not the kind of subject I would choose to read if I just read the blurb in a bookstore. Jinns and unseen creatures are not my cup of tea but, knowing Shazaf’s writing style, I had to read it. You know what pleasure it is to read when the descriptions are so beautiful and lucid that you start feeling like a part of the story. I had goosebumps and cold creeps at many points and I had to stop after every few chapters to get back to reality and assure myself that I was in my room and not Sharmeen’s. But I would get back to reading soon as it awakens your imagination and leaves you wanting for more.
No spoilers here but, I think anyone who will read it will marvel at the way writer has handled such a complex subject. She has done justice to every character, every idea that she has presented and every setting and backdrop that she has created.
While I loved many parts, I am leaving my most favourite excerpt from the book:
‘Did you know that sounds never die? They hang around in the air, upside down like bats, so soft that even a whisper seems like a shout to them. Every word that is uttered lives forever in the space it was birthed. It has its own frequency. Your ears are not powerful enough to hear them, but, your hearts are sensitive to their energy. That is why houses feel happy or sad - because words lodged in them are thus’
P.S. Do not read it before bedtime 
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