Hollow Fires is a YA coming of age thriller with supernatural elements, told from the point of view of Safiya, a young scholarship student and journalist, social media and news clips, and a young spirit named Jawad, who’s post mortem voice is begging to be heard. After Jawad was accused of creating a bomb that ended up being a jet pack costume he is shunned, labeled a terrorist, and soon murdered. Safiya is intent on giving Jawad the voice he deserves, knowing though that justice will never in fact be served. The who dun it components of the story are used mostly as a conduit for Ahmed to explore issues of racism, sexism, privilege, and the biased voices embedded in journalism, academia, and society as a whole. This book is fast paced and gripping but more so educational and definitely a must read for wide audiences.

Samira Ahmed weaves a story of mystery and Islamophobia in the most realistic way with hard hitting writing. The dual pov turned out to be very effective to boost the plot.

What a haunting, infuriating, beautiful book. Hollow Fires alternates between Safiya, ghost Jawad, newspaper articles and interviews. Parts are set in 2023 and at first if felt like a dystopian but then I realized it was reality. This is a culmination of everything that’s going on in the world right now. Author Mirza clearly drew from current events, which gives the whole book a Black Mirror vibe. One of my most memorable reads of 2022 so far.

Words learned:
Affluenza: a psychological malaise supposedly affecting wealthy young people, symptoms of which include a lack of motivation, feelings of guilt, and a sense of isolation.

TW: hate speech, death of a child, racism

“Hollow Fires” is written in a dual P.O.V. where we follow Safiya and Jawad during their journey and how their lives changed drastically.

This book was such a powerful read and beautifully written. I couldn’t get enough of it and actually read it in one sitting. “Hollow Fires” has these useful time stamps in the beginning of the chapters, as the book is set in the present time and in the year 2023. Which is interesting as it shows in detail what’s going on. I really appreciated the time stamps as it helped me understand the story better.

I loved the writing style and can’t stop gushing about it. The mystery aspect of this novel was great as well, and I loved how everything came together in the end. As you’ve probably understood by now, I don’t even know how to write a review for this book, as I just loved it so much. “Hollow Fires” might even be my personal favourite of 2022, and I might recommend it to everyone that’s visiting the bookshop I’m working at.

In conclusion, I highly recommend this book to everyone. “Hollow Fires” was such an important and interesting read that deserves all the praise. The only thing left for you to do is grab a cup of tea, some tissues, and please read this novel.

This is absolutely the best book Samira Ahmed has ever written. It's so relevant, it's so engaging, it's so unique. She beautifully weaves together the genres of Owned Voices and Mystery to create this thrilling page turning- literally un-put-downable! Between my desire to uncover all the evidence to reveal the truth, and my desire to dig deeper into the vial hatred that is perpetuated in our society, I simultaneously couldn't wait to finish and didn't want it to end. I think this book is so important for anyone and everyone to read- Ahmed does an amazing job of ripping back the curtain on what so many in society turn a blind eye to or just simple don't understand enough to address. As a teacher, I cannot wait to get my hands on hard copies of this masterpiece to give it to my students.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown Books for the ARC. This was a deeply emotional, powerful YA read. Hollow Fires was my first Samira Ahmed book, but it definitely won’t be the last. Safiya and Jawad’s story had me captivated from page 1.

Jawad Ali is a 14-year-old high schooler excited about creating things. When he brings his newly finished jetpack to school, he is unjustly labeled a terrorist by his teacher and arrested. Though Jawad is exonerated, he is forced to endure continued bullying by classmates and teachers who have labeled him “Bomb Boy.”

Safiya Mirza is the editor of her school newspaper with dreams of becoming a journalist. Once Safiya learns of the disgusting profiling Jawad was victim to, she uses her investigative journalism skills to try to give him the justice he deserves.

Ahmed calls out the alt-right conspiracists, “alternative facts,” and the heated political climate from the last few years in this novel, weaving elements from real life effortlessly into the story. The unique format of the narrative will hook readers from the start—Ahmed alternates between Jawad’s and Safiya’s perspective, also including clips from news articles and interviews. This writing style kept me engaged throughout, and I will 100% recommend this book to others.

The reading experience for me on this one was closer to a 4 star, but I think I went in with some false expectations about the plot.

Once I got a handle on what was actually happening in the book, I really loved it! The book centers about a school journalist trying to figure out if a local Iraqi boy whos gone missing is related to hate crimes that are happening at her private high school.

I love how this book deals with far-right radicalization in teenage boys. The story feels incredibly realistic (even with the slight paranormal aspect) and I think it's really important for teens to know that this is happening and be able to see the warning signs.

This isn't a super twisty mystery, it's more about the detective journalism. The paranormal aspect and the multi-media pieces made for a really engaging book.

Highly recommend!

trigger warnings: islamophobia, racism, bullying, anti-semitism and nazi ideologies, physical violence, kidnapping, murder

Hollow Fires is my favorite Samira Ahmed book to date! This book follows Safiya Mirza, a high school senior, as she tries to uncover the truth about what happened to Jawad Ali, a 14-year-old boy who goes missing shortly after being falsely labelled as a terrorist and experiencing harsh bullying. As the mystery unfolds, Ahmed explores important topics such as Islamophobia, racism, and the corrupt system of the U.S. that favors white supremacy over minority innocence.

Firstly, I really enjoyed the format of the book! It was dual pov, featuring both the perspectives of Safiya and Jawad, which I felt helped to really shape the story and bring it to its full potential. It also included additional inserts, such as news reports, interview transcripts, and web article excerpts, which added an extra element to the story and clued the reader into things they didn't necessary get from Safiya and Jawad's narratives. Plus, the book was set in both the present and near future, which was really unique! With all of these different elements put together, Hollow Fires succeeded in being a engaging read.

As for the characters, I adored both of them! Safiya was the perfect leading lady! So fierce, brave, and determined, it's no surprise she aims to be a journalist; she is everything a good journalist needs to be. I loved seeing how much she cared about Jawad and making sure he and his family got the justice they deserved, and it was incredibly inspiring to see the amount and degree of risks she was willing to take to ensure that justice was delivered. Jawad, too, was a wonderful character. His chapters were my favorite to read! While the media and the (*coughracistcough*) people in the book were relentless in their efforts to dehumanize Jawad, Ahmed made sure to humanize him through his chapters. Jawad was so brilliant and sweet and imaginative, and it broke my heart to read about the suffering this innocent soul had to endure. I also really liked the side characters, but I will say that I feel like Rachel and Usman kind of just disappeared towards the end? I feel Usman especially deserved a bigger presence in the end given his significant involved throughout the rest of the book. Other than that though, the characters were all great, and even with the antagonists, Ahmed did a great job with their characterization.

I think the mystery was set up nicely and I liked the way it unraveled. I also enjoyed the way Ahmed incorporated important themes in this book. It made the book not only an enjoyable read, but an important informative one as well.

ALSO, [REDACTED]'S CAMEO ??? THE GASP I GASPED OMG - did not see that coming, but omg i loved it.

In conclusion, I would definitely recommend others to read Hollow Fires, especially for those who are fans of Karen McManus and Holly Jackson.

Thank you to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for this eARC of Hollow Fires. All opinions are my own.

To say Samira Ahmed held nothing back in Hollow Fires would be a massive understatement. This book, which kind of feels like a sequel to her dystopian-tinged novel Internment (well, more text-adjacent, I guess, as this book very much takes place in a real present day), Ahmed calls out white supremacy and privilege, Islamaphobia, and right wing media conspiracy theorists in what could be an all-too-real scenario—the death of a Muslim boy who was bullied and harassed after being arrested for bringing a bomb to school. (In that regard, the book reminded me a bit of Jewel Parker Rhodes Ghost Boys—an innocent boy murdered for a misunderstanding, and the dead wanting so badly to be understood.)

Surprise! It wasn't a bomb—just a Halloween costume. Sound familiar? That's because Ahmed takes several elements from the real-life news cycle and uses them as plot points for her book. She mixes different media like transcripts of podcasts, text messages, and social media posts to give the book what I call "text features"—non-first person narrative elements. The narrative itself is non-linear—she doesn't start at the beginning, flashing back and forth and weaving her narrative through time and perspective.

Our main first person narrator, first-generation American, scholarship prep school student, and aspiring journalist Safiya Mirza, is a believable high school student. She is precocious and outspoken—and very much targeted for her more liberal viewpoints that differentiate her from other students and the administrators at her nearly all-white private school. When she discovers the body of the "bomb boy," she is thrust headfirst into the mysterious death, discovering that maybe the truth is closer to her than she thinks.

Samira Ahmed created a firecracker with this book. As an educator, I've already adapted her book Internment into one of my book club units. In this day and age where book challenges abound, even in liberal states and cities and towns, I would, however, have some trepidation about including this one in my classroom right now. Individual students who are interested in social justice, cultural diversity, and a good mystery will adore this book. And its message and power will remain long after this moment of our present has passed.

Safiya Mirza, future journalist, knows that the disappearance of Jawad Ali is more than just another runaway teen. She knows it was more than just trying to escape the racist bullying of his peers and the Islamophobic prejudices of his teachers. She knows because Jawad's ghost told her. She knows because he led her to his body.

Disgusted by the police's apathetic handling of Jawad's case, Safiya puts it upon herself to find out the truth of what happened to him and bring those who killed him to light. With alt-right propaganda surfacing in her school and too many coincidences lining up, Safiya knows that Jawad's murder was a hate crime. And being part of the silent, complicit majority is not how she was raised.

I love the way Ahmed bends the realistic fiction genre. Real-world events become the backbone of speculative storytelling. She takes no prisoners and calls out our world and its injustices the way they are. This book was a scathing commentary on "alternative facts," white coddling, and the way racism is ingrained into and justified by our society. The way fact and fiction combined to make this novel made it incredibly real and haunting. This happens. This is not fiction. Young, impressionable, white boys are regularly recruited by alt-right algorithms. Young, innocent children of color are regularly harassed, attacked, and unjustly killed. Our kids are not all right.

Ahmed never misses for me. I love that she writes books for teenagers and encourages them to see their power. Teens are told time and time again to shut up and wait. Wait to grow up. Wait to mature. Wait to see what their parents do first. Wait to see what their teachers are allowed to teach them in school. These books are a reminder that the youth does have power. They know what is wrong and what is right, and they CAN do something about it. Ahmed's books should be in every classroom library.

This book was so good. I finished it in less than 24 hours. It was really hard to put down.

I liked the format with articles, texts, interviews, etc. I also like that we got small chapters from Jawad's ghost.

We know right away that Safiya finds Jawad's body. But then the book goes back in time to explain how she got there. There are also parts from the future, but most of the book is present time. Safiya is a scholarship student at a private school in Chicago. While Chicago is very diverse, her school isn't. She has a small group of friends, but she mostly focuses on the school newspaper. A cute boy starts paying more attention to her and Safiya is thrilled by it. But things start happening. Her article for the newspaper was hacked with a message on it. The person signed it as ghost skin. This is a person who hides their racism well and blends in with everyone around him. The school is targeted more and they even vandalized her parent's store. And there was Jawad. He was a missing 14 year old boy that the news started to ignore quickly. Jawad had been arrested at his school for a bomb, but it was something that he made for a costume that his teacher approved. But the English teacher freaked out and called the police. Even when he was cleared, the school suspended him. When he got back, kids were calling him bomb boy. Jawad was just a sweet kid that loved to create things. While the book talks about him missing, we already know that he's dead. We just don't know who killed him. Safiya figures out that everything has to be connected. She starts to suspect a kid at school, but she starts to investigate to prove it was him. The police ignore her tips, so she puts herself in danger to find justice for Jawad.

I gave this book 5 stars. It's very powerful and so important.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for my earc.

Warnings for a lot of racism, xenophobia, misogyny, death.

Hollow Fires is a dark, gripping, and unputdownable tale of racism and secrets. But mostly this is a tale of hope and I adored every second of it. This is a beautiful book but honestly I expected nothing less of Samira Ahmed!

To begin with , thanks NetGalley for this chance to read Hollow Fires Early. Samira has been one of my favorite YA authors for quite sometime. Her work is always like someone just stealing your breathe and making you see the world more honest. She’s also a fellow Chicagoan which is awesome.

This book is necessary. This book is the heart wrenching story of 14 year old Jawad Ali, first racially profiled as a terrorist by a teacher thinking he built a bomb, when really he was just being a kid building a jet pack out of recyclables, then later found murdered. This is the story of how high school senior Safiya uses the power of her words to solve what happened to him, while also dealing with an anonymous alt right targeting her family, community, and those fighting the light on injustices at school.

I think this is an incredibly powerful read in the aftermath of Kyle Rittenhouse and the way power is used to hand out simple slaps on the wrist to white individuals using societal “norms” (white, privileged, money, “just a kid”, looks good, etc) as cover ups for pure hate and racism. I won’t give too much away but I also think this was important to show what an impact actions and choices can make in virtual worlds (Reddit etc) and how there really is such a technological science in hate finding and attracting hate.

You’re amazing, Samira. Looking forward to buying and getting this in library shelves for students.

Thank you NetGalley and Little Brown Books for an eARC of Hollow Fires in exchange for an honest review.


Safiya Mirza is a 17 year old aspiring journalist and editor of her school’s newspaper. Jawad Ali was a 14 year old high school student who was arrested and labeled a terrorist because his English teacher mistakenly thought he brought a bomb to class. It wasn’t a bomb, it was a jet pack he built from recycled materials for a Halloween costume.

Safiya and Jawad’s families attend different mosques but their paths cross when an amber alert goes out that he is missing. She starts to feel his presence and hear his voice, leading her to find his body. With little to no help from the police, Safiya investigates Jawad’s murder and searches for clues to lead her to the killer. She is determined to get #JusticeForJawad and ensure people don’t forget his name.


Hollow Fires is a poignant reminder that the lives of BIPOC men, women and children are not valued in this country and can be taken oftentimes with impunity. It highlights the need to expose injustice and condemn the tacit duplicity of those in privileged positions who spout alternative facts to distract from the truth.

Samira Ahmed’s use of a dual POV through Safiya and Jawad’s chapters made for a more enthralling story than if we had only gotten Safiya’s POV. I also enjoyed the blog posts, text messages, journal entries, transcripts, etc. throughout that helped further give the reader a complete picture of what happened to Jawad.

There were many points during my reading of Hollow Fires where I had to take a break. The break was needed because I was so enraged that Jawad was being dehumanized or Safiya was being gaslit. I also had moments of sadness because of the poor treatment of BIPOC characters by authority figures or racist a-holes. Although if I’m being honest that made me upset as well!

Even though I spent majority of my time wanting to toss my Kindle across the room, I truly loved this book! The prose is phenomenal! If you care about the safety/well being of BIPOC individuals it should stir up all kinds of emotions in you as well. While I wish that Hollow Fires was just fiction, it sadly is an accurate reflection of the country we live in. We have seen similar scenarios play out in the media time and time again.

Hollow Fires doesn’t hold the magic solution to how we solve the ills of the world (i.e. racism, sexism, classism, Islamophobia, etc.) However, it does offer a way to start a dialogue about these important issues. Through Safiya’s character it also teaches how to stand up for what you know is right even when you fear that no one will believe you simply because of how you look or where you “come from”.

I have loved all of Samira Ahmed's books and Hollow Fires is no exception. Hollow Fires is a novel that displays the realities of our country and how we treat people who we perceive as different.

All the stars because more books with this profound of a message and with this representation need to be written.
If this story doesn't ignite a fire inside you to get out and seek change in this world maybe you need to check your morals.

There were slight technical issues I came across, however with this being an early copy granted to me I understand and hope that those errors will be fixed by final print date. Few structural and grammar mishaps as well as some fragmented sentences that didn't flow well.

The story though is so powerful and needed. We need to hear about the unjustified killings that poc are subjected to by white supremacists. We need to hear it no matter how tough it is because it will invoke the change we need. Sitting by quiet while poc are hurting is for the past and needs to stay there.

Be the change.
Thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy.

Wow! This is easily going to be one of the top books for 2022.

A murder mystery thst focuses on Islamophobia and racism, readers will be on the edges of their seats trying to figure out who killed Jawad. The best part of this story? It's told by two different narrators: Safiya, a teen who wants to be a journalist one day and Jawad, the boy who has been murdered.

Do yourself a favor and preorder this book now.

I want to interview Samira Ahmed for pop-culturalist!! This book was written and it’s heartbreaking. I loved the premise of this and stayed up late until I finished it. I literally couldn’t put it down.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sienna, Little, Brown books for this incredible digital ARC of one of my favorite and one of my students’ favorite authors. Ahmed does it again with a timely, relevant, heart-pounding murder mystery. Ahmed tackles Islamophobia and prejudice with delicacy and
justifiable rage simultaneously. Readers will be heartbroken and gripped by this fictional story inspired by so many true ones.

Damn! I just read one of the best books of 2022!
Hollow Fires, is going to set the world on FIRE!

Safiya Mirza faces racism, being young and becoming a journalist and trying to make right in the world! I just loved this kid I wanted to jump inside this book and wrap my arms around her.
Jawad's character was an amazing add! Telling his story.completely sucked me in.
The story is told from the Jawad and Safiya's perspective. Which I couldn't get enough of these amazing characters!
The book, the storyline and the plot twists set your heart on fire. And the effects and the impression it has on you is so beautiful.
The writing style was fantastic, Samira.... I need more of this type of reading. Please.
This story is powerful! An engaging YA novel of racism, mystery, hope
Overall, it was gripping from the first page 'til the end. The mystery elements were just so great.

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers|ATOM,
Thank you sincerely for this phenomenal eARC!
I will post to my blog and platforms close to pub date!