Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsI Would Read An Entire Book About the Ravens
Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2022
As I wound down my time with Amina Akhtar's July Amazon First Read "Kismet," I couldn't help but chuckle as I contemplated the likelihood that the book is most likely to appeal to the very audience that Akhtar mercilessly skewers - wellness gurus and healers who don't quite heal. A former fashion writer and editor, Akhtar is clearly familiar with industries that preach one thing but project another and people who look like they have it all together but, quite simply, don't.
In this case, Akhtar sets the fashion industry aside in favor of tackling the wellness industry and its self-absorbed gurus and "I'm healthier than you" power seekers. Centering "Kismet" around lifelong New Yorker turned Sedona newbie Rania "Ronnie" Khan, Akhtar casts "Kismet" as a thriller set in a city almost universally regarded as one of the nation's most beautiful and amongst that city's glam gurus.
Of course, "Kismet" wouldn't be a thriller if Akhtar simply tackled the ultra-bougie world of wellness. Indeed, something is awry in Sedona as dead bodies pile up and the city's enlightened purple aura is replaced by crimson red.
"Kismet" is an interesting experience, a thriller that's never particularly thrilling yet strangely engaging as a darkly comical tale with equal parts psychological drama and gothic-tinged suspense. "Kismet" is a strange mishmash of ideas with not all of them brought successfully to life, though in those moments when Akhtar nails it you get glimpses of just how close this good book is to being a great one.
I never really loved "Kismet." In fact, their were moments when I felt the desire to set it down and chalk up that extremely rare "DNF," however, every time I got close to giving up on this narrative tale that can't seem to decide what it wants to be something would happen that would draw me back in. More often than not, it would tie into this central character of Ronnie, a sort of anti-hero who's never really likable yet you can't feel compassion for her from beginning to end.
While Ronnie felt more naturally at home back in Queens despite her soul-sucking Aunt Shameem, when new friend and up-and-coming socialite wellness guru Marley offers her the chance to join her in relocating to Sedona she jumps at it. Ronnie quickly embraces the beauty of her surroundings even if daily hikes, smoothies, and crystals still feel more than a little weird.
However, the action here amps up fairly quickly once the first body is found and the notoriously open Sedona begins to close itself off.
It practically goes without saying that the most compelling characters here are the ravens, dark little creatures who are underdeveloped yet fiercely fun and deliciously dark. The humans here feel mostly secondary, though that's perhaps the way it should be. These ravens have an enlightenment that Ronnie, Marley, Caroline, Brit, and others here couldn't possibly hope to have. They see truths and more often than not they don't like what they see.
I would easily read an entire book simply about the ravens.
There were moments I found myself completely and utterly immersed in the world painted by Akhtar, though there were other moments, at times entire chapters, where I felt completely disconnected including nearly every single time "Kismet" took is back to Ronnie's life back in New York. While I understood what Akhtar was going for, it just didn't land for me.
More than once, I felt like "Kismet" is the fictional companion to Lissa Rankin's "Sacred Medicine," an equally skewering look at those who purport to heal with their own agendas in mind. However, Akhtar doesn't so much skewer the wellness industry as the people in it (and yes, there's a difference). The result is that the skewering has more bark than bite and a good majority of these characters end up feeling like Jason Alexander's "Bob," a short-lived sitcom inspirational speaker who never quite lived up to his own values.
For the most part, I more appreciated than liked "Kismet." I couldn't help but get the sense that this was still a work-in-progress, a psychological thriller in the making with some really amazing ingredients that are simply undercooked. The end result is a story that just never feels quite right and never completely satisfies.
Most likely to appeal to those who appreciate their thrillers with a thread of morbid humor and/or those familiar with the quirks and dysfunctions of an industry that offers to teach you how to get rid of your quirks and dysfunctions, "Kismet" is worth visiting for its intriguing characters, humor, and those ravens but for me I came away from it convinced it could have been so much more.