"...she cannot stop thinking about how, to some people, if you're not white you're all the same."

People Change is a profound read. Racism, loneliness, fractured relationships and second chances - Sara Jafari has packed a lot into this book and made it work.

Urgh I loved this book. Such an amazing read - a realistic and heartwarming love story within an even more important story about race, culture and anxiety. I haven’t read anything like it since Normal People. There was something so much more satisfying about it than Normal People, though. It was empowering. I’m not Iranian, but in many ways I saw myself represented in Shirin, which so rarely happens in romance books. I absolutely will be recommending this book for dissertation study to my pupils.

Shirin and Kian meet at a party ten years after their friendship ended on bad terms at school. Both are of Iranian descent and face the double edged sword of familial expectation in a world actively working against them due to prejudice and racism. We watch them navigate this whilst rediscovering each other in this angsty millennial romance that gave me definite Normal People vibes.

Shirin meanwhile is facing her own demons. A corporate job slowly chipping away at her very soul. Distant and unfulfilling relationships with friends and family. And mental health prescriptions not quite taking the edge off. At times it’s a tough and very relatable read. There’s a beautiful interlude when Shirin visits Iran and “recharges” using that unique and unconditional love often found between a grandmother and her grandchild. As a reader, you feel that deep breath of relief as she gets a little respite.

As for Shirin and Kian - the course of true love never did run smooth - did they make it? You’ll have to read and find out.

I absolutely adored this book and could not put it down. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for a review.

Whilst covering many topics, I found this a difficult book to get interested in, I didn’t like or care about the protagonists. I guess this was just not the book for me.

Oh how i enjoyed this book! We follow Shirin and Kian as 16 year olds and when they reconnect at 27.

The story had lots of romantic tension and in tackling some very heavy subjects, Jafari’s telling was witty and contemporary. It felt very timely in posing the question of what it means to show up as yourself.

Pick up this book if: you wish Americanah was set in Hull

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

My thanks to Netgalley for my copy of People Change which I found very interesting. I learned a lot and was very entertained by the storyline but it also made me very emotional at times. It also made me realise how rarely the books I tend to read have any people of colour as the main characters and highlights just how far we still have to go to reach any sort of equality even in literature let alone the world as a whole.

People Change sees Shirin and Kian reunite at a house party in Brixton after not seeing each other for 10 years since they were in school together in Hull. Things have been left unsaid, feelings resurface, and it’s harder to run from the past.

I won’t lie, it took me a while to get into this one. I think it’s because it’s written in the third person, and I personally prefer first person. So it just took a little longer to connect to the main characters for me. That being said, the hints that something big happened between Shirin and Kian at school kept me reading as I really wanted to know what happened.

But this book is more than just two people coming back together, Sara Jafari covers many important topics in this book. Racism, prejudices, grief, depression, relationships and plenty of emotions. It was heartbreaking to read at points. But I loved how, even though it took a little while, and she went through a lot to get there, Shirin makes one hell of journey through this book.

An thought provoking story on personal growth with interesting characters and backstories.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It beautifully captures the vulnerability and confusion of adolescence and working through this in your twenties. The underlying theme of racism is handled thoughtfully and without trying to hide or overly labour these throughout the book. well written and enjoyable book that leaves you thinking.

<i>Thank you Random House UK, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.</i>

The story follows Shirin and Kian, who bump with each other in a party in London, after 10 years without any contact.
Shirin and Kian are both Iranians and were close friends in their last year of school, until something happened that caused their separation. Both characters have complex stories and struggled not only with mental health, as well as with their integration is society, being worth to mention that this haven’t affected their ability to work and reach their professional and personal growth.

What I liked about the book:
- Extensive examples of racism in our society
- Diversity representation
- Mental health representation
- Beautiful second chance love story between two strong characters who not only complement each other but bring out the best of themselves.

What I think it could have been done better:
- Mental health is a serious topic that should be threaded carefully. Some people might need to be on medication, and this is ok and should be normalized. However, the decision to stop the medication should be discussed with the doctors and not made in an impulse “if I hit the basket, I stop taking my meds”. This is a dangerous behaviour that should not be incentivized.
- I was not fan of the writing style as everything was portrayed and excessively explained by the narrator to the point it made me feel I wasn’t allowed to use my brain to interpret character actions by myself. The story imposes Shirin’s opinions and I’ve felt that, if I eventually disagreed with them, I was just being racist.
- The book is called “People Change” but Shirin doesn’t appear to believe anyone can change, any bad thing they’ve done in the past will be stuck with them forever. I’m not saying she wasn’t an abuse victim of racists kids, but my understanding was that they bullied other people as well… We know that one of them went to prison and other was a well-known racist, but Shirin exploded with Tom, with absolutely no knowledge of the person he was at the time. He might still be a racist, but he might as well have been a civilized adult who have grown from being a stupid kid.

Overall, this was a very nice story including a lot of serious and important issues in our society.

3.5 stars rounded up.

Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy of this novel. A complex thoughtful novel by a talented author. Shirin, a British born Iranian woman, has achieved all that she set out for by escaping Hull to London and working in publishing as an assistant editor. Everyone tells her how lucky she is, even her best friend, who still hasn’t decided what she wants to do. Except for Shirin, it doesn’t quite seem what it should be. She’s in a flatshare with people with which she has no connection, the promotion she was promised was given to someone else and her relationships with her family and friends still leave her feeling isolated and more prone to the depression she’s struggled with for years. When she attends a party and runs into Kian, someone she hasn’t seen in ten years, the past that she fought so hard to forget rises to the surface, along with all the mixed emotions that attend it. More events conspire to challenge first Shirin and then Kian so it becomes less about what they hoped to forget than what they haven’t faced.

The author weaves themes of racism, depression and navigating broken relationships with great skill and depth to create a very poignant and often moving novel that lingers on well after the book has ended.

People Change
by Sara Jafari
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

This story by Sara Jafari is an exploration of what happens when we spend our lives too scared to speak out for what we want and need, but also delves very deeply into what it means to be a Black or Brown person growing up and existing in the systems built and still very much controlled by White people.

Our FMC Shirin has spent her life trying to nod and be agreeable in the hopes of being able to be left alone. She’s been through racially motivated bullying and abuse through her school years, followed by micro aggressions in her adult working life that keep her stuck in what feels like constant discontent.

The core relationship in the story is between Shirin and Kian, who are both from Iranian families and bond over the fact. They form a strong connection while at school, and a couple of traumatic events happen that mean eventually they lose contact.

When they eventually bump back into each other at a house party as adults, they have to start working through how they feel about each other, and both find themselves questioning things that happened and how they dealt with it.

Whilst fictional, this story is packed with a lot of the systemic and lifelong racism that so many people deal with every day. Also the glossing over and gaslighting of such by white ‘friends’ and colleagues.

An example being when the publishing house that Shirin works for ignore her complaining about an author making racist comments, closely followed by them asking her to join the diversity and inclusion team they’ve set up to help look more inclusive…

I really enjoyed reading the development of Shirin and Kian’s relationship within the story, and how experiences they both had really had a huge knock on effect to their relationship with each other.

It was also nice to watch as Shirin started to step into herself and her confidence towards the end.

The was a really enjoyable read. It follows Shirin and Kian who were close as teenagers in Hull, and find each other again in Brixton a decade later. Their relationship rooted this for me but there was a lot of good stuff going on around it too. It has a lot to say about racism throughout the touchpoints of life. I also enjoyed the focus on how friendships change as you get older. All round I'd definitely recommend.

An interesting read, telling the story of Kian and Shirin who meet again in London 10 years since they were at school together. The characters are well rounded and I liked the way we delve into their past to add interest to the novel.
It looks at many issues, racism being a main theme. But is also a good reflection of society now, and then.
I wasnt so keen on the style, always being present tense, so I dropped a star for that as I find it a bit uncomfortable to read.

I really enjoyed this novel. It was thought-provoking in many particular ways. The flashbacks to Shirin and Kian’s younger years added a real richness to the story. While this is a tale about missed connections and the systematic racism they confront, it also deals with what to do when everyone expects you to have your life together by a certain age. I particularly liked how the author dealt with friendship and the perception of friendship in the story, Shirin’s own personal growth was illustrated in how she handled various encounters with friends.

Thanks to Netgalley for sending me an advance copy.

I've not read Sara Jafari before, but she has been on my radar for a while, so it was great to get a chance to read one of her books.
Shirin is a British-born Iranian woman living in London, supposedly living her dream. She is working in publishing, which she always wanted to do, with plenty of friends and a potentially busy social life.
A blast from her past is at one of the parties she attends.
Kian is a guy she last saw ten years ago when they were both teenagers and at school in Hull.
Is it good to meet someone from a time when your life was not so great?
There are many loaded issues within the story, as Shirin and Kian get to know each other once again and open up about things they never had the chance to as youngsters.
The side story about racism and prejudices in workplaces adds extra spice to the story.
An interesting read.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Shirin has not seen Kian since they were 16 and at school together in Hull. She’s shocked to run into him at a party in Brixton ten years later. It is more difficult to hide from their past now that they are back in each other’s lives. Losing someone that you trust with your deepest secrets is horrific.
This book wasn’t bad but not the book for me. I do however recommend it to anyone who likes these kind of books
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book in exchange for my honest views.

I’d describe this book as realistic fiction. The author has done an amazing job of creating imaginary characters and situations that depict the world and society. The characters focus on themes of growing, self-discovery and confronting personal and social problems. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no large gaps between words some text written has been typed in red and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book therefore a star is lost for this.