Review By Gabrielle
With an intriguing premise and interesting characters, Are You Sara? is a worthwhile read that will keep you guessing.
Goodreads Synopsis:
Two women named Sara each get into a rideshare. . . but only one makes it home alive. Which Sara was the real target?
Law student Saraswati “Sara” Bhaduri holds down two jobs in order to make her way through school, but it’s still a struggle. She’s had to do things to pay the bills that most people wouldn’t expect from “a nice Indian girl.” It seems like an ordinary busy Tuesday night at the local dive bar until her boss demands Sara deal with a drunk girl in the bathroom.
The two become fast friends. Why? Because they both have the same name. And despite their different circumstances, the two connect. When they both order rideshares home, they tumble in the back of the cars and head out into the night.
But when Sara awakes in her rideshare, she finds she’s on the wrong side of town—the rich side—and she realizes: she and Sarah took the wrong cars home.
With no money, Sara walks back to her apartment on the shady side of town only to discover police lights flashing and a body crumpled on her doorstep: Sarah.
Was Sarah Ellis or Sara Bhaduri the target? And why would anyone want either of them dead?
In this smart, twisty novel about ambition, wealth, and dangerous longing, the layers are peeled back on two young women desperate to break out of the expectations placed on them, with devastating results.
I LOVED the premise of this book. It is just such an original idea. I mean, can you even imagine how you would feel if you got in the wrong rideshare and the other person got murdered on your doorstep? It gives me the creeps just thinking about it.
Lalli definitely amps up that creepy, paranoid feeling with absolute mastery throughout the book. I loved all the twists and turns. I read this one quickly (in only one day) because I had to find out how it ended. I will say the solution to Sarah’s murder was a bit anticlimactic for me but even so, I still really enjoyed the ending.
I loved Sara Bhaduri’s character by the end. I wasn’t sure what to think of her at first. I can’t give too much away but I can say like most thrillers, neither Sara(h) character is quite what she projects on the outside. Lalli created some truly compelling characters for this book, full of secrets and complexities.
Thank you, HarperCollins Canada for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
