In Case of Emergency

Written By Omma Ahmed

In Case of Emergency by Poorna Bell

Reviewed by Omma
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Thank you @penguinrandomhouse for this copy!🧡

Beryl or Bel as she prefers, is a high flying 36 year old corporate gal, living in London and enjoying life. That is until she has a freak accident where she falls down the stairs of an open pub cellar and my ends up in hospital.

When her emergency contact ends up awkwardly and desperately being an old ex-boyfriend, she rifles through her mental phonebook and comes up blank for somebody else to help her instead. Reality dawns on her that there’s nobody else she can call.

Her life seems great on the surface but after her accident, she starts to reevaluate and realises that life feels quite empty and she’s to blame for it.

This book touches on topics such as assimilation, racism, token diversity, friendship breakups and difficult family dynamics.

I like how it dealt with these important topics in a subtle way. There aren’t any huge explosive events in this book but I enjoyed the pace and liked the important issues it addresses. This is a great debut.

Omma Ahmed

I’ve always loved reading as a kid because it was one of the few Asian-mum approved hobbies although she would have preferred ‘less novels and more school books’! I also grew up in the Harry Potter era so that’s when I really remember falling in love with reading. (Big up my Y7 English teacher for reading a few pages of Philosophers stone at the end of every lesson! You were a real one Mr Williams!) I love being part of this book page (even though I slack massively due to lack of energy and concentration!) because sometimes it felt like a lifeline to help keep me sane. We started it during the time I was feeling really shitty about my Crohn’s disease. It’s been a tough 7 years and the last 3 have probably been the hardest especially mentally so when Linda suggested putting this page together, without hesitation I was down and I’m so proud of us! Writing reviews helped me to organise my thoughts and even resulted in me creating a second Instagram page (@AnOstomateForLife) about my Crohn’s journey. Yes that was a shameless plug and I’m not sorry! Along with reviews, I’ve also loved the creative side of things such as having input in our logo, creating our bookmark and taking book pictures even though it’s awkward af in public! So a few of my fave books: The Godfather by Mario Puzo (made me love the film even more! I’m a self-proclaimed movie buff too btw), Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Healy, The Harry Potter series (obviously), Jemima J by Jane Green, Moonlight over Manhattan by Sarah Morgan, Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple and We Should All Be Feminists Chimamanda Adichie.

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