Book Review: Things Left Unsaid

Things Left Unsaid by Sara Jafari

$29.00, Hardcover | St. Martin's Press, Release date April 15, 2025

5 stars for themes, plot, and timeliness

3 stars for execution

In this novel set in London, pre-COVID, we meet Shirin and Kian, both British-Iranians in their mid-twenties trying to find their way in their careers, their country, and their mental landscapes. Adolescent friends who grew up in Hull and fell apart due to an incident in high school - often-hinted at but not fully revealed until near the end of the book - Shirin and Kian cross paths again in London: she working in publishing and he starting an MFA program for painting. We learn of their past through flashback moments and through current ruminations from Kian and Shirin, gradually learning more and more as each protagonist faces their own trauma, guilt, and shame, as each protagonist allows him/herself to remember and admit to the full details of the situation.

The novel takes a close look at racism, trauma, and mental health with an, at times, painstaking interior look into the minds of the characters. Nothing is left for the reader to assume or parse out as Jafari carefully spells it all out, repeatedly, throughout the novel. This is where I struggled, fully aware that this is a matter of personal taste and also where I am at in my personal knowledge when it comes to racism, trauma, and mental health. Since I invested quite a bit of time in my college studies, and in my personal time afterward, researching and reading about systemic racism, discrimination in publishing and academia, generational trauma, and mental health such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD, much of what was explained in careful detail was not new information for me, and so at times felt unnecessary. For the reader who is new to or still grappling with or resistant to this information, Jafari's approach could be extremely effective. For me personally, I found it a little tedious as nothing was left to me to figure out on my own; every single thought of Kian and Shirin was spelled out in ways that often felt repetitive.

Taking my personal reaction to the writing style in another light: perhaps that was the point. Depression is tedious. Ruminating on mistakes, on our self-worth, on whether our lives are worth living, is painful and draining and boring. As a person with depression, I can say that I bore myself quite often and that one of the most exhausting aspects of mental health struggles, especially those brought on my trauma, is just that: the tedium of being stuck in a cycle of guilt, shame, reliving painful memories, and the exhaustion that results from it.

Racism, too, is tedious and exhausting. Repeating and explaining an issue, again and again and again without seeing changes in behavior and attitudes is exhausting. Seeing people who have harmed others benefit and profit from that harm is infuriating and, also, exhausting. Systemic discrimination chips away at the soul of the person experiencing it, wearing them down.

There are many ways to tell a story. While I didn't care, personally, for the way this one was written, Things Left Unsaid is still a timely and important novel with an intriguing layering of past and present as Jafari reveals the plot. When it hits shelves next week, I encourage you to give it a read.