Title: The Day Fighter
Author: Irfan Khan
Publisher: Page Turner Press and Media LLC
ISBN: 979-8-88963-069-2
Pages: 229
Genre: Thriller
Reviewed by: Gabriella Harrison
Hollywood Book Reviews
Sedona, the daughter of one of the most powerful families in Dubai, seeks to meet the love of her life – Oracle, who is a talented British wrestler and writer who doesn’t know she exists – by writing him letters daily. She clings to her belief they are destined to be together while her family makes arrangements for her marriage to someone else and wages a bloody war on a rival family to have their hotel crowned the best in Dubai. Meanwhile, Oracle finds himself fighting the battle of his life for his career and heart. Author Irfan Khan’s thriller The Day Fighter dramatizes the heights the rich will go to in order to maintain their status and climb higher on the social ladder.
I believe a standout feature of this book is that the action never stops. When things seem to be abating, there’s always another trigger and more fighting. The story is narrated through an omniscient narrator. Thus, it is easy to get a full picture. Also, the descriptions are graphic, so it’s possible to imagine everything playing out like a movie. However, absurd happenings detract from the book’s enjoyment. For instance, there are intense scenes of fighting in which people are killed in public, and there’s even a time when they disrupt traffic and a bus full of people are almost killed, but the police don’t show up or get involved. Additionally, the characters are overly glamorized, not easily likable, and feed into preconceived stereotypes. The Arabic characters are portrayed as violent and eager to kill for every slight, no matter how silly, resulting in killing sprees. A lot of attention is given to listing expensive items and portraying them as wealthy, but they are so poorly protected, if at all. For instance, one of the characters breaks into Sedona’s room and steals her tiger through the window without causing any disturbance to wake her or the whole house. There are too many such unrealistic happenings that make it difficult to become immersed in the story.
This book seems to have a plot with potential but a rushed execution. As if the main aim was to create an action-packed book, placing emphasis on the fight scenes and ignoring the plot and character development, resulting in many gaps. The introduction of so many characters so early in the book also makes it hard to absorb each character’s contribution to the story.
Sometimes, different sides of the story blur due to the absence of page breaks, and the abundance of obvious grammar errors suggests the book hasn’t been professionally edited. Some sentences are too obscure to decipher. Such as, “Both the ladies were shocked watching idols each other, as they don’t believe what happened to them.” (Page 110). As the book progresses, the storyline becomes more bizarre. I would say the writing style is better suited to adolescents, but the book contains a lot of violence. It would be a nice option for readers more interested in reading tense, action-packed fight scenes.
The Day Fighter is a fast-paced thriller in which the characters fight for what they want, no matter the consequences.