01 April 2022

Be ready to be shocked and blown away when you reach for this title. Sarah Sultoon tells a fast-paced, edge of your seat story that will leave you reeling as you experience the life of a journalist. The author brings all her experience to this book giving you a front-row seat to the life of a journalist on the front line. While she leaves you questioning the world, and our need for gory details.

This was the second Sarah Sultoon book I have read and both experiences have left me in awe. Her writing keeps you on the edge of your seat as she uses her experience as a news executive to add a realistic feel to her stories. The Shot leaves you feeling as if you are sitting in the newsroom, feeling the rush and emotions of the staff as events develop. This book was a brilliant story, sharing the pain and anguish of journalists on the frontline. Sarah Sultoon highlights the emotional damage these people experience in the hunt for a story, as well as the realisation that it’s never enough. That no matter what risks they face, they are not able to change the way of the world.

Samira is an up-and-coming TV journalist, eager for her chance to make a difference. When the opportunity arrives for her to head to the front line in the Middle East with Kris – the station’s best photographer – she jumps at the chance. Despite the risks, Samira is determined to make a difference, determined to bring justice to the voiceless.

Once on-site, she realises that she is not entirely ready for the pictures that await her. However, she suppresses her feelings and keeps going. When a picture of a mother in Dafur helps Sami to catapult genocide into the limelight, she finds out that everything is not as it seems.

Returning home, Sami ensures that the truth is revealed, and ensures justice is served.

The Shot transports you to the frontlines with the journalists and shows the horror these people face every day while they are incapable of helping the victims they encounter. The author highlights the tragedies they witness and the emotions they need to suppress to ensure they tell the story. This book will forever have me looking at journalists in a completely new light.

I felt as if I was sitting in the newsroom, reeling as information from the Middle East reached the office. I could feel the rush, the excitement and the concern of all those present. The author tells a spectacularly realistic story that is impossible to put down.

The emotions these characters endure are dripping off the pages. The author created realistic characters who crawl into your heart and leave you touched by their experiences. They are motivated, driven and eager to succeed. These are career-driven people who are forced to look the worst of humanity in the eye while never allowing their emotions to get the better of them.

This is a book that will leave you looking at the world around you a little differently. I loved this. Sarah Sultoon put her experiences to work and succeeded in telling a gripping, emotional story that will have you reading late into the night.

I highly recommend this book. Be warned, this book transports you to the frontlines of the Middle East and shares graphic content which might offend sensitive readers. However, if you spend any time at all watching the news or reading a newspaper, chances are you have heard it before.