The Color of Mourning
Kim Dempster
Independently Published (2025)
ISBN: 979-8310256422
Reviewed by Joan Kirschner for Reader Views (08/2025)
The Color of Mourning is a powerful novel that describes the fallout that impacts ordinary people when fanatic believers in religious fundamentalism take over a society. Kim Dempster’s vivid writing will fully open the eyes of readers to the dangers that particularly affect women and girls when men, especially impressionable young men, are radicalized and subjugate their female counterparts.
The book is set in the Syrian city of Raqqa during 2011, during the conflict between the dictatorship of the ruling Assad regime versus dissident militant groups. The focus is on the Wassef family, which consists of Nooda, an independent journalist who surreptitiously reports to the outside world on local political conditions, her husband Jorem, a doctor, their son, Tarek, a college student, and their daughter Layal, who is about to leave for England where she will attend the London School of Economics. Tarek has secretly joined one of the rebel groups, and when the loyalist army comes looking for him, a series of heartbreaking and often violent events is set into motion.
The family is devastated by what is happening in their city and to people they know and care about, but circumstances will shift from bad to worse when the Assad loyalists leave Raqqa. The rebel groups are then defeated by ISIS, who completely take over with ever-expanding extremist policies that will completely strip women and girls of their freedoms and autonomy, creating nearly unlivable, oppressive, and often terrifying circumstances almost overnight. Nooda and Layal’s experiences are the focus of the novel’s narrative.
Dempster takes the reader deep into the physical environment through her vivid descriptions, and particularly into Nooda’s and Layal’s thoughts and emotions as they are subjected to their new reality. From such effective prose, the reader becomes one with the women, suffering each emotional blow and the feeling of being surrounded by the sad devastation of what must have once been a vibrant city.
This is a book for readers who want to understand the rapidly changing environment of the Middle East, especially as it affects women and girls, and their families. Just this year, the Assad regime was completely overthrown, and Syria is trying to re-emerge politically and morally. Undoubtedly, the new government is aware that the world is watching. This novel feels like an important explanatory prequel to those events.
This is not an easy read, as it is emotionally draining and often graphic in its depictions of the brutalities of ISIS. It is a novel for mature, serious readers, and it is most definitely not something to be read before bedtime. However, it is an excellent book, and I feel that I have gained a new understanding of the issues facing women and girls in countries and societies where they lack essential freedoms. The characters of Nooda and Layal were relatable and added a personal level of context to the news stories we read and hear every day. Highly recommended.