The Athena Protocol

By: Ellie Dolan-Yates

Shamim Sarif has pulled out all the stops in her new Young Adult tense thriller The Athena Protocol. Told from the point of view of Jessie, a member of the unsanctioned and undercover justice group Athena, the book instantly grips you as the team are in the middle of capturing the leader of a terrorist group who Jessie eventually shoots, against protocol. This leads to her dismissal from Athena. Despite this, Jessie knows that the team will be in danger on their next mission and she sets off alone to Belgrade to help them take down a human trafficker. It isn’t going to be easy though, as Jessie will have to help her team whilst also hiding from them.

Athena is headed by Li who is a Chinese tech millionaire, Peggy who is a former US ambassador and former popstar Kit – who also happens to be Jessie’s mother. On the team with Jessie are Caitlin, who has served in Iraq, and Hala who Jessie helped seek asylum in England when she was thought to be a terrorist. From the off, Sarif weaves each characters’ backstories seamlessly throughout the narrative, enough so that the reader can build a full profile of each character but without spending too much time on character description itself. The relationships between each character are also fully fledged which helps to keep them relatable and ensures that the reader is fully aware of where each character stands in the story.

The whole story itself is extremely detailed, but without being too technical to understand. The effortless detail used by Sarif will keep you on the edge of your seat and unable to stop turning the pages. I’m not going to lie, I read this all in one sitting because I just couldn’t put the book down! Along with the use of almost microscopic detail, the first-person, present-tense narrative means that the reader is fully immersed in the story and it is one of those where it really does feel like you’re in the room. It almost makes you feel like you are Jessie!

There are many twists and turns throughout the book, but it never slows down. As mentioned, Jessie has a lot to contend with whilst trying to stay undercover, not just from the trafficker she is trying to bust, but also Athena. She meets many people along the way, one of whom becomes her love interest. It is revealed that Jessie is attracted to women; however, refreshingly we find out as Jessie is falling in love. She doesn’t declare it beforehand from the rooftops where she is hiding with her sniper. Although, Jessie’s love interest may not be all they seem. As more secrets start to unravel Jessie starts to wonder who can be trusted and the reader does, too. Even with all that is happening, none of it is unbelievable, which again means that as a reader you are constantly gripped by the story.

There are only a couple of things about the book that bothered me. The first may just be me nit-picking, but the writer and main character (whose point of view the book is from) are English and the word “grey” is constantly spelt “gray.” It’s probably because I’m English, but when the character mentions being British a fair bit, the spelling does stick out. The other is the fact that it is easy to forget the young age of the main character, Jessie. With everything that she is going through, to help track down a human trafficker and the fact that she is part of Athena in the first place whilst still being a teenager is remarkable – as is her backstory for someone so young. Whilst the story and action itself isn’t unbelievable, it’s strange to think that a teenager is accomplishing such things. Or maybe I just didn’t make great use of my teenage years. That being said, if I’d have read this book when I was younger, I would have had Jessie as an inspiration.

The thing I love most about this book is that it is about bringing criminals to justice, but also questions what that “justice” is and whose place it is to enforce it. In this instance, it is a group of bad-ass women, but this isn’t done in a cliché girl-power way. Athena just happens to be a team of women with incredible strengths run by a trio of powerful women who get in and get the job done by working together. All in all, the book is a brilliant read and sets up plenty of tense and thrilling action for us to be a part of in the future.