Time To Heal by Norhafsah Hamid

  Assalamualaikum, good day dearest!

Title: Time To Heal

Author: Norhafsah Hamid

Pages: 293

Genre: Friendship, Slice of life

Publisher: IMAN Publication

Year published: 2022

ISBN: 9789672459361

Related title(s): Will You Stay?, Will You Love Me?

Blurb:

Hassan sat down next to his mom and dad as he stared vacantly at the grave. He felt numb. His other siblings were behind him sobbing quietly. The imam began his sermon. Hassan's mind starteddrifting off. He wondered if the body inside the grave will be okay. Will he be lonely? Will he be afriad? He wondered if the body can still hear the.

Hassan's own tears rolled down his cheeks. He felt a lump in his throat. The tragedy has shredded the heart to pieces. Hassan never knew pain like the one he was experiencing at the moment. He took a deep breath to calm himself. As much as he wanted to scream and wail, he didn't He couldn't

He needed to be strong; for others.

Hassan learnt about death at a young age. It was death that made him decide to be in the medical field. 

Will he be able to make peace with death or will he continue carrying the guilt of being alive?

After meeting this trio in Amy's book, I am really looking forward to read Hassan's and Nieza's. I had to admit that I put off reading this book for so long but once I read it, I could not stop. The timeline of Hassan's story was pushed back to the time when they first met.

To some, this book might be a little boring as it is not a plot-driven but it suits me just fine. The story centered with Hassan trying to come into term with his grief over the loss of his twin brother, Hussin and the survivor guilt that he felt. I loved how the author's include a flashback memory between Hassan and Hussin at the beginning of almost every chapters to show how great the death of Hussin impacted him.

The time Hassan took to really grief and understand his emotion is long and it makes me reflected. Everyone grieve differently. Some channel it to something else, some shows, some hide. For Hassan to really get rid of his guilt over Hussin death took losing a friend and patient the same way. It was a sad time for him (and me as a reader) and I just looovesss the way Nieza and Amy came to his rescue. And as usual, the Islamic references in the book regarding the topic give me additional knowledges.

One thing that really bothers me while reading was the size of the font. It was tooo small. I had quite hard time to read because of it. Other than that, I really enjoyed the story. If you ever watched the Korean drama, Hospital Playlist, this book give similar vibe.

-thes