Smash door Robert Swindells

Smash
1. The title refers to the last battle of the book where everyone just smashes around (see the summary).

An alternative title could be “Clash between natives and foreigners”, because that’s what happens in the book.

2. The main characters are Stephen (British) and Ashraf (Pakistani).

Both are good friends, until they get stirred up and convinced by others to join different extremist groups.

Stephen joins BlackOut, an organization who wants all Pakistani and other foreigners to leave the country and Ashraf joins Khalifa, an organization that does the opposite: making sure that the Pakistani can stay.

What’s great about them is that at the end they realize that what they’ve done is wrong and that they had themselves get carried away by others.

What’s not great about them is obviously they had joined extremist organizations, they could have known beforehand that none of those organizations were up to no good.

3. An important event of the story is when Colleen (sister of Stephen) and Abida (sister of Ashraf), during their trainee period at Fixby and Walsh, find out that both groups get financial support from an anonymous person (later this person turns out to be the head of Fixby & Walsh: mister Fixby).

A conspiracy of which both organization were not aware off. They had been played against each other.

Another important event is when Stephen and Ashraf finally realize that their actions were wrong and that they had let themselves get carried away by other people.

Now this was two weeks after they had spent time recovering at a hospital from a fight.

So they become friends, once again.

4. It’s set in the British town of Shadderton. This where the city council comes with a project that is supposed to improve the contacts between natives and foreigners.

5. Dear Stephen and Ashraf,

You two should have never joined the extremist groups BlackOut and Khalifa.

What they do will not solve the tensions between the British and the Pakistani, it will only be prolonged or made even worse. When one side attacks, the other will retaliate. Basically, a never ending circle. When both groups treat each other with respect, the country will flourish.

Also, we are largely the same, it’s just that we look different from the outside, but we’re all from the same species.

Think about it: when you two were friends, did you care that you were from different races? Now, the great friendship is over and has been replaced by hate, anger or any other negative feeling.

Try to escape before it’s too late.

Yours,

6. The story pulls you in right from the start and you want to continue reading. The pace of the story is good as well, never will you get the feeling that it’s going too slow and the words are easy to understand.

However, the story can be predictable at times. Even though I was wondering whether or not Stephen and Ashraf would ever become friends again, the ending wasn’t so surprising when you think about it.

Also, their sisters just happen to find out this conspiracy of the company of where they have their trainee period.

So the fact that it’s easy to read also means that the plot is a bit too simplistic, which makes some things predictable as I just said.

It’s still a good story, but a bit too simplistic for my taste.

So I’m giving it a 7 out of 10.

7. Smash is about two friends – Ashraf and Stephen – who are different from race. Ashraf is a Pakistani and Stephen is a Brit. Stirred up and convinced by others, they both join different extremist groups.

This all takes place in the British town of Shadderton. In this town, the city council has approved a project that should improve the relationship between natives and foreigners. However, both sides object.

During a football match (or soccer match for Americans), Stephen came into contact with BlackOut, an extremist group that wants all Pakistani and other foreigners to leave.

Ashraf, on his turn, learns the existence of the Khalifa group through his nephew. This organization wants to make sure that all Pakistani can stay.

Asraf’s nephew then convinces him to attend a meeting of this organization.

The leader of BlackOut offers Stephen a spot and later on Stephen is forbidden to leave BlackOut. An unwritten rule of which he was never told about.

Financial support for both groups is given by an anonymous person, who later turns out to be mister Fixby, the head of the company Fixby & Wash, who wants to sabotage the project of the city council.

This conspiracy is discovered by Colleen (sister of Stephen) and Abida (sister of Ashraf) who have their trainee period at the company.

When members of BlackOut have charged the conference room of Khalifa, they smash around, just so they have at least hit something or caused some damage.

Ashraf and Stephen end up wounded in the hospital and when they can finally leave the hospital, it takes around two weeks before they start talking again and have become friends once more.

It is then that they realize that everything they’ve done was wrong, that they had let themselves get carried away by others and of course that they should have never joined the two organizations, which also destroyed their friendship.

The story ends one year after the beginning of the book, a happy ending in which the peace has returned to the town of Shadderton.