Amina M Derbi

The Storyteller and the Terrorist in Our Newsfeeds Amina M Derbi

Najmah Qamar is a passionate storyteller who ends up living through her worst fears as her tales come to life. Her words are carved into her readers' bones like the initials of a loved one into a tree trunk. Najmah's story begins as she tells stories while baby-sitting, at family gatherings, or just hanging out on a Saturday night. Each year she submits stories to her high school's literary journal. Each year she gets rejected. When this happens during her senior year she decides, after encouragement from her inner circle, to post the stories online. She makes a YouTube channel and her stories go viral. People from across the world watch her suspense-thriller storytelling videos and share them on social media. Najmah's fame sky-rockets along with her self-confidence and popularity. However, to Najmah's horror, her stories start coming to life. People start dying in her northern Virginia town and surrounding areas. The media coverage around these events becomes obsessive as the murders become linked with the YouTube sensation. Some news outlets even refer to her stories as "terrorist tall tales". Friendships are tested and trust falters along lines of race, gender, and religion as Najmah gets blamed for the homicides. The real terrorist could be anyone in her newsfeed, even someone she knows well. As Najmah tries to discover who the mastermind is, her life becomes threatened when she comes close to unveiling a dark secret, which has been hidden for decades right under the nose of the nation's capital.