words by Ellie Johnson | 5-star rating
How can a complaint be everywhere and nowhere at the same time? How can the reasons for a complaint be so glaringly obvious, but the complaint itself never heard? Sara Ahmed explores these questions and more in her book No is Not a Lonely Utterance - The Art and Activism of Complaining (2025). This work is meticulously detailed, highly emotive and strikes the perfect balance between broad, holistic analysis and individual testimony. With each chapter, the negative connotations that have for so long surrounded complaints and complainers are stripped away. These are not the stories of ‘troublemakers’, ‘whiners’ or ‘grumblers’; these are the stories of individuals who were harassed, assaulted, bullied and subjected to extreme hostility, yet still had the courage to challenge injustice. As Ahmed herself would acknowledge, this is not the work of one person, this is the work of thousands.
Sara Ahmed is a feminist writer and independent scholar working at the intersection of feminist, queer and race studies. In No is Not a Lonely Utterance, her personal and deep-rooted relationship with complaint sets the tone of the work. This book is not the product of spontaneity or a fleeting moment of inspiration. This book has been painstakingly planned, structured and written with the utmost care and compassion. With every turn of the page, the reader can feel the author’s drive to give visibility to the most heartbreaking complaints. Ahmed opens with a story from when she was a professor at Goldsmiths University in London, a complaint of sexual harassment raised by a brave group of students. Following the institution’s failure to address the problem, Ahmed resigned from her post. By opening her book with such an honest and raw first-hand experience of complaint, it becomes immediately clear to the reader that there will be no holding back. Ahmed is going to tell these stories the way they are supposed to be told: with no gaps, no missing paperwork and no tippexing over harsh truths.
In No is Not a Lonely Utterance, Ahmed references widely known injustices to highlight how dismissed complaints often result in immeasurable damage and destruction. By drawing on recognisable cases where unacknowledged complaints have quickly led to disaster, such as the fire of Grenfell Tower, Ahmed encourages the reader to view grievances in a way they never have been before. Ahmed illustrates that so often what we see is the aftermath of a complaint, not the complaint itself. When thousands of people turned on the news on the 14th of June 2017, they witnessed a horrific fire that claimed seventy-two innocent lives. What they did not see, until much later, were the original complaints made by Edward Daffarn years before the fire had started. The author’s use of case study forces the reader to observe not only the importance of speaking out, but how crucial it is that objections are heard and acted on. Complaints are not just about damaging the reputation of an institution, a company or a person. Rather the opposite: there are often huge repercussions to human lives when a complaint is neglected.
Grenfell is not the only recognisable complaint drawn upon in No is Not a Lonely Utterance. Early in the book, Ahmed reminds her readers of the global movement that took place following the publication of a famous New York Times article in 2017. The #MeToo movement started with a single complaint and soon engaged women from all over the world in a discussion on sexual harassment — what started as one allegation quickly became the allegation of millions. Ahmed explains that there is more than one side to the #MeToo movement: although the movement became a positive force for change and empowered many women, it also left many vulnerable, feeling that certain female voices were more represented than others. In discussing the complexity of the #MeToo movement, Ahmed emphasises how quickly a single complaint can spiral into further instances of protest and injustice. Will we ever know who the first woman to make a complaint against Harvey Weinstein was? It feels unlikely. However, the collective complaint that followed was a pivotal point in time for women everywhere — an entire wave of change happened because one woman was the first to say no.
If the sections of Ahmed’s book that deal with global movements of complaint are powerful, then her inclusion of individual testimonies elevates this work even further. Throughout the entirety of No is Not a Lonely Utterance, the reader is immersed in a world of individual stories of complaint that, once read, can never be forgotten. The author seamlessly moves between different experiences of complaint, always dedicating enough space for each person. There are unintentional complaints, formal complaints, complaints of resignation, people complaining by walking away… and there are many complaints that have resulted in further complaints being made. Samia’s story is different from Emma’s story, and Emma’s story is different from both Viola’s and Mia’s stories. Ahmed’s relentless battle to validate so many separate complaints and her effort to show the complaint’s journey from start to finish is remarkable. This personal and unwavering approach to sharing the complaints of others frequently creates moments of introspection for the reader: have they ever felt the same fear or frustration in making a complaint of their own? In sharing so many, Ahmed constructs a space for her readers to not only consider their own experiences, but to learn about different processes of complaint from the safety of a book.
Ahmed repeatedly makes the point that complaint processes are complex, and often deliberately so. The more barriers that are put in front of someone, the more they have to overcome; therefore the more likely they are to give up somewhere along the way. In No is Not a Lonely Utterance, Ahmed employs the metaphor of “the plumber” to explain why complaining often seems a futile effort. Ahmed describes that complaints often get blocked or stuck in the system, and to navigate this system, one must become an “institutional plumber”¹. This means that in order for a complaint to be heard, the person doing the complaining must be able to locate the blockage and find a resolution. “The plumber” is often faced with two options: to unblock the original route or to find an alternative avenue for their complaint to travel through. Ahmed argues that navigating the system in this way can put significant pressure in terms of time and financial resources, and in reality, this is why so many people are unable to follow this process until the end. It becomes clear that when a complaint is originally made, this is only the very beginning of a long and complicated journey.
Sara Ahmed’s No is Not a Lonely Utterance has the potential to generate real change. In a world that is so turbulent and unpredictable, this book is the hope that so many people are searching for. This book illustrates that complaining is healthy and should be normalised because in making a complaint, in Ahmed’s word, you are “modelling the world you wish for”². The author’s parting gift to her reader is a survival kit for complainers and an email address which anyone can send their complaints to—if this isn’t proof enough of one person’s complete care and dedication to their work, then what is? This book is for everyone. This book will change the way you view the world.