Tethered to a man perfectly willing to destroy her sanity, Bella must somehow find the strength to leave her broken marriage and never look back.
Logan appears to all who know him as a charming and adoring husband, yet behind closed doors, a dangerous, darker side emerges. To his circle of unsuspecting friends, he is the master of his destiny. To the trail of broken women left behind, a cruel and callous monster. But to his family and most of all to Bella, he remains an inescapable and recurring nightmare.
Trapped, isolated, and unable to seek help, Bella plots her escape, but time, as well as opportunity, are quickly running out.
Blaming, shaming, power and control converge in Sahar Abdulaziz’s contemporary fiction novel, EXPENDABLE–the intimate story behind the “normal” veneer of one couple’s unraveling marriage.
2025 The Bookfest Awards Fall 2025 Second Place Fiction-Humor-Relationships
2025 The Bookfest Awards Fall 2025 Second Place, Fiction-Detective-Amateur Sleuths
2025 Finalist: The Book Excellence Award
2023 Finalist: Best Thriller Book Awards
2023 Semifinalist: Mystery, The Best of Indie 12th Annual Kindle Book Awards
2022 Winner, Firebird Book Award
2020 Finalist in The Wishing Shelf Book Award
2019 Winner of the Daybreak Press Book Award for Muslim Fiction
2019: Essay Winner, Women in Scrutiny Anthology; Brooklyn Girls Books
2019 Finalist in The Wishing Shelf Book Award
2019: Winner, Fofky’s Reader’s Choice Award
2016 Winner of the Community Written Expression Award
2016 Winner, AAN Sistah Chat Radio Women of Distinction Award
2016 Winner, Monroe County Image Awards Sistah Chat Radio Media Communication
“Abdulaziz is a master at crafting a thriller paced by truth.”
Suspense writer Sahar Abdulaziz is the author of seventeen books—including, But You LOOK Just Fine, The Broken Half, Tight Rope, Secrets That Find Us, The Gatekeeper’s Notebook, Unlikely Friends, Devoted Friends, Unexpected Friends, Forever Friends, Who Killed Gary?, Ashes, Dust, Who Killed Gary?; and her most recent, 2025 release: Who Killed Karen? Most of her work is in realistic fiction: psychological thrillers, suspense, and satire. She writes about characters facing complicated life challenges and is determined to tell their stories, eager to put pen to paper to share their compelling accounts.
A realistic portrayal of emotional abuse and the toll it can take on someone. Ms. Abdulaziz has created believable characters and fully shines light on both the abuser and the abused. Neither shying away from the accuracy of language and mind games an emotional abuser will pull out of their arsenal but still treating the situation with sensitivity she can cause you to flinch as you read and then take a sigh of relief as another character brings calmness into the situation.
The main focus of the book may be about dealing with, overcoming and rising up from being a victim but a subplot also deals with letting down your guard, opening your mind and heart and allowing grief to end and love back in. Families fracture from many different things...some irreparable, some just needing a little give and take on both sides.
Not always an easy book to read, Expendable is however, an important one to bring to the forefront that not every form of abuse leaves noticeable scars. And, that healing is possible even if not always easy and immediate.
Sahar Abdulaziz chooses to write about difficult topics. In Expendable, she deals with emotional abuse and PTSD, creating vivid characters we care about as they face nearly impossible situations.
Bella Boutin is a pretty young woman who suffers from lack of confidence and is drawn into a marriage with a destructive narcissist. Husband Logan Bartlett is outwardly every girl’s romantic dream, but he nearly destroys Bella until she finds the strength to leave him, thanks to the help of two people who enter her life when in desperation she attempts to end it.
The first is Raymond Ike, the security guard at the mall where Bella tries to kill herself, the second is Primrose Endicott, former military photographer suffering from PTSD who is Bella’s hospital roommate. As always, Abdulaziz’s characters jump off the page and become very real to us. The author draws vivid portraits of each these three very disparate people whom circumstances have thrown together.
Domestic abuse is something far too many people deal with on a daily basis. Bella’s desperation is also far too common. Recent events have made all of us aware of the frightening statistic of suicide being the tenth leading cause of death in the U.S., and Bella’s case exemplifies the cause of at least some of these deaths. Sadly, Bella feels so alone and unworthy she doesn’t know where to turn … as is true of so many victims. This book is a reminder to all of us to reach out to those people in trouble whose paths cross ours.
Expendable is an important novel from an author who is uniquely equipped to write engrossing and essentially hopeful novels about troubling subjects that are, sadly, a part of life. A must read.
Sahar Abdulaziz chooses to write about difficult topics. In Expendable, she deals with emotional abuse and PTSD, creating vivid characters we care about as they face nearly impossible situations.
Bella Boutin is a pretty young woman who suffers from lack of confidence and is drawn into a marriage with a destructive narcissist. Husband Logan Bartlett is outwardly every girl’s romantic dream, but he nearly destroys Bella until she finds the strength to leave him, thanks to the help of two people who enter her life when in desperation she attempts to end it.
The first is Raymond Ike, the security guard at the mall where Bella tries to kill herself, the second is Primrose Endicott, former military photographer suffering from PTSD who is Bella’s hospital roommate. As always, Abdulaziz’s characters jump off the page and become very real to us. The author draws vivid portraits of each these three very disparate people whom circumstances have thrown together.
Domestic abuse is something far too many people deal with on a daily basis. Bella’s desperation is also far too common. Recent events have made all of us aware of the frightening statistic of suicide being the tenth leading cause of death in the U.S., and Bella’s case exemplifies the cause of at least some of these deaths. Sadly, Bella feels so alone and unworthy she doesn’t know where to turn … as is true of so many victims. This book is a reminder to all of us to reach out to those people in trouble whose paths cross ours.
Expendable is an important novel from an author who is uniquely equipped to write engrossing and essentially hopeful novels about troubling subjects that are, sadly, a part of life. A must read.
Sahar Abdulaziz has once again shed light on not only emotional abuse, but PTSD, and depression. Prim, Bella, and Ike's connection demonstrates a need to comfort, commiserate, and help one another, thereby helping themselves. Not only does the reader feel their individual suffering, but we learn of coping mechanisms for their anxieties. Through Logan, a damaged person can easily be manipulated. But I suspect a good line of bull can fool even the most emotionally healthy among us. As in life, not everyone is saved, and the author ends the story in a dramatic scene that keeps you turning the pages hoping the characters you are rooting for are the ones saved.
Love the book ! One of the best one so far from Sahar Abdulaziz. How much should one try to keep up the relationship or is it best to walk away from an abusive marriage or Relationship? Sums the summary of book. The story is about Bella a young girl caught in such a marriage which revolves around a narcissist person ,her husband Logan who is a perpetual lair and womanizer. Bella wants to do everything to keep up this marriage which landed up her in a psychological department of hospital when she tried to commit suicide. What call Bella takes now for saving her life is totally in her hands ! I will not kill the suspense of this book by telling you the complete story. I love the character of Prim and Ike too ,Bella's friends who helped her out. The book also raises awareness for mental health and how important it is to take care of it and of people fighting with it. After reading the book i could decode the meaning of guitar on cover , the butterflies and expendable of course :-) They all have reason to be there.
ALL of Sahar's books are page turners from the very beginning for me!!!!I never want to put them down and then I never want the stories to end. I feel as though I know the characters so well. I can never wait to read her next books. I have my own collection of all Sahar Abdulaziz 's books. Expendable was very relatable for anyone want to know about or who has ever been in a relationship with a true narcissist and the struggle you live with, the lies, as well as the emotional self doubt that you experience on a daily basis. I plan to read Expendable again. Triumph and karma are real in this book. Thank you Sahar for a great book. I really enjoyed reading it!!!!!
This is another great book by Sahar. It had a slow start but once it took off it became one heck of a roller coaster ride. Being emotionally invested is one thing I look for in a book and this one definitely does that.
Prepare for a rollercoaster of emotions as you read this powerful drama. As always Ms. Abdulaziz's characters stay with you, lingering in your thoughts long after the book is finished.