Compassion is generally quoted, admired abstractly, and cheered from the sidelines. But what does it look like in practice—when the risks are frighteningly high, and the price is everything you have worked towards? For Robyn Rowbotham, the teenage heroine of Is It Ever Right to Kill? by James Myles, compassion was a reality. It was an option. One that deposited her right in the center of a war zone.
Robyn stood on the brink of being a doctor, a third-year student at medical school with a promising future, a doting boyfriend, and a life neatly planned out in front of her in London. But when her closest friend Kat—a Ukrainian refugee—rang her one night at midnight, crying and distraught because her parents had disappeared during the mayhem of a Russian invasion, Robyn’s whole life was falling apart.
It would have been simple to remain. Simple to justify that she was worth more doing her training, that she had no direct connection to Ukraine, that someone would fill the gap. But Robyn didn’t do simple. Robyn did Kat. Robyn did action.
Abandoning her studies, her boyfriend, and the course she’d always believed was hers to pursue, Robyn went to Ukraine to look for her friend’s missing parents. She didn’t go in a soldier’s or a spy’s capacity—she went in a human being capacity, someone who couldn’t turn a blind eye to another’s agony. Working as a medic, she endured rocket attacks, death, and the war’s violent harshness, all while battling fear, fatigue, and self-doubt.
What’s remarkable about Robyn’s narrative isn’t so much her courage—it’s her humanity. In Is It Ever Right to Kill?, James Myles gives us a vivid portrait of a brave young woman not because she’s not afraid, but because she feels intensely. Robyn’s empathy is not a fault; it is what ignites her strength.
We’re living in a society that tends to teach us to look out for ourselves first, to pursue success and security. But Robyn’s story is a reminder that sometimes the greatest success is in being there for someone when they need you most—even if it’s by jeopardizing everything. Empathy has a price tag. It can shatter your heart and turn your life upside down. But it can also transform the world, one action at a time.
This is not a war story. It’s about love—scruffy, inconvenient, inconveniently bold love that refuses to require logic. It’s about the kind of friend who shows up in the darkest hour. And it’s about the quiet, unshakeable knowledge that when the person you love hurts, you do whatever it takes.
Robyn walked away from all of it to save a life. And in doing so, she discovered a deeper part of herself—and reminded readers that authentic compassion always costs something. But what a stunning price it can be.
Get Your Copy On Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B0DPT6DPR9
