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bethanypaisley's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
dontstopreadin's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. The diversity, the unique hobby, our protagonist's passion were all highlights for me. However, where this story fell short for me was the transitions. I felt like the discussion of Islamophobia and the contemporary/love story of this were not well integrated. It was almost as if they were two stories that were stitched together. I also didn't like the inclusion of the terrorist's POV, because again, it felt so disjointed. Overall, a worthy read though.
Trigger warnings for: Islamophobia, terrorism, racism, violence
Rep for: Muslim, Indian American teen, interracial relationship.
Trigger warnings for: Islamophobia, terrorism, racism, violence
Rep for: Muslim, Indian American teen, interracial relationship.
lauraborkpower's review against another edition
2.0
I'm giving this two stars instead of one because I'm not the audience for this book and I bet that a more on-brand audience (adolescent, teen) would get into this a lot more than I did.
As it reads, though, it doesn't have a cross-over appeal for adults: Maya is immature and whiny, makes bad decisions, doesn't learn or grow, and is a total dick to her parents. I disliked her, and it's possibly because I'm too far away from her p.o.v. to have much empathy.
I didn't like the book for another reason, though, and that's the writing, which I found weak. Ahmed glosses over big plot points, gives too many trivial details (Maya's sneakers in a single scene are melon colored. Who cares? I do not.) and doesn't focus enough on developing Maya as a specific person. Ahmed instead relies on telling the reader that Maya wants to be a filmmaker, but I never really felt her passion for it; and she is otherwise wholly defined by the boys in her life, which is gross.
If you're young you might like it, and if you're a young person of color, especially with immigrant parents, you will probably find it much more interesting than I did. And I hope that the publishing of this book leads to other books by other, stronger writers with similar points of view who can tell better stories.
As it reads, though, it doesn't have a cross-over appeal for adults: Maya is immature and whiny, makes bad decisions, doesn't learn or grow, and is a total dick to her parents. I disliked her, and it's possibly because I'm too far away from her p.o.v. to have much empathy.
I didn't like the book for another reason, though, and that's the writing, which I found weak. Ahmed glosses over big plot points, gives too many trivial details (Maya's sneakers in a single scene are melon colored. Who cares? I do not.) and doesn't focus enough on developing Maya as a specific person. Ahmed instead relies on telling the reader that Maya wants to be a filmmaker, but I never really felt her passion for it; and she is otherwise wholly defined by the boys in her life, which is gross.
If you're young you might like it, and if you're a young person of color, especially with immigrant parents, you will probably find it much more interesting than I did. And I hope that the publishing of this book leads to other books by other, stronger writers with similar points of view who can tell better stories.
jenmangler's review against another edition
3.0
The first third of the book was tough for me to wade through because I despise YA love triangles with a passion and was disappointed the book started off that way. Thankfully, it was resolved quickly, and that's when I started to enjoy the book. I liked Maya a lot, and I thoroughly enjoyed her relationships with Violet and Hina, the people in her life who really got her and supported her. I appreciated Ahmed's exploration of the devastating impact of Islamaphobia on the Aziz family, and the role that the overwhelming weight of parental expectations played in Maya's life.
mcmoon's review against another edition
4.0
Cute with some good twists and poetic metaphors. The protagonist is a charming Indian-American Muslim girl with an interest in film. The book touches upon topics such as racism, terrorism, and being ethnic in America, but it's ultimately about standing up to your parents in order to pursue your dreams/goals. At times the love interests seem to dominate the narrative too much, dominating Maya's thinking. Still, worth a look if you're interested in coming of age YA lit, South Asian YA lit, and Muslim American lit.
alaris's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Hate crime, Xenophobia, and Islamophobia
bibliophile80's review against another edition
4.0
Think "The Hate U Give" for Muslim/Arabic community versus white America. It's a great book for young adults and an illuminating read for older adults. While some of the MC's actions were very immature, I had to remind myself that she is only 17--and she certainly was put in some very rough spots. I loved how she viewed her whole world as a filmmaker but couldn't quite envision herself as the star of her own life story. The novel used stereotypes adeptly and played with the reader's expectations, especially with the single-page vignettes of an unknown character traveling in another (parallel) narrative. I'd highly recommend this for those concerned about (or unaware of) the anti-Muslim sentiment in America today.
ingo_lembcke's review against another edition
5.0
Pre-ordered this after reading the recommendation by BookRiot - I skimm the daily emails I get and look at the webpage and check what looks interesting.
Wow! Even with a lot of romance very highly recommended!More tomorrow, obviously not. Sorry, still deciding what to write. But the 5 star recommended to all still stands.
Wow! Even with a lot of romance very highly recommended!
bookph1le's review against another edition
2.0
Writing this review is going to be tough, because my issues with this book are personal. Simply put, the book didn't click with me, but as a matter of preference, not because I thought there was anything technically wrong with it. I also want to be clear that I am 100% behind Own Voices books. I think it's critically important for diverse voices to be included in an industry that has a long, long history of underrepresenting and underserving minority voices. I'm glad to see the YA book industry taking the lead on this, and I hope publishers of adult novels will follow suit. I firmly believe that more diverse books means a better, richer reading experience that all readers benefit from.
I'll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum in this review, but I want to drill down into one specific element of the plot and cannot do so without giving a big plot point away, so continue reading at your own risk.
I'll kick this review off by saying what didn't work for me: the romance. Now, as I said, my problems with this book are personal. I do not personally like romances, YA or otherwise. I'm fine with romance being an element in a book, but I don't tend to like books where the romance is center stage, and this book is very much a romance. That doesn't mean it doesn't have value; it certainly does, especially because romances featuring a person of color protagonist are in short supply in the literary world. There is a lot of value to this book for that reason alone. I absolutely believe in the necessity of giving teens characters who look like they do.
Disclaimer aside, the romance just didn't spark with me. Phil is fine as a character (although I did not like the crack he made about Maya's chest when they were swimming), and I felt for Maya when she was struggling with what her heart wanted and what conventions dictated she should go for, but I just was not invested in her relationship with Phil. It didn't speak to me in any real way, and on the whole I found it more of a run-of-the-mill romance.
To be honest, I thought her potential relationship with Kareem was more interesting. I was happy to read a portrayal of a supportive and nice Muslim young man, something that's in far too short supply, because, let's face it, representations of Muslim males in American media aren't usually positive. I respected what the author did with Maya making the mature decision that her relationship with Kareem was easier and more tempting than any potential relationship with Phil because of the ease, but I would have liked the romance element more had Maya gone for Kareem rather than Phil.
I was also very much invested in the cultural tensions Maya's choices caused for her. One thing I think is pretty universal is how difficult it is for children to clash with their parents' expectations for them. Maya's struggle felt very real and very painful, and I truly empathized with her. She was not in an easy position, caught between pursuing the life she wanted at the possible expense of her family connections and preserving family ties at the expense of her own professional happiness. That is no small thing to deal with, and I found this aspect of the novel engrossing.
Equally engrossing to me was the community reaction to the crime implicating a Muslim. Going into this book, I was hoping for an in-depth portrayal of a teen dealing with Islamophobia, and while those elements are there, I wish the novel had explored them in more detail. I found it at its visceral best when it showed specific instances of racial aggression against Maya and her family in the aftermath of the attack, despite that she and her family have nothing whatsoever to do with the crime that's committed. I strongly feel the U.S. has a history of painting the entire religion of Islam with a single brush, something that doesn't happen to Christians. That is appalling, and more than worthy of discussion, and to me that was the most important part of this book. I felt for Maya and her family, and as a parent myself, I could understand her mother's seemingly extreme reaction. How could you ever feel safe sending your child out into a world that's hostile to her simply because of the color of her skin and her religious beliefs?
Sadly, though, I don't think the book gets into this topic in enough depth. I don't want it to sound like I was looking for a lurid depiction, because I wasn't, but I was hoping to see more that would really give the reader a sense of what it was like to be in Maya's shoes, to suffer the kinds of microaggressions Muslims in the U.S. (and, sadly, in many other parts of the world) suffer. Instead, this book offers up only Brian. While I know it's an unfortunate truth that people like Brian exist, he's so repugnant that I don't see how any person with a modicum of decency can be okay with his actions. Far more nuanced, to me, was the way his buddies reacted at the theme park. That was the kind of thing I wanted to see in this book, because identifying and condemning blatant racism is a lot easier than dissecting the kind of cowardice Brian's friends exhibit is. I didn't want Maya to be under constant assault, but the only person in the book who seems to take issue with her because of her ethnic and religious background is Brian, and while that's certainly a bad thing, I feel like it waters down the book's message a bit because he's made out to be such an obvious villain.
Writing all this is uncomfortable for me, because I am not a person of color, and it's hard for me to critique how someone who is chooses to write about a character's experiences of her world. However, I wish I'd seen more of the subtle behavior highlighted because I want people like me to stop and feel discomfort over that, wondering what we're doing that's contributing to the problem. That's also uncomfortable for me to say, because I don't think it's up to people of color to educate white people. That's something we need to struggle with ourselves, to be certain.
All I can really say in conclusion is that this book was a letdown for me because I wasn't getting out of it what I hoped to get. That's on me, and I have no doubt a lot of readers will get plenty out of it. To me, that's the great thing about literature becoming more diverse: readers have a much better chance of finding books that personally click with them now than they have in the past, and that's a very good thing.
I'll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum in this review, but I want to drill down into one specific element of the plot and cannot do so without giving a big plot point away, so continue reading at your own risk.
I'll kick this review off by saying what didn't work for me: the romance. Now, as I said, my problems with this book are personal. I do not personally like romances, YA or otherwise. I'm fine with romance being an element in a book, but I don't tend to like books where the romance is center stage, and this book is very much a romance. That doesn't mean it doesn't have value; it certainly does, especially because romances featuring a person of color protagonist are in short supply in the literary world. There is a lot of value to this book for that reason alone. I absolutely believe in the necessity of giving teens characters who look like they do.
Disclaimer aside, the romance just didn't spark with me. Phil is fine as a character (although I did not like the crack he made about Maya's chest when they were swimming), and I felt for Maya when she was struggling with what her heart wanted and what conventions dictated she should go for, but I just was not invested in her relationship with Phil. It didn't speak to me in any real way, and on the whole I found it more of a run-of-the-mill romance.
To be honest, I thought her potential relationship with Kareem was more interesting. I was happy to read a portrayal of a supportive and nice Muslim young man, something that's in far too short supply, because, let's face it, representations of Muslim males in American media aren't usually positive. I respected what the author did with Maya making the mature decision that her relationship with Kareem was easier and more tempting than any potential relationship with Phil because of the ease, but I would have liked the romance element more had Maya gone for Kareem rather than Phil.
I was also very much invested in the cultural tensions Maya's choices caused for her. One thing I think is pretty universal is how difficult it is for children to clash with their parents' expectations for them. Maya's struggle felt very real and very painful, and I truly empathized with her. She was not in an easy position, caught between pursuing the life she wanted at the possible expense of her family connections and preserving family ties at the expense of her own professional happiness. That is no small thing to deal with, and I found this aspect of the novel engrossing.
Equally engrossing to me was the community reaction to the crime implicating a Muslim. Going into this book, I was hoping for an in-depth portrayal of a teen dealing with Islamophobia, and while those elements are there, I wish the novel had explored them in more detail. I found it at its visceral best when it showed specific instances of racial aggression against Maya and her family in the aftermath of the attack, despite that she and her family have nothing whatsoever to do with the crime that's committed. I strongly feel the U.S. has a history of painting the entire religion of Islam with a single brush, something that doesn't happen to Christians. That is appalling, and more than worthy of discussion, and to me that was the most important part of this book. I felt for Maya and her family, and as a parent myself, I could understand her mother's seemingly extreme reaction. How could you ever feel safe sending your child out into a world that's hostile to her simply because of the color of her skin and her religious beliefs?
Sadly, though, I don't think the book gets into this topic in enough depth. I don't want it to sound like I was looking for a lurid depiction, because I wasn't, but I was hoping to see more that would really give the reader a sense of what it was like to be in Maya's shoes, to suffer the kinds of microaggressions Muslims in the U.S. (and, sadly, in many other parts of the world) suffer. Instead, this book offers up only Brian. While I know it's an unfortunate truth that people like Brian exist, he's so repugnant that I don't see how any person with a modicum of decency can be okay with his actions. Far more nuanced, to me, was the way his buddies reacted at the theme park. That was the kind of thing I wanted to see in this book, because identifying and condemning blatant racism is a lot easier than dissecting the kind of cowardice Brian's friends exhibit is. I didn't want Maya to be under constant assault, but the only person in the book who seems to take issue with her because of her ethnic and religious background is Brian, and while that's certainly a bad thing, I feel like it waters down the book's message a bit because he's made out to be such an obvious villain.
Writing all this is uncomfortable for me, because I am not a person of color, and it's hard for me to critique how someone who is chooses to write about a character's experiences of her world. However, I wish I'd seen more of the subtle behavior highlighted because I want people like me to stop and feel discomfort over that, wondering what we're doing that's contributing to the problem. That's also uncomfortable for me to say, because I don't think it's up to people of color to educate white people. That's something we need to struggle with ourselves, to be certain.
All I can really say in conclusion is that this book was a letdown for me because I wasn't getting out of it what I hoped to get. That's on me, and I have no doubt a lot of readers will get plenty out of it. To me, that's the great thing about literature becoming more diverse: readers have a much better chance of finding books that personally click with them now than they have in the past, and that's a very good thing.
laureliz's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0