I received a free e-ARC of this book from NetGalley in return for review consideration.
I absolutely loved this book. I've rarely read a contemporary YA novel with such realistic and vivid characters, nor one that tackles with such aplomb some seriously heavy issues. Ahmed has done a brilliant job of balancing Maya's everyday concerns - boys, college, parents - alongside the specific issues faced by an Indian-American Muslim teenager.
Maya's relationship with her parents is masterfully described by Ahmed, as Maya tries to spread her wings without disappointing her parents, whose more traditional views sometimes run counter to Maya's. The conflict between the two parties is handled well, as Maya starts to work out what path she wants to follow, and how to follow it when her parents expect something quite different from her. Maya does have support from her mother's sister, Hina, who has trodden a very different path to Maya's mother, and offers words of wisdom from someone who has moved further away from the traditional expectations placed on her.
The two main male characters in the book - Kareem, the older Muslim boy, and Phil, a boy at Maya's school - were equally well-written. Ahmed manages to avoid many of the clichés of similar romantic storylines, and both boys are fleshed-out characters with their own feelings and opinions, and they affect Maya's life in different ways. I liked Maya's thoughts and conflict over the two boys; to me, it seemed realistic, not too melodramatic, and showed three teenagers/young adults being generally thoughtful in their dealings with each other in way that I haven't often seen in YA.
Between the main storyline runs the story of another character, the perpetrator of a horrific crime that will have a distinct and deeply serious impact on Maya's life, and the lives of her family and other people around her. In the aftermath of this crime, Maya feels keenly the effects of Islamophobia in the community where she's grown up, and it brings home to her how different her lived experience is from most of her peers, and the additional challenges she faces by virtue of not being a white American. I really liked how Ahmed wove this storyline into the main narrative, the different elements that it brought to the overall story, and the commentary it allowed her to make about people's assumptions and how damaging they can be.
With all of this being said, I'm neither Indian nor Muslim, so I can't speak to the accuracy of the representation from the perspective of lived experience. However, I personally enjoyed the book and am thrilled to see an #ownvoices author bringing a new voice into the YA canon.
I would recommend this book to anyone, but particularly to people who enjoy well-written, well-plotted contemporary YA with a wonderful main character and a story that will, as they say, give you all the feels. I really can't recommend it enough.
I absolutely loved this book. I've rarely read a contemporary YA novel with such realistic and vivid characters, nor one that tackles with such aplomb some seriously heavy issues. Ahmed has done a brilliant job of balancing Maya's everyday concerns - boys, college, parents - alongside the specific issues faced by an Indian-American Muslim teenager.
Maya's relationship with her parents is masterfully described by Ahmed, as Maya tries to spread her wings without disappointing her parents, whose more traditional views sometimes run counter to Maya's. The conflict between the two parties is handled well, as Maya starts to work out what path she wants to follow, and how to follow it when her parents expect something quite different from her. Maya does have support from her mother's sister, Hina, who has trodden a very different path to Maya's mother, and offers words of wisdom from someone who has moved further away from the traditional expectations placed on her.
The two main male characters in the book - Kareem, the older Muslim boy, and Phil, a boy at Maya's school - were equally well-written. Ahmed manages to avoid many of the clichés of similar romantic storylines, and both boys are fleshed-out characters with their own feelings and opinions, and they affect Maya's life in different ways. I liked Maya's thoughts and conflict over the two boys; to me, it seemed realistic, not too melodramatic, and showed three teenagers/young adults being generally thoughtful in their dealings with each other in way that I haven't often seen in YA.
Between the main storyline runs the story of another character, the perpetrator of a horrific crime that will have a distinct and deeply serious impact on Maya's life, and the lives of her family and other people around her. In the aftermath of this crime, Maya feels keenly the effects of Islamophobia in the community where she's grown up, and it brings home to her how different her lived experience is from most of her peers, and the additional challenges she faces by virtue of not being a white American. I really liked how Ahmed wove this storyline into the main narrative, the different elements that it brought to the overall story, and the commentary it allowed her to make about people's assumptions and how damaging they can be.
With all of this being said, I'm neither Indian nor Muslim, so I can't speak to the accuracy of the representation from the perspective of lived experience. However, I personally enjoyed the book and am thrilled to see an #ownvoices author bringing a new voice into the YA canon.
I would recommend this book to anyone, but particularly to people who enjoy well-written, well-plotted contemporary YA with a wonderful main character and a story that will, as they say, give you all the feels. I really can't recommend it enough.