This was okay. It was captivating enough, and incredibly emotional. It was brilliantly written and the characters had immense depth, and I also really enjoyed Maya’s journey through life — although it was often emotional and rocky.
I can’t comment personally on whether the Muslim and Indian rep was good, but to me it was incredibly interesting to see that element so thoroughly in a book and the way old traditions mixed with modernity - and how they often clashed. I really liked the family element of this, too, and the various things that occur to them.
I’m not going to go into too much detail about what I liked and didn’t like, but I’ll put some bullet points here:
— the representation of high school life felt very accurate to me; the teens didn’t feel like adults pretending to be teens, which is a nice rarity.
— Muslim and Indian rep is something I haven’t read much of so that was a really refreshing element. I liked everything that came with it, too.
— character development was absolutely top notch!
— the writing was brilliant and captivating.
— the scenes with racism etc. we’re written with such intensity that it brought tears to my eyes and made my heart hammer. It is definitely a powerful read.
— the short excerpts at the end of every chapter - I won’t say what they are, but those were somewhat chilling.
— the pacing was great; it didn’t feel too slow nor did it feel rushed.
— the romance was adorable!
It is just a really good all round book. It just didn’t blow me away as such; but it’s definitely a solid book and one that I would go back to in the future, and I would definitely recommend this.
This book needs to come with strong warnings for violence, Islamophobia, racism, verbal abuse and family based abuse.
I can’t comment personally on whether the Muslim and Indian rep was good, but to me it was incredibly interesting to see that element so thoroughly in a book and the way old traditions mixed with modernity - and how they often clashed. I really liked the family element of this, too, and the various things that occur to them.
I’m not going to go into too much detail about what I liked and didn’t like, but I’ll put some bullet points here:
— the representation of high school life felt very accurate to me; the teens didn’t feel like adults pretending to be teens, which is a nice rarity.
— Muslim and Indian rep is something I haven’t read much of so that was a really refreshing element. I liked everything that came with it, too.
— character development was absolutely top notch!
— the writing was brilliant and captivating.
— the scenes with racism etc. we’re written with such intensity that it brought tears to my eyes and made my heart hammer. It is definitely a powerful read.
— the short excerpts at the end of every chapter - I won’t say what they are, but those were somewhat chilling.
— the pacing was great; it didn’t feel too slow nor did it feel rushed.
— the romance was adorable!
It is just a really good all round book. It just didn’t blow me away as such; but it’s definitely a solid book and one that I would go back to in the future, and I would definitely recommend this.
This book needs to come with strong warnings for violence, Islamophobia, racism, verbal abuse and family based abuse.