This is a hard book for me to review because I liked it...but it sort of fell a bit short. There were times where I literally got goose bumps, but I failed to really connect to the characters.
Maya is an Indian-American Muslim. She has a passion for film making, and dreams of going to study film at NYU. Love, Hate & Other Filters follows Maya as she tries to take what she wants from life, while also trying to please her strict Indian parents - and also dealing with the Muslim hate crimes that follow a recent terrorist attack.
So I was intrigued when I heard about this book, because I read I Am Thunder last year and it absolutely blew me away; I still think about it. It was so hard hitting. I wanted this book to blow me away like I Am Thunder did, but it didn’t.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a bad book. It has good writing and deals with an important subject.
But.
The characters. I am massively character-based. Like, sure, obviously I like a good plot, but I love a good character.
Like the Mara Dyer series! Hardly anything even fucking happened in that series that I can remember but I had the time of my life reading it because I loved the characters.
Who needs a plot when you have Noah Shaw?
Ahem
As I was saying, characters. Maya was sweet, and my heart ached for her. But apart from that sympathy and anger on her behalf, I didn’t really feel that much for her, and found her to be quite 2D - and the same goes for the rest of the characters.
There was a time, however, after the terrorist attack where Maya said that she didn’t want to be a presumed terrorist first and an American second, and that honestly gave me chills. Because, as a white English girl, I can’t even fucking imagine. And it’s quotes like that that make me so ashamed of myself because there are so many liberties that I take for granted.
I think my main problem is I was expecting something a bit deeper. I went into it and I had massively high expectations after I Am Thunder, and I hold my hands up because that it totally my fault, and has nothing to do with Samira Ahmed. I definitely don’t regret reading this book, and despite it falling short in some aspects for me, I would recommend that you give it a try.
*Thanks to Readers First for providing me with an ARC*
Maya is an Indian-American Muslim. She has a passion for film making, and dreams of going to study film at NYU. Love, Hate & Other Filters follows Maya as she tries to take what she wants from life, while also trying to please her strict Indian parents - and also dealing with the Muslim hate crimes that follow a recent terrorist attack.
So I was intrigued when I heard about this book, because I read I Am Thunder last year and it absolutely blew me away; I still think about it. It was so hard hitting. I wanted this book to blow me away like I Am Thunder did, but it didn’t.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a bad book. It has good writing and deals with an important subject.
But.
The characters. I am massively character-based. Like, sure, obviously I like a good plot, but I love a good character.
Like the Mara Dyer series! Hardly anything even fucking happened in that series that I can remember but I had the time of my life reading it because I loved the characters.
Who needs a plot when you have Noah Shaw?
Ahem
As I was saying, characters. Maya was sweet, and my heart ached for her. But apart from that sympathy and anger on her behalf, I didn’t really feel that much for her, and found her to be quite 2D - and the same goes for the rest of the characters.
There was a time, however, after the terrorist attack where Maya said that she didn’t want to be a presumed terrorist first and an American second, and that honestly gave me chills. Because, as a white English girl, I can’t even fucking imagine. And it’s quotes like that that make me so ashamed of myself because there are so many liberties that I take for granted.
I think my main problem is I was expecting something a bit deeper. I went into it and I had massively high expectations after I Am Thunder, and I hold my hands up because that it totally my fault, and has nothing to do with Samira Ahmed. I definitely don’t regret reading this book, and despite it falling short in some aspects for me, I would recommend that you give it a try.
*Thanks to Readers First for providing me with an ARC*