missdivine

3.5 stars that I am rounding up to 4 because this is a book that needed to be written. It's not perfect and I'll agree that it's preachy at times but I think this is one of the only YA books out there that gives teens a peek into the mind of a young Muslim girl that is trying to balance Australian (but it could easily be American) norms with those of her more traditional faith while living in a largely WASPy world. It's not easy and this is definitely an interesting read. I did get bored with some of the subplots (like Leila and her brother) but then I felt more interested in others (like Simone and Josh but that got boring after a while too). I thought it was interesting that Amal's parents were fairly forward thinking and I think it's a misconception that all immigrant parents and/or all Muslim parents are super conservative. A lot of immigrant parents actually pretty open-minded and it was refreshing that her parents were not like, for example, Leila's parents, because I think that kind of thinking is what perpetuates prejudice. I thought the book dealt pretty well and was honest about prejudices against Muslims, especially in a post-9/11 world. The author talked about 9/11 and the attacks in Bali and how they affected the narrator and those around her. I didn't think the reactions of the white characters were over-the-top at all. People like Tia were very racist and hateful (and people like that exist) but others were not. That's normal and we do live in a world where a lot of people are not comfortable with multiculturalism, especially when it involves Muslims. So I didn't think the white characters were caricatures at all. I did think Amal's narration could have been edited down a bit. 360 pages is a LOT of text and she got to be very wordy and whiney at times. Still, I think the author wrote something unique and one-of-a-kind but hopefully not for long. As the world continues to become more diverse I hope we continue to see books like this pop up. They are great in terms of being able to educate young readers about other cultures, they tackle prejudice and stereotypes, and they get young people to rethink some of their ideas about the world.

2023-01-08 19:35