Where to even begin with this amazing book?
The story follows two MC’S, each with their own POV. Salahudin and Noor are two teenagers who have grown up side by side in Juniper, California, a small town that is predominantly white. Also intertwined in this book is the POV of Salahudin’s mother, who tells the story of how she immigrated to the United States and how she formed a life in a new country.
All these POV’s were so fascinating to read and I loved how Tahir gave each character a distinct voice so I knew exactly who was narrating.
As always, I love to break down my reviews into three parts: the characters, the plot, and the takeaway.
The Characters
I just LOVED Salahudin and Noor. They were determined and sacrificed so much for each other that it made my heart melt.
The Plot
The plot of this book will definitely be memorable for me. It tackles so many heavy subjects and it showcases the struggles of first–generation children in a realistic way. Even though it wasn’t action packed or fast paced, it had enough emotion and suspense to make me want to keep going. (yes, I stayed up till 1:00 AM reading it because it was AMAZING)
Side note: Tahir does include a list of TW at the beginning so please be advised.
The Takeaway
With every book, there’s always a lesson to be learned. And from this book, I definitely learned about the power of forgiveness. Throughout the book, there was fighting, separating, hate, and all of it left me empty, hoping that there was someway these characters could be happy again. It seemed impossible as I was closing into the last few pages that things would resolve, and that the ending would be a sad one.
But against all odds, forgiveness triumphed, and the ending became a bittersweet one. It was realistic, and even though I wished things ended differently, I learned that forgiveness must be given to those before it’s too late.
The story follows two MC’S, each with their own POV. Salahudin and Noor are two teenagers who have grown up side by side in Juniper, California, a small town that is predominantly white. Also intertwined in this book is the POV of Salahudin’s mother, who tells the story of how she immigrated to the United States and how she formed a life in a new country.
All these POV’s were so fascinating to read and I loved how Tahir gave each character a distinct voice so I knew exactly who was narrating.
As always, I love to break down my reviews into three parts: the characters, the plot, and the takeaway.
The Characters
I just LOVED Salahudin and Noor. They were determined and sacrificed so much for each other that it made my heart melt.
The Plot
The plot of this book will definitely be memorable for me. It tackles so many heavy subjects and it showcases the struggles of first–generation children in a realistic way. Even though it wasn’t action packed or fast paced, it had enough emotion and suspense to make me want to keep going. (yes, I stayed up till 1:00 AM reading it because it was AMAZING)
Side note: Tahir does include a list of TW at the beginning so please be advised.
The Takeaway
With every book, there’s always a lesson to be learned. And from this book, I definitely learned about the power of forgiveness. Throughout the book, there was fighting, separating, hate, and all of it left me empty, hoping that there was someway these characters could be happy again. It seemed impossible as I was closing into the last few pages that things would resolve, and that the ending would be a sad one.
But against all odds, forgiveness triumphed, and the ending became a bittersweet one. It was realistic, and even though I wished things ended differently, I learned that forgiveness must be given to those before it’s too late.