AUTHOR: Randa Abdel-Fattah
PUBLISHED: 2005 (2007 in the US)
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Realistic Fiction
PREMISE: A Muslim girl in Australia decides to wear the hijab full-time and the consequences she faces from society are...interesting.
MY REVIEW: Look, full disclosure: I am a white cis woman. I will never have to wrestle with the things that the main character has to wrestle with in this book, so I do honestly not know if any of it is accurate. Heck, I'm not even from Australia, so I don't know if the stuff there is accurate. Though I do know from Aussies on tumblr, that the racism over there and anti-Muslim rhetoric is just as bad as it is here in the US.
It felt on point to me, I guess I can say. Some of the issues talked about here are some I have heard discussed in many circles. I do think that occasionally, the book went a little over-the-top to make its point, but that is YA's way at times. I did also tire of the teen slang which dated it quite a bit. It certainly doesn't diminish the book's overall point about how wearing the hijab is a person's own choice and we shouldn't treat them differently or act like they're being oppressed if they decide to wear it.
The story overall...is a bit all over the place. I think the author has a bit too many ideas going on at once. What mostly makes this book is the things it discusses about society and the little racist micro-agressions that we can do without even realizing it.
WHO SHOULD READ: realistic fiction fans, those interested
MY RATING: Four out of Five sassy Aussies
No comments:
Post a Comment