Tag Archives: small town

Oct31

A Tariq Twins Mystery: Murder for Two by Niyla Farook

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A Tariq Twins Mystery: Murder for Two by Niyla Farook

I don’t know what I was expecting, but woah once the actual crimes started piling up and the sleuthing began, I was invested in Riri and Ani working out their differences, solving the case, and freeing their accused dad.  At 336 pages, a full on murder, attempted murder, arson, thieving, and arrests all taking place, the book is definitely for older middle grade readers. The premise and dual points of view of 11 year old twins being reunited after 3 years apart by their divorced parents, getting to know how their OCD, ADHD, and autism factor in to their personalities, learning about TUSC, the town of Castlewick, and the side characters that will turn suspects, result in it taking the story a while to get going.  But if you can get through it, and can suspend belief, the book is a fun mystery that takes on heavy topics, and crime, but somehow keeps it light and consumable by the intended audience. The twins are Muslim, one wears hijab, and there are Islamic references, but once the identity is established, it really doesn’t play a role, or shape the characters’ view of the world or approach to dealing with their grief, anxiety, and obstacles they face.  There is mention of halal marshmallows and hijab, but they never say a quick dua or pray, and by the end is not really even shown to be a big part of their daily lives.  I have no idea if the neurodivergent rep is accurate, but the tone and approach is very positive and normalizing.  Parents may want to know that the book starts on the last day of school and the teacher is non binary, referred to as Mx Henderson with they/them/theirs pronouns. The character is mentioned a lot in the first nine pages, and then never again.  Pronouns for other characters are listed on their profile cards.  There is teasing of a girl having a crush on a boy, a few couples dating, a character being born out of wedlock, and a male character being in a relationship with someone named Toby that is mentioned a few times, but only on the final mention in the last few pages of the book, does it clarify that it is a boyfriend.  The book seems to be intentionally diverse in ethnicities, religions, identity, and orientation, but the story is a murder mystery, and a family reconnecting, and the mentions in passing are not detailed, or overly explored.  I mention all this for adults to determine what is best for their children.

SYNOPSIS:

Supersleuth Imani Tariq aka Ani lives in Castlewick with her father, Abderrazzak and spends time at Cafe Vivlio with Mrs. Kostas.  The small town is Ani’s stomping grounds for sleuthing and carrying out the cases her TUSC (Tariq Ultrasecret Supersleuth Centre) organization takes on.  She knows everyone, and everyone knows her, and she is not looking forward to spending the summer with her “evil twin” visiting from California.  Riri short for Noori, lives with her mom and is heading to the UK so her mom can set up a new office for her company, and the twins can reconnect after being apart for three years.  There is a lot of animosity in the former family of four, but the girls slowly start to rely on each other when they find Mrs. Kostas’ dead body in the secret garden, alibis not checking out, relationships coming to light and their dad being arrested for the murder.

WHY I LIKE IT:

I naively thought it would be a murder of a distant side character that the girls tried to solve, or maybe a trick and it looked like a murder, but ended up not being one, so I was really kind of shocked that in fact a murder occurred, that the girls found the body, and that the story of lies, deceit, art theft, secret identities, relationships, and webs of coincidences and manipulation was just getting started. The girls’ voices are distinct, but as they pop around doing what they do, the reader is often just expected to go along with it an not over analyze. I kind of liked that the ending spelled it all out, like a good villain in cartoons the culprit gets their moment to detail and confess what they did, how they did it and why.  In full disclosure though, with about 30 pages left in the book, I was genuinely still curious who the guilty person would be.

The book balances very real mirroring threads with absolutely bonkers ones.  The girls get counseling for grief, talk about their OCD and ADHD.  They also run circles around the police, unravel the plot through research, interviews, crime scene analysis and get the murderer to confess to only them.

The Islamic rep at the start really got me excited, but it stopped rather abruptly and there was no longer even any Assalamualaikums or walakumsalams after about the first 40 pages or so. The characters are of Pakistani decent, but I have never heard “hudafiz” as a farewell before, Allah hafiz and KhudaHafiz, yes, but never with an H.  It appears a few times in the book, and even the internet, for whatever it is worth, says it is probably a mistake.

FLAGS: (Things parents might want to know the book contains):

Murder, attempted murder, assault, framing, deceit, lying, arson, teasing, close boy/girl friendships (Muslim characters), hetero and lgbtq+ relationships, romantic interests, child out of wedlock, jealousy, revenge, name calling, parents are divorced, therapy/counseling, ADHD, anxiety, grief, abandonment, loss, OCD, autism, unemployment.

May11

This Book Won’t Burn by Samira Ahmed

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This Book Won’t Burn by Samira Ahmed

burn

It is clear that this 384 page contemporary YA book is about the hot topic of burn banning in America, and I would imagine most are aware that the overwhelming number of books that have been recently banned or pulled because of objection, are by BIPOC and queer authors featuring BIPOC and queer themes and representation.  So I read it not so much to see the author’s perspective, but more to see how the Muslim author had the Muslim identifying characters in the book approach the topic.  The book is very black and white: book banning is wrong, Republican right wing MAGA members are fascist, and liberal freedom of speech supporters are LGBTQ+ identifying and allies and upholder of first amendment rights.  Islam and the character’s Indian heritage is ingrained in the characters’ being, and a label they are comfortable with, unfortunately, it has no impact on how they act, think, or the lens in which they view their world. Every 50 pages or so some vague mention of Ramadan, or a tasbeeh, or mosque appears, only to disappear just as abruptly. The Muslim protagonist, Noor, likes two different boys, is often alone with one or the other, nearly kisses both, and with the support of her family attends prom. Her younger sister, Amal, is unsure if she wants a boyfriend or a girlfriend, it is not a major part of the story and is just mentioned in passing.  A major side character is lesbian, and starts a bit of a relationship with another girl, they hold hands, and there are a few kisses on cheeks, nothing overly detailed.  There is profanity in the book, arson, threats, racism, and stereotypes.

SYNOPSIS:
Noor and her family move to a small town from Chicago when her dad abruptly abandons the family.  It is the end of Noor’s senior year, and with the grief, stress, and emotional upheaval of her family, Noor just wants to get to graduation.  Quick friendships with Faiz and Juniper, and realizing that she is the daughter of her activist parents though, thrusts her into making enemies her first week in the conservative town by questioning the school’s book banning policies. Add in her strained relationship with her mom, her conflicting feelings for Andrew and Faiz, and her sisterly concern for Amal, and Noor has a lot on her plate as she shakes up a small town.

WHY I LIKE IT:
The first chapter is incredibly written, no doubt.  I hated the dad, actually more than that, I was so disappointed in him, and so concerned for Noor, Amal and their mom.  To feel such strong emotions for characters just introduced is a testament the author’s abilities.  Sadly, insight into why their dad left never came, and  perhaps no answers is something the characters had to grapple with, but as the reader, I felt it wasn’t really explored, or articulated, it just was unresolved, and I really wanted some closure.  In terms of literary quality, the book went down hill pretty quick for me.  The middle was slow and repetitive with the heavy handed views on book banning.  Some shades of gray, or some discourse would have prodded the readers to maybe think about the implications of banning books, but the narrative never allowed for that.  It is right vs wrong, us vs them from the start.  There really is no growth of the protagonist, she doesn’t have much of a character arc, and the supporting cast is not fleshed out.  I wanted to see more of Noor and her Mom, not just be told repetitively how absent she is, I wanted to see Faiz as a full person, not just the only other brown Muslim at the school and who likes to cook. Where are his parents, do they support his activism, that he is going to prom? Truly, there is no Islam in practice it is just a label that gets dropped when it furthers the notion of raging against an established bias system.  I’m not saying they need to be praying and reading Quran on every page, but I don’t know that the story would be much different if the family was not Muslim Indian American. Really the catalyst is that they are a new family, and a visible minority.

FLAGS:

Straight and LGBTQ+ relationships, arson, threats, stereotypes, racism, bullying, cursing.

Mar18

All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir

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All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir

rage

The hype is correct: this book is moving, impactful, powerful, reflective, all the feels.  The writing superb, the plot gritty, the characters seem real, so real.  One of my all time favorite authors is John Irving because every word seems deliberate in his books, not every plot point or every paragraph, every. single. word.  And it has been a long time since I’ve read a book that strikes me in that same vein of the author being so in control of the story, and my (the reader’s) emotions being so completely at the mercy of the words to come.  I think I could read this book five more times and each time peel back a new layer and see something I hadn’t seen, or understood, or felt before.  I cried, I cheered, I sighed and unclenched my jaw, and I am still haunted by the lives of the characters.  Not just the “main” ones.  All of them, they all are real and fleshed out and have character arcs and live in shades of gray.  There are no checkboxes for skin tone or religion or sexual preference they each are more than a label, they are complex and real.  I could easily be convinced that they are in fact real people and that their world and stories are not fiction at all.  That is how well it reads, that is how hard it is to close the window on the world they let us see.  The book is YA (374 pages) and with the drugs, abuse, alcohol, relationship, complexities of it all, I would think 16 year old’s and up can, strike that, should, read this book.  The characters are Muslim, but it never even goes near being preachy, these are complex characters and stories, and remarkably there is no internalized Islamophobia or watering anything down, each character deals with faith, like everything else, in their own way.

SYNOPSIS:

The story bounces between the past in Lahore, Pakistan and the present in Juniper, California.  In Lahore it is Misbah’s story and in the desert it is her son’s, Salahudin and a girl she has taken under her wing, Noor’s.  When the book starts we see Sal with a drunk father dropping him off at school where his girlfriend is waiting, and his best friend, Noor, not speaking to him for the last few months after she confessed to bein in love with him.  Noor lives with her uncle after her entire village in Pakistan was destroyed when she was 6, and he wants nothing to do with Pakistan, Islam, or Noor going to college.  He owns a liquor store and makes Noor work there.  Sal’s mom is sick and has always been there for Noor, so when she takes a turn for the worse, Noor and Sal are brought back together, Noor’s uncle is enraged that she is missing shifts, and Sal’s father is constantly searching for the bottom of a bottle.  Things are bad, but they are about to get a whole lot worse.  Sal’s mom dies, the motel Sal’s family owns is in severe debt and the options for saving it are less than ideal.  The small town starts to feel familiar as everyone’s stories are fleshed out in Juniper and Lahore and two star-crossed narrators are forced to confront both the stresses of high school and impending adulthood, and deep, dark realities of abuse, loss, and generational trauma.

WHY I LIKE IT:

The book could have been a thousand pages, and it still would have felt too short.  Much like her fantasy writing, the book seems to start with world building and roping the reader in to thinking that they can handle what is about to come, then much like a band-aid being pulled off, the pain hits, and the wound starts bleeding again.  Somehow despite it all, you can’t look away, you can’t stop reading, there is hope.  Hope for the characters, hope for happy endings, hope for survival and peace.

I absolutely love the quality of writing, things dangled early on, come back, often with subtly and restraint that you could easily miss them.  When discussing the book with @muslimmommyblog, I felt like we both were finding threads we had possibly not considered and connections that added nuance and staying power to the plot.

So often, the more religious a character in literature is, the stricter they are presented, the less kind they are seen, but in this book it was the opposite, the loving couple were the imam and his defense attorney wife, the glue that radiated kindness to Sal, Noor, and so much of the town is a hijab wearing strong woman.  So many tropes and stereotypes were uprooted, tossed aside, and reimagined.  There is compassion for a Muslim alcoholic, a liquor store being the employment of a Muslim, consequences for dealing drugs, yet nothing “haram” is really ever glorified, it is gritty and repulsive, but there is no judgement, there is only understanding and sadness.  Palpable despair that rattles your bones and makes you wish the world was different.

I don’t want to spoil the book, I was able to read it largely not knowing what the plot would delve in to. In many ways the trigger warning at the beginning was the only thing that braced me for what was to come. The level of religion and how it was woven is through the gentleness of some of the characters and hatred of others, was expertly done.  There are not ayats in the Quran quoted or speeches given, there is love, and faith and hope that manifest as duas and longing and finding ways to be Muslim in action, not just in appearance. When the characters start to make-out their Islamic conscious is drawn in, when they grapple with their hope and future- trust in something bigger is considered. It is not a Muslim book, not even an Islam centered book, perhaps Muslamic, but really about characters who are Muslim and dealing with the cards they have been dealt.

FLAGS:

Alcohol use, drug use, relationships, kissing, touching, longing, language, physical assault, physical violence, domestic violence, hate, racism, stereotyping, Islamophobia, there are mentions of a lesbian relationship and a bi relationship, a child out of wedlock, death, addiction, sexual assault, repressed trauma, bullying, teasing, lying, music,

TOOLS FOR LEADING THE DISCUSSION:

I have a 15 year old daughter, and I probably will have her read the book this summer, I think there is a lot to discuss and I think in the right hands the book could be used for a high school book club.

Available to purchase here on Amazon or here from Crescent Moon Store

Aug23

Piece by Afshan Malik

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Piece by Afshan Malik

Pieces.jpg

This 168 page young adult book from Daybreak Press focuses on a small Muslim family in Texas, that has their own stresses and interpersonal relationships, but are thrown in to a whirlwind when the father of the family returns home from a medical mission to Syria and finds himself in the psych ward broken and troubled.  The effects each of the character’s struggles have on them as well as those they care about, makes for a haunting yet relatable read for fourteen year olds and up.

SYNOPSIS:

The Jamal family is made up of Hannah and her older high school aged sister Noreen and their physician parents Dahlia and Adam.  Hannah runs track and is more introverted in handling friends and her father’s life altering condition.  Noreen on the other hand is ultra organized and rational in her approach to life, much more like her OB mother.  To cope with the stress of her father’s return she commits herself to more clubs at school and staring at her phone.

Hannah doesn’t seem to have a lot of friends, and when the track team understands that Hannah’s dad is dead and Hannah doesn’t correct them until later, her comfortable acquaintances turn on her and she will have to learn to stand up for herself and use her voice in the course of the book.  Noreen’s character arc is a bit more dramatic as her involvement in yearbook club brings new people in to her life, mainly a boy, who might not be as a genuine in his goals as she is, and thus their climax results in a trip to the police station.  Dahlia has a close friend, and Adam has a few as well, but the story really stays pretty streamline in exploring the relationships of the family and how little things and big things affect them all.

WHY I LIKE IT:

I love that the book takes on a serious issue like PTSD and is framed in such reality.  The scene where the dad blurs his past memories with the current real happenings, is done very well.  It conveys how fractured his brain is while showing the stress his situation lends to the mood of the home is powerful. There is also a very real situation of attempted physical and sexual assault that occurs when Noreen finds herself in a position with a male classmate who attempts to take advantage of her.  The book holds back in details, and she is able to defend herself, keeping the book clean, while still implying what his intent was, and how fortunate she is to get away.

More superficially, but also more relatable is the girls bickering and fighting and pushing each other’s buttons, and the mom trying to help, but is alas is frequently at a loss at what to do with them.  The situations the girls face at school are probable and relatable that I think a lot of middle school and high school readers will see themselves trying to balance extra curricular activities, friends, finding a quite place to pray and keeping their hijabs coordinating.  The family is Muslim and they dress the part, talk the talk, and pray together regularly.  Islam is very present, but not preachy, it is just what the characters believe and what they use to shape their view of many of the tests they are facing.

There are a few hiccups that are worth noting, but don’t overly deter for my appreciation of the story.  I struggled with the writing style in the first few chapters.  It took a bit to feel a connection to the characters and get what was going on sorted out.  It is written in 3rd person omniscient (I believe, it’s been a while) with each chapter more or less focusing on one of the four main characters.  As a result a handful of times the narrative gets awkward in explaining what one of the characters is doing or thinking, because the focus is on someone else, or the timeline overlaps a bit.  It doesn’t happen an awful lot, but the book is under 200 pages, so it is annoying that it happens at all, let alone more than once.

Story wise the characters seem oddly isolated.  The book tells us how small the town is, and shows us how everyone knows the parents regularly, the girls seem to be pretty lonely.  There isn’t any warmth from the schools or neighbors in helping them deal with their dad coming home so wounded.  In a town they have lived in for so long, this seems off to me.  Also if the town is so small, and the family so religious, there is an imam who visits once, you’d think there would be more of an Islamic community presence for the mom and girls to find support from.

FLAGS:

There is violence in the remembering of what happened in Syria.  There is some Islamaphobic talk as Hannah endures some verbal bullying and the attempted physical and sexual assault on Noreen.

TOOLS FOR LEADING THE DISCUSSION:

I would consider this as a possible middle school book club choice.   It tackless some big things, and uses Islamic boundaries to talk about mental illness and sexual violence which is a huge plus when addressing our youth.  Noreen isn’t in a relationship or even overtly infatuated with the guy who puts her in a compromising situation.  But even if she was doing something “wrong” what he did is not ok, and the fact that the authorities believe her, and she plans to discuss it with her mom, and she is not further victimized by speaking out, is something our kids need to see and understand.

There are discussion questions at the end and I think males and females will benefit from reading and discussing this book.  Unfortunately, and possibly the only other disappointment in the book is the price.  Nearly twenty bucks for a short YA paperback book makes it hard to buy classroom sets for such activities, and I’m sure will even keep the avid reader debating whether they should purchase it or not.

 

May3

Unlikely Friends by Sahar AbdulAziz

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Unlikely Friends by Sahar AbdulAziz

unlikely friends.jpeg

Another wonderful book by a Muslim author that doesn’t discuss Islam, but is expertly written and such a great read, that I wanted to highlight it here on the blog.  At 293 pages and involving a teen character I was really on the fence if this would qualify as “young adult,” so I reached out to the author to ask, and she, mashaAllah, responded! Unfortunately, she felt it wouldn’t quite qualify, even though it is a bit of a coming of age story.  So, why am I still reviewing it?  Because I think high schoolers (muslim and non) would really enjoy the book, and with finals nearly over, anyone in that demographic looking for feel good story that is pretty clean (Ramadan is nearly here), I think this book would be a great choice! And full disclosure, yes I’m biased, the librarian is the hero!

SYNOPSIS:

Told from multiple points of view the linear story brings together two introverts, Irwin and Harper, that have a lot of real and serious issues pressing them.  Their traumatic back stories are slowly revealed as the two unlikely friends come together to deal with their current predicaments.

Irwin is an old ornery librarian that doesn’t like people or change.  He is set in his ways and the stubborn Harper, a young high school student for some reason latches on to him.  He tries to shake her, but finds he is genuinely concerned about her and despite his better judgement finds himself helping her and getting tangled in to her messy home life.  

Surrounded by a cast of developed and diverse characters the fictional world of Irwin and Harper is both believable and realistic.  Irwin’s author neighbor is losing her memory, slowly, but noticeably, his deceased fiance’s daughter passes away shaking his routine, and his colleagues at the library are funny and annoying in their own ways.  Harper’s father is released from prison and her mother must make a stand to resist falling into old drug habits, all while trying to make ends meet and put food on the table.

WHY I LIKE IT:

I like that it reads so very smoothly.  You feel Irwin’s shell cracking and you see that he is so much more than just a stereotypical grumpy old man.  You also see Harper’s mother, Olivia concerned that her daughter and an old man are becoming friends.  You probably could predict how things will end up, but the way it is written you aren’t really worried, you are just enjoying getting to know the characters presented.  Overall, it really is a great lens to remind us all that friendship, real friendship is incredibly valuable.  In a world of filters and digital everything, sometimes our humanity is all we have.  I also like that people are given the chance to change and grow, the group of main characters are not stagnant or one dimensional, their challenges and dilemmas are brought in to the open and you feel for them as you would a real person.

The only two questions that stood out as inconsistent with the characters and story development are why didn’t Harper just get a job to help out her and her mother’s financial situation? Plenty of teens have jobs, so that seemed a little off to me.  Secondly, Olivia works at a supermarket presumably or a market of some sort, so it would seem that an employee discount or nearly expired food section would make their food insecure situation a little less severe.  Granted its fiction, but these two jarring concepts seemed to hold me back from completely being swept away.  

FLAGS:

The book is clean in terms of what is explicitly conveyed.  The details that make it possibly/probably not suitable for younger readers are the drug histories of Harper’s parents and what they did to acquire drugs, what they did when on drugs and what was allowed to take place around Harper when she was a child.  Darren, Harper’s father, believes that Harper was sexually abused by someone when he was high and this memory haunts him.  It isn’t explicit, but it is there.  Some mention of Olivia waking up in dealer’s beds is again mentioned in passing, but not detailed.  One could imagine two druggies trying to raise a child and get their next hit, but a lot of the understanding will come from the prior knowledge the reader has of such scenarios, not from the text itself. 

There is the idea that physical abuse was common between Darren and Olivia and is shown in Darren’s temper when he throws a vase against a wall after coming to Olivia and Harper’s home when released from prison.

There is some mention of Irwin’s fiance’s relationship with her ex-husband in that he cheated on her regularly.

So definitely, the book has elements for older readers, but the way the topics are discussed: drugs, abuse, infidelity, are not glorified or even detailed, more they set the stage in defining the current conflicts the characters face, the pasts they must over come, and the environments that they want to improve upon.  I think 15 and up could handle it.

TOOLS FOR LEADING THE DISCUSSION:

I’m thinking to recommend this book to the Sister that runs the high school book club.  I think there would be so much to discuss and myths to dispel that an older group would benefit from the experience and work the author does and writes about in this book.

Plus the fact that the author so easily responded to me, might inspire a group of teenagers to reach out and be equally inspired.