“I wondered, for the very first time, if maybe I was doing this whole thing wrong. If maybe I’d allowed myself to be blinded by my own anger to the exclusion of all else. If maybe, just maybe, I’d been so determined not to be stereotyped that I’d begun to stereotype everyone around me.”

normally, i dont read these kind of books, but i read this one for different reasons; i read it to unwind, for my own amusement, and to get away from my own personal problems. i read it to be incited into thought or activity, i also read it to feel some kind of deep emotions that were hidden, and, in some way, i read it to learn.

personally, a perfect book is made up by all of the things i mentioned, which is why i appreciated this book so much. i didnt like Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter Me books, even DNF’d the first book, but i did not expect to get into this book as much as i did and like it as much as i did when i first picked it up. i completely sympathized with the characters, i even found the story enthusiastic and engaging, if not very very relatable, even as a teen who does not live in America, the life of Shirin post 9/11 was very much the same life as mine or even my peers.

“I understood too well what it was like to feel like you were defined by one superficial thing- to feel like you would never excape the box people had put you in” 

Shirin is 16 yrs old; one thing she and her family have turned out to be is be enourmously gifted at is moving. it appears as though whenever they feel settled, her folks choose its an ideal opportunity to move once more, apparently to locate a shockingly better life for Shirin and her older brother, Navid. what they dont comprehend is the way the world—and particularly secondary school—can be so terribly barbarous to a young Middle Eastern girl who wears a hijab. given the majority of the terrible moment and strife her folks went through to escape from Iran and give their kids an opportunity at joy and achievement, they’re not immensely moved by Shirin’s stories of pity, criticism, and intermittent savagery.

with an end goal to simply traverse the days, Shirin inundates herself in music, however, her preferred movement is breakdancing with her brother; when he and his friends begin a breakdancing club in school, she can hardly wait to be a part of it. she gets a sense of security and quickly becomes familiar with all the moves which she rehearsed through old VHS tapes for a long time.

“I didn’t believe it was possible to hide a woman’s beauty. I thought women were gorgeous no matter what they wore, and I didn’t think they owed anyone an explanation for their sartorial choices. Different women felt comfortable in different outfits.

They were all beautiful.” 

without saying too much and revealing what happens in the book, i wanna say it was massively influencing, flawlessly composed, interesting, and outrage inticing novel. i read the whole book in less than a week (taking away the time i didnt pick it up due to exams), and was at the same time moved, insulted, disheartened, sickened, humiliated, and absolutely snared. we often make decisions about an individual in view of how they carry themselves, or what they resemble, or even what their intentions are, and its astounding how often we lose the genuine individual just from our judgement.

despite the fact that i realize her other books are altogether different from this one, she is unmistakably an unbelieveable author. this has become one of my all time favourite books, and will remain that for the rest of my life.