This was an okay book. It was enjoyable and I had a great time reading but it was also not that memorable. Furthermore, I felt really disconnected from the characters so it was difficult for me to be fully invested and immersed in the plot.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for my copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. All opinions expressed here are my own.

This is my first Muslim based YA book, and I wasn’t disappointed. I am not Muslim and don’t know much about the religion or life, so I will keep my review to the writing.

This is a complex written book about a Muslim teenage girl working through an attempted sexual assault by a highly thought of boy in her community. Janna has crush on a non-Muslim boy and she is working through her expectations about who people really are. The teenage voice felt very authentic.

I learned quite a bit about the rules and way of life for Muslims. S. K. Ali is Muslim, so I feel she is a valid source. I loved that she provided explanations and definitions to words and cultural references so that non-Muslims can make connections. I look forward to reading more by this author.

Thank you to @netgalley and @simonandshusterschuster for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
4 stars

Janna Yusuf doesn't know where she fits in. Part of the reason is her culture. Part of it is her environment. And part of it is her dreams. Who is Janna and what will her future bring? Being of mixed culture brings certain problems in Janna's life. Her upbringing plays a role. Of that there is no doubt. What is more is that Janna has certain expectations - from herself and from what others expect of her.

What happens when a boy not of her race (Arab Indian-American hijabi) catches her eye? Will Janna go against the norm expected of her and date? And date a boy of a different race? Then there is the fact that an influential individual in the Muslim community is not what they are said to be. This is further cause for the choices Janna makes.

What an exceptional debut novel! Although published several years ago, I am glad that this came across my radar because I found the book, although written for a younger audience, to be a riveting, thought-provoking read. Some of the issues were rather painful to read, but I loved how strong Janna was. In fact, the story kind of dropped off, but there is a second book, Misfit in Love, and I definitely plan on reading that one soon,

Many thanks to Salaam Reads and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

4.5*

I received the e-ARC of this book by NetGalley wich I'm so grateful for.

"The why you do something is important."

• I love how the format is day by day, its one of the things that matters the most for me in a story, it gives direction and makes me less lost as I accompany her daily bases

• Completely random but Janna's dad's daily phrases reminds me so much of my own [dad] and it's so funny and nonsensical

• It was so nice to see Janna (and myself) warming up to Saint Sarah - not to mention she stopped calling her by this nickname - she is really sweet and nothing like the perfect muslin/person she originally thought

• When Mr. Ham died, I notice how attached I became to him, his extra outfits and his poems, I wasn't expecting that death and it broke me, the character is so alive that his death felt real

• Not only him but all characters feels real, all of them have flaws - the main character sometimes did thing I wouldn't - and good things to them ( even the monster is mentioned how he memorized the Qu'ran )

• I like the characters so much except for the monster, obviously, and Fizz, she's WAY TOO judgy of everyone and that is really annoying AND her mom and dad who are not the best either, Sandra and Nuah tho <3 <3

• I still don't know how I feel about Janna and Sausun's relationship.

• I love how there's not much romance in the book regardless of we finding out that Janna likes Nuah (especially because there's a second book focused on that)

• Overall, is a great book, it was a fun albeit sometimes triggering - I'm glad they touch the assault subject as a main plot - ride

❇ "The why you do something is important."

❇"I'm having a Mr. Ram moment. That day when I left him alone in his apartment, he told me what the poet Rumi had said. That if you love the Divine, you can love everything, be kind to everyone, see someone's joke the way they want you to. I can't imagine what it means to love everyone. But I'm just going to start right here, by loving a bit more of myself.

And maybe then the rest will follow."

It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, though I liked how the struggles were portrait and the community the main character is in. The down part for me was the communication, there's none! And the resolution was too quick, too easy. Overall it was an enjoyable book. I really like the author and i will definitely keep reading her books.

Saints and Misfits is the story of young Muslim girl Janna Yusuf as she navigates teen problems like math tests, high school politics, her brother stealing her room, and crushes, while she also deals with more serious problems like the failing health of an elderly man she cares for, and coming face to face with her would-be rapist.

As a non-Muslim myself, I really really enjoyed this book for that reason. There's so much culture in here, and I think for Muslim readers, this will feel so familiar and welcoming. I thought this was such a real-feeling portrayal of life as a Muslim teenager. For those reading this book who don't know much about what it means to be Muslim, I think this book will offer quite a nice basis in the "known" aka typical teenage experience, while also offering a deeper, educational book.

I really enjoyed this book, but there were some things I disliked. First, that she kept calling her assaulter "the Monster", it just felt childish (and yes, I know she's a child but... even younger child.) I also didn't understand why she didn't say something sooner, or just tell someone that she didn't like the guy and didn't want to be around him. She made some choices about not communicating with others about this that I didn't fully understand. However, that's just my personal issues with the book and I fully recommend this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book

Janna Yusuf, who is a hijabi but also a teenager, she's trying to follow Islam but still, she is human and makes mistakes. Saints and Misfits feature the story of a young Muslim teen. I'm not Muslim, But I learned a lot about Muslim culture! And I always find it fascinating learning about a different culture, than mines, I'm Hispanic.

It is definitely a good book read, and I can't wait to re-read it again. Enjoyed this book by S.K. Ali.

When something bad happens and you bottle it up for so long, it's bound to take a toll on you and those around you. Janna has a deep dark secret and she's too scared, embarrassed, repressed and at a loss of who to tell and what to do about it. So she starts to feel guilt and starts to blame herself for not being able to do anything about the situation and for not speaking up about it.
As a result of keeping this deep and painful secret, there's three categories of people in Janna's world:
Saints: like Sarah who lives what she believes and practices what she models and conveys others to model as well.
Misfits: like Janna who doesn't quite know where she fits in the world. She's religious like Saint Sarah and abides by the Islam rules and cultural traditions. She wears her hijab and participates in Muslim quiz bowl. She's even making a graphic novel version of the lives of one of the saints. BUT she does like Jeremy - who is not Muslim. She's crushing on him hard. And it's hard to come to terms with that. She's also still dizzy from her parents' divorce.
Monsters: there's the pain monster of this story: a hypocrite who pretends to be pious, but is part of the deep, dark secret.

What I liked about this novel: it shows life in all its messiness. It shows the conflict between culture and commercialized reality. It highlights the struggle of wanting to stay true to religious beliefs, yet still not being able to help who you fall for. I liked her dad's positive emails, the relationship with her poetry loving neighbor and how each character has a dark and good side; no one is wholly saint or wholly monster.

Story features Janna, an Egyptian, and Indian Muslin who is dealing with her family and life as a Muslin teen. I am not Muslim but do have friends who are also when I was young, I grew up in minority is a very small protestant town and was teased about my looks and religion as I walked to and from school. I had friends in the same situation so we just learned to ignore them and walk another way to school.

This story is disturbing and one that deserves reading, it has a unique perspective.
My comments certainly aren’t giving justice to this story. Many great reviews~ you may want to check and read.
I do believe this story will make a great classroom as well as book club discussions.

Want to thank NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing for this eGalley granted to me for an honest professional review.

3.8 stars!!
I really enjoyed how familiar this book felt, it's more comforting than I can say. Reading about Muslims being happy and just living normal lives with normal problems always leaves me in a good mood. I loved Nuah and tats and Muhammad the smitten kityen (he's such a dork sometimes but it was adorable how smitten he is😂) I love Tats and Janna's friendship💕 and Janna's uncle because he's just awesome. So I really enjoyed all these things, I just wish the crush didn't take up so much space in the story to be honest. And I had problems with Janna and how she acted/reacted to things sometimes, I couldn't understand her and disagreed with some of the things she's done. I know she's young but I think old enough to not say something like she did at the restaurant with Muhammad and Sarah. I definitely understand she has many feelings and is growing, and by the end I liked all the conclusions she reached and how she dealt with the many things going on. I felt for her in the scenes where the monster was there, I liked that S.K.Ali chose to talk about something so so important like this. I hate that guy, he's disgusting and vile. I'm happy Janna can now have a little peace and heal, and seeing as I'm writing this after reading the sequel I can definitely say she's grown and developed and is healing and on her way to building the life she wants and doing great things. It's always a delight reading S. K. Ali's books and I can't wait for future ones💖💖💖

I read this book as a part of the Turn the Pages Blog Tour for Misfit In Love.

Saints and Misfits was a book that I had on my radar since it released but just never picked up until now-- and boy was that a mistake! I really loved this book and I wish I had read it when it released because I needed a book like this at that time in my life. I was still in high school and navigating some really thought things for a teenager, and I think that seeing Janna's strength (and her stress) would have been so validating. But even now this book still stuck with me. The plot of the story delved deeper than I expected, and the characters were all so complex and tangible. Janna is 100% the star of the show, and throughout the whole book I just wanted to give her a massive hug.

Overall, I read a story so much more impactful than I ever could have imagined and I cannot wait to dive into Misfit in Love!!

Trigger Warning: Attempted sexual assault

Janna experiences an attempted rape by someone she thought was a good person. To top it off he happens to be the cousin of her close friends and an avid contributor to the community. Throughout this story you'll feel the struggle Janna has, and sometimes the anxiety/panic attacks she gets, when she sees the "Monster".

I liked the concept of Misfits, Saints, and Monsters. Janna feels more like a "Misfit" in this one. Her dad has a new family and she doesn't feel like she fits in with them and to add to the discomfort she's got a crush on a boy that doesn't really fit into her world.

I really enjoyed the representation in this story. I don't know much about the Muslim community or religion so I appreciated the content around Janna and her beliefs. As a person who comes from a household with divorce I related to Janna and the conflict she had with what happened between her parents. I think family dynamics from different points of views or experiences is important and I'm glad we got to see that in this book.

I would recommend this to anyone looking for a good Own Voices YA Contemporary that deals with learning to cope with sexual assault, friendships, family dynamics, and religion. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to pick this one up and you'll have to check out my review of book two posting soon!

Besides loving the cover of this book, the story itself was great and very relevant. The writing, at times, was choppy and I found myself having to reread large chunks of the book over to reacquaint myself with who was speaking or what was happening. Some of the characters didn’t quite ring true or didn’t seem fully developed, but overall I found the book to be satisfying and a necessary read. I read it when it first came out and still recommend it.

Trigger Warning : Sexual assault, proximity to assaulter, death

This is one of the most powerful books I've read in a while. It took so much out of me to read this, but at the end of the day, it was all worth it. This follows the story of a teenager, Janna, and her life in high school, after she's assaulted by someone she trusted, a family friend, at a place she felt was safe ie her friend's house.

It's Janna's journey of coming to terms with what happened to her, and gathering courage to talk about it with people who mattered. It was her journey of learning how to fight for herself.

The entire story is Janna becoming the person she wants to be, fighting all the obstacles in her way to become a better version of herself everyday. She grows and learns and unlearns a lot of things she knew about society and herself, and tries to find her place in it all.

I loved that the writing is just simple and straight forward. No flowery language or gorgeous imagery. In many ways, it felt like I was having a conversation with another person, which added to my experience of the book.

The storyline is very sensitive and it was handled so beautifully. Ali doesn't shy away from telling it as it is. Things get ugly and they get bad, and so much of the book actually makes you angry. The entire incident and the aftermath are handled really well, and I'm really grateful for that.

This story talks a lot about how people are perceived in the society because of the things they do or know or the family they come from, and who they actually are, and how reconciling those two identities is not always easy for others. How a projected image may make someone refuse to acknowledge that someone can be bad or wrong. I love how that conflict was handled in the story as well. The author has done such a brilliant job in showing the contrast between what people think a person is and who they actually are. I'm in awe.

It also goes into talking about religion, specifically Islam, and Janna's choice to wear the hijab and how that decision is perceived by the others, even her own father, and how she deals with it, but doesn't back down, because wearing it his her choice. I really loved all thr conversation around that because people kept assuming that doing so took away Janna's choice while they were the ones who actually wouldn't let her make her own choices and let her wear the hijab because she wanted to. It was handled so beautifully and it brought tears to my eyes. Absolutely wonderful.

I really can't think of a bad thing to say about this. It's such a beautifully heartbreaking story, and it makes you question so much, but it's a very cathartic experience for the reader, and for that I'm grateful.

This is definitely a read I would recommend to everyone.

I enjoyed some of this book. Learning a bit about another culture and religion I know nothing about was interesting. I thought that including the assault and how it was handled based around the Muslim religion was done well. And I just don't know enough about the religion to say whether it was portrayed accurately or not or if there was leniency that there shouldn't have been. But I would hope a Muslim author would get it pretty well! I might be interested in the sequel but I'm not in a rush to buy it. It's out today!

Janna Yusuf is a junior in high school who spends time with her friends Tatyana and Fizz, works hard in school and and at her mosque, and spends time taking care of her elderly neighbor, Mr. Ram. When she is sexually assaulted by her friend Fizz's cousin Farooq, Janna feels powerless and guilty. She holds everything inside and tries to go through life as if nothing had happened. With some help from unexpected people, Janna will learn more about herself and life in general and will find the strength to stand up to the monsters in her life.

I enjoyed this heartbreaking and realistic story. The characters and situations were well described and seemed to pop right off the page. I learned quite a bit about Muslim culture and practices as I read, which helped inform me even though I believe something different. There are good lessons about family, relationships, faith, life, and overcoming assault in this book. I think there are some who could definitely benefit from the strength the girls in the story show as they face their fears and those who did them harm. I recommend it and am looking forward to reading the sequel.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. A positive review was not required, and all opinions expressed are entirely my own.

The book seemed very topical with its themes of consent and sexual assault but didn't seem too preachy. I liked how the main character was an Egyptian Muslim teenager and the bits of information they included for those unfamiliar with Islam and its practices were helpful and not clunky.

This book was so cute. The perfect balance of obstacles and overcoming. The writing captures the voice of teenage Janna so well, including her imperfections and misunderstandings. The narrative starts off with a fairly jarring picture of description of Janna's interaction with "the monster" and sets things moving with a good amount of tension right off the bat. The story then moves at a comfortable pace, but Janna's struggles and interactions with others continue to build the pressure she faces and the many instances of prejudice and mistreatment she faces.

Janna is a strong character with great integrity and I very much appreciated that in her. For her to be able to hold up her own beliefs and stick with them even in the face of a father who doesn't agree with them was incredibly inspiring. I'm glad that she had support from the rest of her family, but it still spoke so strongly to me that she was able to be that comfortable in her convictions.

This is a great presentation of the many ways that prejudice slips in to teenage life. Teenagers can obviously be cruel...I think most of us who have survived adolescence would agree with that statement...but the things Janna faces are things that I personally would have never considered. To have her be so blatantly disrespected just hurt my soul. The ADULT teacher refusing to learn the correct term and insisting that she needed to use the word "hajib" instead of the correct "hijab" because she can't pronounce it seriously irritated me, yet I know that there are people out there who do this.

I loved the characters in this book all around. I definitely want more from some of the supporting characters, so I am glad that there is a sequel being released. Janna's friends and family have great personalities that come through incredibly clear and I love the way they interact.

There were some pieces of the plot that I felt were a little loosely addressed and I wish more attention had been given to them. I can't really explain those issues without spoilers. However, I think the crux of the plot was delivered in a bit more of a telling than showing way in the climax and this was a bit of a disappointment. It did nearly cause me to lower my rating by a star because things were going so well for the remainder of the book that I just felt let down. The rest of the plot, including the ending wrap-up, was really well handled.

There was a LOT of Muslim culture presented in the narrative and I loved how that was delivered. It wasn't forced, but instead flowed naturally into Janna's activities and thoughts. This was very well done and I enjoyed learning more about the culture in a way that didn't seem judgmental or in-your-face. It was educational without being intimidating. There were some issues with consistency on Janna's part in a specific scene in the book that I wish was handled better. It sounds as if I am in the majority with this as Islamic readers have also voiced concern with the blase attitude Janna takes during a scene in gym class. Beyond that instance, I think there was a lot of positive that was presented and I think it is a good read for those unfamiliar with Islam to grow in their knowledge and understanding of the culture and religious beliefs.

This is a fantastic YA read and I highly recommend it. I love S.K. Ali's writing and I will ABSOLUTELY be reading more of her work in the future.

* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *

I will not be reading and reviewing this title as I cannot gain access to it through the Netgalley app and I can not get it sent to my Kindle, unfortunately.