*HUGE thanks to Salaam Reads/Simon & Schuster, Netgalley & S.K. Ali for the eGalley copy of Saints and Misfits

PLOT

Before I get into my review of this wonderful gemstone of a book, I'd like to include two #Ownvoices reviews I found on Goodreads. Both Leenahreads (Muslim & Arab) & Hadeer (Muslim & Egyptian) give a perspective that is much needed in the community & appreciated by this bookworm. Also, today is the release day for Saints and Misfits & on behalf of LairOfBooks, I'd like to wish S.K. Ali a very happy book birthday!!!

In Saints and Misfits we follow our main protagonist Janna Yusuf who is a Arab Indian-American hijabi teen navigating life within her Muslim community & High School. Janna finds herself having a major crush on Jeremy, a Irish student in her school that is non-Muslim. With these feelings come a slew of questions we get to see Janna find answers to along the way. We are introduced to Janna's family & friends as well as the community she is very involved with. The daughter of divorced/co-parenting parents, living with her mom & slightly older brother...Janna & her family are already viewed as different within their own community. Having a crush on a non-Muslim boy complicates things for her & to add to her plate, she's harboring a hurtful secret. Janna doesn't know whether she will be believed if she speaks up since the secret is about a respected individual in the community. This is a story about self reflection, family, community, identity, friendship, strength, faith & courage to face your fears.

CHARACTERS

Ever come across a fictional character who has qualities you yourself wish you possessed? such is the case with my admiration of Janna Yusuf. She is by no means perfect but strong willed and firm in her beliefs. Like any teenager she deals with High School crushes and social pressures both on & offline. Seeing her navigate through certain situations gives you a feeling that you're reading one confident character. For the most part Janna is confident which was refreshing, I loved seeing her take pride in wearing Hijab. Janna's sarcasm proved to be one of my fave qualities since witty characters always win me over. Perhaps my most favorite trait of Jannas is her interactions with those around her & how empathetic she is even when she doesn't want to be lol. I also loved the relationship between Janna and her slightly older brother Muhammad. Throughout the book Janna's older brother is courting another Muslim girl his age & he has asked Janna to supervise their dates. Janna does so even though she's not a fan of his romantic interest & in doing so we get to see them spend more time around one another. It was nice seeing Muhammad be so attentive to Janna that he was able to pick up on there being something wrong. His genuine concern for his little sister made me wish he was my big brother *sobs*

Janna also has a non-Muslim bestie  who I'm just going to go ahead and say it....Tats = Ride or Die Bestie for life! Tats is such an amazing friend to Janna & respectful of her beliefs even when social pressure got in the mix. Of course they had moments where Tats didn't understand fully but it wasn't for lack of trying. Ultimately Tats respected Janna & had her back, love seeing positive f/f relationships. Lastly, one of my fave characters was Mr. Ram who lived in Janna's complex and who Janna would take to/from a community center fro the elderly. Mr. Ram has a passion for poetry & for encouraging Janna to pursue what makes her happy whether it's sketching or photography. He imparted so much wisdom to Janna & just loved life so much his good spirits were contagious right through the page. There were many other characters in this book but I fear that going into them all would take away from the fun it was getting to know them. Overall, an amazing cast of characters!

WRITING & FINAL THOUGHTS

I have so much love for this book I don't even know where to start honestly! as a diverse blogger, I know the importance of seeing these books on our shelves. Most recently I read a Latinx YA book that left me smiling from ear to ear because I saw myself on the pages. In reading reviews such as the ones I linked in the intro to my review, I get a sense that this will be the case for many Muslim, Hijab, Arab, Indian-American readers. I can honestly say this book gave me so much more than a few hours of enjoyment, the lessons I took away are of much higher value. S.K. Ali organically wove bits & pieces of culture, religion, and faith throughout Saints and Misfits making for a rich reading experience. Our main protagonist is holding onto a hurtful secret & Ali gives us a realistic view of the situation. What it really would be like to expose a religious leader & the ugly truth of it all. A strong message is delivered ,many will stand against you but also, many will stand WITH you. The strong theme of community at the core plays an integral role in Janna's life & I believe Ali captured that well with Saints and Misfits. I 100% reccomend this book to any & all, I just can't wait to read more from S.K. Ali! :)

Will you be picking up Saints and Misfits today? If you've already read & reviewed, please drop a link & I'll most def swing by your corner of the interwebz ;)

***Set to go live on LairOfBooks at 10am June 13th Release day, Blog & Goodreads review links will then be added to this review***

Wow. This was powerful. I couldn't put it down, and it gave me such a big book hangover. I stayed up past my bedtime to finish!

Janna is such a complex and dynamic heroine, and I loved being in her head. Her quiet strength drew me to her instantly. Ali's writing is compelling, and I really liked how she explored the contrast of expectations between Janna's father and mother, between her religious beliefs and societal pressure. Janna was strong through it all, and her vibrant perspective had me rooting for her from the first pages. The contrast of the heartwarming and heartbreaking parts of Janna's life was so poignant, and I fell in love with so many of the supporting characters. I really hope I get to read more from Ali soon. (Spinoff, please?!)

Janna Yusuf is an ordinary teenager who sometimes has fights with her single mother, who loves to read and works hard for school. But she is also the girl who wears an hijab, who does voluntary work with her elderly neighbour and who is in love with a non-Muslim boy named Jeremy. Her life is already complicated enough, but then her brother moves back in and courts Saint Sarah, the perfect and angelic girl of the community. And then there is Farooq who has been memorizing the Quran and is the preferred wunderkind of the community. But this is just one side of him, Janna also knows the other face of him: Farooq the stalker and molester who tried to rape her. Caught between those extremes in her life, Janna tries to find out who she is and which values she wants to follow in her life.

This is not just a typical coming-of-age novel of a young girl struggling with typical teenage problems. What is most interesting in S.K. Ali’s novel is the fact of living between two cultures or better: between two worlds which collide from time to time and which expect different codes to be obeyed from the people walking in them.

Janna is a really lovable character. She is neither the perfect nor the rebellious teenager, she shows different moods and has good days and bad days. She is a caring person, but nevertheless admits that taking care of her neighbour is paid which is an advantage. Yet, she enjoys spending time with the old man who triggers her reflection about herself and life. She is also quite attentive and a minute observer of the behaviour of her classmates and the people around her. She knows the rules of the Quran and follows them, but at times, she also wants to be free and live the life according to her own standards. The author portrays those contradictions in the girls really convincingly and thus paints a multifaceted picture of Janna.

Apart from the question which or rather whose expectations a believing young woman will fulfil, there was one aspect which I myself as a Christian found pretty noteworthy. Janna has a friend who wears a niqab. She herself has only decided for a headscarf which she only takes off for her all-girl sports lessons or at home. But when she feels increasingly stalked by Farooq, she begins to wonder about wearing a niqab which could make her disappear from the people’s sight. A completely covered woman becomes invisible and she would like to be unseen at times. From her story it is easy to follow and understand this thought and I think it is an important aspect in the discussion about Muslim women and their covering.

Even though I highlighted the religious ones, there are many more interesting and remarkable aspects in the novel which make it for me an absolutely outstanding book in the mass of coming-of-age novels. The cast of characters is unique and none of them is flat and one-dimensional, the plot itself offers much food for thought and is all but the typical off-the-rack foreseeable novel of the genre.

During a heated political time, Ali has created a story for all cultures meant to explain the values and customs of what it means for one Muslim community and Muslim woman in America. Growing up with a more traditional Muslim family, Janna has to reconcile crushing on a non-Muslim boy, high school bullies, unsupportive friends, and conflicting emotions about being sexually assaulted by a monster—a covert monster who receives high praise in the Muslim community. Those who seem pious are anything but, and while Janna battles contradictions in her faith, she must also struggle with everyday life of being a teenage girl, including a nosy mother and annoying older brother. An honorable multicultural high school read, I have to admit that this story lost its momentum. I found myself skimming through dialogue. This slow pace fails with the quickened and perfect ending—unrealistic in its perfection. Blink and all of the angst and struggle disappears. The saints, misfits, and monster analogy/chapter labeling makes the novel more juvenile in this teen world. Amina’s Voice and It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel possess more poignancy tied in with historical value. I did enjoy Mr. Ram’s secret handshakes and Janna’s duty to correct her uncle’s overly formal responses to Muslim-American questions; the relationships Ali builds are solid, endearing, and relatable. Saints and Misfits is a commendable debut novel but one that I hesitate to recommend, even though I have seen great praise thus far.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Salaam Reads/Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali (Salaam Reads/Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing, 2017)

I really admired that this book was about more than just changing the way others see Muslims. While there is an element of Islamophobia in the plot, its a minor element. Its more about how Muslims view themselves and each other. Its about looking past the front someone presents to try and discover their true self. There are a lot of small conflicts. Some resolve some not. I think that makes it more true to life. There are a lot of unresolved issues at the novel's close as well. Some feel organic. Others feel like forgotten strings.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Saints & Misfits is a stellar debut novel from S.K. Ali, about Janna Yusef, a teenage hijabi with questions about herself, her religion, and her community.

I knew a bit about Islam before going into this book, but reading an #ownvoices novel with a main character talking about her everyday life, the aspirations of the people like her, and the difficulties in reconciling some aspects of Western life with an Eastern religion, made me feel like I wasn't only reading a novel. I was learning along the way: the difference between a hijab and a niqab, the variety and times of use for a hijab, prayer times, etc.

The sense of community in Saints and Misfits was tremendous, even as Janna struggled with how to deal with an attempted rape by a respected member with the community. Ultimately, the people from her mosque, her family, her friends, they were mostly there for her. There was support for causes, such as Sarah with her ideals for supporting victims of domestic abuse and welcoming in people from the non-Muslim community, like Janna's friend Tats. Muhammad, Janna's brother, was also there for her growing up and in the course of the current story, helping her to deal with their parents' divorce, their father's confusion over Janna's decision to be a hijab. There was Mr. Ram, a Hindu neighbor in Janna's apartment building, that offered her what he could in the way of poetry and jokes, despite her not always paying attention.

There was even Sausun, another Muslim teen like Janna, but who is choosing to wear a face veil as opposed to a simpler head covering like Janna. Though these two had their differences, though Sausun's personality was harsher compared to Janna, she learned from Sausun how to stand up for herself against the monster that was standing against her, both the literal one she feared no one would believe her about and the one within her: self-doubt, guilt, shame. Each of these people taught her things, taught her what she needed to know in order to become the young woman she is at the end of the novel.

Now, I did find it a little hard to keep up with the timing in the novel. Everything, with the exception of what happened between Janna and the monster, happens in a relatively short period of time. Three weeks, I think, but the day to day transitions were a bit blurry to me.

Janna's interests weren't as much a feature of her personality as it seemed they would be from the description in the summary. For a "Flannery O'Connor book nerd", I can't think of more than​a couple of times that she or one of her books was mentioned. The same goes for her interest in photography. It only matters in one instance of taking pictures for her Amu and then any other pictures taken are hardly out of the ordinary for a teen with a cellphone. I didn't get the sense, in the course of the novel, that Janna was quite as interested in these things to the extent that the summary made her out to be, which was disappointing because I love books about book nerds.

There was a bit of an open ending regarding the conclusion of the novel and the "solving" of Janna's problem, which didn't bother me exactly but did leave me with questions about what would happen to a few characters and in a few situations after the story closed.

S.K. Ali is going to be a writer to watch. This was an enormously pleasing book to read. The writing was smooth and didn't lag. The characters shared a lot within their community, but managed to have their individual natures push through. I started this on the first day of Ramadan and was somewhat sad to finish it the next day because it meant that there was no more of Ali's writing to read for now. Here's hoping another book is forthcoming and soon!

(this is an arc so it may be different from the finished novel)

Pros: Getting the viewpoint of one arab-indian muslim teen girls life which is important to mention because throughout the story you see that her identity is important. It is something that is apart of her everyday. One of the things that I had to think about is that this is probably the only book that shows a teen (or adult) whose religion is prominent in their life.

Another thing that surprised me out the gate is how dark this book is (which would not if I had really read the synopsis…). It brought up some Muslim intra-faith and interfaith conversations up (liking these contemporaries bringing up issues in a way that many poc deal with them. Not everyday is a heavy day). It is an everyday contemporary dealing with her everyday issues being a teen: school, dating, and etc.

Cons: I did not like this story as much as I expected/wanted to. Part of it is possibly because I did not like My So Called Life.

Meh: (disclaimer all things that I did not like can probably be attributed to this being from point of view of a teen so yeah) Janna- I did not like her most of the time and her evolution felt out of nowhere. She was so judgmental, selfish, and mean. It felt like she kept people at a distance from her (probably because of the event that happened at beginning of book) but it felt like she was just there at times and nobody was actually her friend.

There were so many things I liked about this book, but the most important aspect for me was how Ali was sharing her culture and religion with me. I am a huge proponent of learning more about people, who hold different beliefs from ourselves so that we can build bridges. In my adult life, I have met many Muslims, but I still have a lot to learn and found some of what Ali shared very insightful. I've never read anything that immersed me in Muslim culture like this story. Everyday life for a Muslim teen is incredibly similar to that of a similarly devout Christian teen. Ali wrote many aspects of the Muslim religion seamlessly into the story and taught me some things without getting preachy.

"There are diverse ways of reading texts, depending on who you are. We all access books differently."

This quote stopped me dead in my tracks, as I get very frustrated with the social media wars. I accept that the collective "we" bring different experiences to the table, and it was such a relevant point Ali raised. The context was fascinating too.

Saint. Misfit. Monster. These are titles bandied around within this story of self-discovery. Janna often identifies as a "misfit" - she is a book nerd, avid photographer, academic over-achiever, who likes boys with high foreheads, and one high forehead, in particular, belongs to a non-Muslim boy. While Janna is struggling with this "crush," she is also grappling with exposing a so-called "saint" for the monster he is. A horrible, terrible, awful thing happened to Janna, and she accepted to carry this burden by herself, because the perpetrator dons his "saint" mask for the community, whereas, Janna has gotten herself into a few compromising situations. Right there, Ali illustrated the way many victims are made to feel. The burden of proof is on the victim, and any of their indiscretions are used against them. So instead, Janna lives in fear of him and withers away inside. These parts were written quite effectively because I felt and shared Janna's pain. I wanted to reach into the page and harm the "monster."

As far as main characters go, Janna was very likable. She was bright, driven, artistic and funny. Ali effortlessly intertwined huge issues such as assault, bullying, taboo dating, divorce, and victimization with levity and joy.

I loved this book. I loved it, I loved it, I loved it.

I will try to write a coherent review, though mostly I just feel like squeezing this book and hugging it tight and typing something nonsensical in all-caps, so forgive me if this isn’t especially eloquent. As a Muslim woman (and Egyptian! like the protagonist of this novel! I’ve literally never read about an Egyptian girl before!), this book meant so much to me. I’ve been reading for as long as I can remember, but I do not recall ever reading a book where I saw myself and my community represented. Especially not in such a positive light. I am so happy this book exists now. Not only that, I am so happy that it is a good book. A positively excellent, hilarious, entertaining book that I will be recommending to every single Muslim girl I know.

Janna Yusuf is a high school sophomore with plenty of wit and snark to spare. The story is told entirely in her perspective, which is fantastic, because Janna is one of the most realistic, likeable protagonists I’ve ever come across. She’s hilarious, sarcastic, intelligent, and oddly self-aware for a teenager. She’s also half-Egyptian, half-Indian, Muslim, and a hijabi. She’s a part-time photographer, part-time graphic novelist, part-time Flannery O’Connor geek.

There are no stereotypes in this book. Out of habit, I tensed when the older brother Muhammad was introduced, because I am so used to Muslim men, especially older brothers, portrayed as misogynistic oafs. But Muhammad is delightful – your typical annoying older brother, sweet, charming, caring. He wants to study philosophy and marry his “girlfriend,” whom Janna refers to as “Saint Sarah” because she seems to be perfect (though there’s more to her than meets the eye)!

Janna’s uncle, an imam at the local mosque, answers religious questions with humor and wisdom. Janna’s father is ultra-liberal and secular, now married to a white woman. When we first meet him, he loudly proclaims to anyone who will listen that he would rather his daughter wear a bikini rather than a burkini – not the best thing to say, but still, a refreshing change of pace from what we’re used to seeing of Muslim fathers.

Another great character is Sausun, a niqabi girl who also wears Doc Martens and is the Muslim equivalent of goth/emo teen. She’s tough as nails, hosts a YouTube show about niqabis, and absolutely shatters any stereotypes about women who wear niqabs. The niqab itself, the act of wearing one, is given nuance: Sausun implies she wears it because she wants to decide who is worthy of seeing her face. Janna talks about the protection the niqab offers, to someone who perhaps might wish to see but not be seen.

And then there’s Nuah! A black Muslim boy who clearly has a crush on Janna (though she doesn’t see it until the end of the book), he’s sweet, optimistic, and silly. I loved him so, so much. Please, give me a sequel to this where Janna and Nuah are dating!

Not all is rosy, however: the main conflict in the book is that Janna has been sexually assaulted by Farooq, a boy who has memorized the Qu’ran and is seen as the most pious Muslim around. For those of you non-Muslims out there who don’t know, memorizing the Qu’ran is a big freaking deal. Doing it pretty much guarantees you’re untouchable, which is why Janna has such a difficult time telling anyone what happened. She worries people won’t believe her, especially as Farooq has started talking about how Janna is “straying” from Islam. Janna is also hesitant to say anything for fear of making her community look bad.

There are two important things I want to say about all this:

1. There’s a slang term in the Muslim community called “wallah bro.” It is used to describe a Muslim man who thinks waaaay too much of his own alleged piety and takes the time out of his day to admonish Muslim girls on how they should behave. Wallah bros, a side effect of patriarchy as it manifests in Muslim communities, are pervasive and annoying as hell. Now, Farooq, attempted rapist, takes this to a whole new level, but he still displays the utter hypocrisy of a wallah bro when he posts vague statuses on Facebook about how it’s “sad” that Muslim girls are straying from their religion (in response to Janna accidentally being seen without her hijab), when he’s literally going around assaulting women. Growing up Muslim, I’ve witnessed this hypocrisy so many times that it was so validating to see it utterly destroyed here on the page.

2. When Janna talks about not wanting to make her community look bad, my heart hurt. I completely understood. No community is perfect, but non-Muslims are always so ready to talk about backwards Muslims and men who beat their wives and savage religions that it’s difficult to say anything in criticism of your own culture, for fear of it being co-opted by others. It’s not that our cultures shouldn’t be criticized – but these outsiders looking in, blinded by prejudice and ignorance, simplify an enormously complex issue to suit their racist existing narratives.

I fully expect this book to see criticism from such people who will insist that the representation of the Muslim community in this book is “too positive” or “unrealistic” or whatever. To those people, I would say two things: first, screw you for thinking that Muslim communities can’t be good and kind and supportive. Second, yes, Muslims communities have their issues. You know what? So does literally every other community. We’re not special. What is special about us is that we’re nearly always portrayed negatively, so let us catch a fucking break for once. We don’t always have to talk about our intra-community problems just because that’s the narrative that people have come to expect.

This is one of very, very, very few #ownvoices books about Muslims by a Muslim, and it’s lost in a sea of books written by non-Muslims that portray us as violent sadists at best, ignorant savages at worst. It’s nice to have some positive representation for once. We deserve it. If that bothers you, work hard to make sure that thousands of other #ownvoices books about Muslims flood the publishing industry, so we can see more variety of stories.

Anyway: you guys, this book was so, so, so good. Every time I read something in this book that I related to, I got this…jolt. Like, hey, yeah, that’s me! That’s my family! That’s my community! It was an amazing feeling. Is this what everyone feels when they read books with people they can relate to on such a personal level?

Read this book. Even if you’re not Muslim – actually, especially if you’re not Muslim. Especially if you don’t know much about Muslims or have conflicting feelings about Muslims. You’ll learn a lot. And even if you rarely read YA contemporary, I highly recommend picking this book up. It’s worth your time, I promise. It’s not juvenile or overly preachy and though it discusses many heavy topics, it’s never heavy-handed with them. And I literally could not put it down. Janna’s hilarious and deadpan narration kept me hooked, in a book where not too much happens! This is one of the few books I can see myself reading again and again, and I can’t wait for it to come out so I can buy a copy for my bookshelf.

A well-written and enjoyable book, I am glad I requested this title and will be more than happy to pass the title along to my fellow library purchasers.

This will go live on my blog on June 13. Kellyvision.wordpress.com

Janna is Muslim and wears a hijab. She's potentially disobeying a tenet of Islam by having a major crush on a non-Muslim boy (and yet...) but the bigger story is that a pious boy at her mosque also tried to rape her. It doesn't affect her faith but it does affect a lot of her day-to-day life (he's always around and everyone acts like he's so awesome).

And I love Janna and this feminist story (there are plenty of great guys, yes, but there are also a lot of awesome women. Not all of them, but many of them are kickass ladies). I love that she's so proud of her faith and that she never questions it, even as the jerk who assaulted her is held up as a pillar of Islam. I love her people, who (when they find out) believe her automatically.

And I love that this is a really positive portrayal of Islam (and I've learned a lot about that from this book).

This book is a sheer delight and you should all read it. Highly recommended.

Can't read it because it won't send to my kindle. :(

What an excellent book! I've been hearing buzz about it for a while, so I was eager to read it, and it did not disappoint. I highly recommend this book and am looking forward to reading more from Ali.