Thank you so much to Net Galley and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book! I loved this book so much! Words cannot express! I would love to read more by Safia Elhilo

Safia Elhillo has a beautiful voice and ability to capture relatable and moving prose. So many instances of what it's like to be seen or unseen, what family and childhood can do to shape us, and how we fit in places that don't have shapes for us.

This was a great poetry book. I always absolutely enjoy her work and I can't wait to read more in the near future. I highly recommend it.

This was such a fascinating read and honestly not what I expected which made it all the better! Beautiful writing.

Such a beautiful story that really pulled at my heart in so many different ways. I truly felt the yearning that Nima had for her homeland that she's never seen.

I loved the poetic storytelling. The writing was lush and so lyrical.

Nima struggling with her identity and her parents past was well explored and definitely had me empathizing with her.

I really enjoyed seeing the parallel of Yasmeen and the "possible".

At once haunting and beautiful, this is a book I highly recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

A great addition to any middle school or high school library. Home Is Not a Country will appeal to immigrant children who are struggling with identity.

I love novels in verse that are poignant and so well written. This is a powerful book about a young Sudanese immigrant girl who finds herself in the US and does not fit in. Nima is the teenage daughter to a single mother who is trying her best to assimilate into America that doesn’t want Muslims.

The author gives Nima the opportunity to explore a different life under the alter ego, Yasmeen. She is shown what life could have been like if events in her past could have gone differently. Only Nima can decide if the life that is portrayed is better than the one she is currently living.

So beautifully written.

5 stars

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

Home is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo is a captivating tale of a girl, Nima, torn between two worlds: the life she has and the life she wishes she could have. The more she wishes herself to become Yasmeen, the name her mother almost gave her, the more Yasmeen becomes real. Next thing you know, Nima finds herself fighting against a possibility.

I’m a huge fan of novels written in verse (shoutout to Elizabeth Acevedo). However, I took a while adjusting to this style. I wasn’t a huge fan of the spacing replacing much of the punctuation. The structure looked almost incomplete on the page, but I think that worked to be a major enhancement of the story.

There are pieces missing, necessary ones, but the gaps still serve a function, and the work is complete.

“do you actually understand how boring it is

waiting to be made possible?”

Safia Elhillo, Home is Not a Country
Home is Not a Country itself is a fascinating rendering of magical realism. You follow this girl, Nima, living at the intersection of so many experiences. She is a Muslim American girl. She’s too “ethnic” to fit in with the white kids who bully her in the days soon after 9/11. She’s also too American, not knowing how to dance like her mother, or speak the language.

There is the duality of her wanting to belong in two places in which she does not truly feel accepted in either place.

For me, this book was about home not being a place, but people. But there is also duality of experiencing comfort and love, but also guilt and strife. And this is where the ethereal Yasmeen comes in. Yasmeen is a constant reminder of Nima’s shortcomings and a manifestation of everything she could be.

I’ll be honest, this book started off really slow for me. I did not appreciate the build up in the first half of the book. When Yasmeen appeared, this is when the book got exponentially better for me. And the end! Worth all the slow burn in the beginning. Overall, I really enjoyed the story. For all the negatives I experienced, the positives greatly outweighed them. The theme was great, for both young adult and adultier adult readers.

I definitely recommend, especially as a multigenerational buddy read!

4.5 stars, rounded up to 5.*

Wow. This year of reading is starting out with an incredibly high bar. So far I've read only fantastic books and it's only 15 days into the year!!

I'd read a lot of buzz about Home Is Not A Country, and I knew I would like it based on the title. I did not expect such a gentle, yet powerful piece of work. It is a novel in prose, about a young Sudanese immigrant girl in the US who does not and cannot fit in. I will not do it justice by trying to explain. But it is a short novel, and each word chosen intentionally. Powerful, evocative and emotional.

Highly recommended.

*Sadly, I missed the deadline to read this one as an ARC because it was archived before I got to it. Nonetheless it was a great book. With thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read & review, despite my poor time management skills!

Home Is Not a Country was so transportive. The writing was gorgeous and really kept my attention from the first page. While I read the beautiful words, it was almost as if I was seeing everything happen from right above it all. The author did such a great job at really making it feel like you were part of the book. The characters were complex and easy to love. It was an effortless read and I’m really thankful I got to read it.

Nima is haunted by the ghost of the girl she could have been. Quite literally, but we will get to that in due time. The teenage daughter of a single mother, Nima, an immigrant, is trying to assimilate in an America that is none too kind to Muslims. Poet Safia Elhillo's Home Is Not a Country, a novel in verse, tells Nima's story as she explores her roots and culture, and tries to make peace with her past.

The first thing you notice about Home Is Not a Country, naturally, is Elhillo's beautiful use of language. This can be expected for a story in verse, written by a poet, but it makes Nima's innermost thoughts feel all the more intimate and powerful at the same time. Nima is a girl struggling with who she is, as many teenage girls do. The only difference is that Nima is a Muslim immigrant to the United States, which makes her journey through adolescence all the more difficult. She laments that maybe if she was born with the name her mother intended - Yasmeen - everything would be different for her. Maybe she wouldn't be so awkward. Maybe her peers wouldn't ridicule her. Maybe she wouldn't feel so alone.

With a touch of magical realism, Elhillo gives Nima the opportunity to explore this other life through her alter ego - Yasmeen. In this Christmas Carol-esque twist, Yasmeen shows Nima what life might have been like had events of the past gone differently. If she had been born Yasmeen. Will Nima like what she sees in this alternate world or will she finally appreciate the sacrifices her mother has made for her and savor the life they have built together in America?

Home Is Not a Country is a moving, introspective novel that you can read in one sitting. The book effectively tackles issues of identity, assimilation, racism, and family, and invites readers in to the private inner workings of a Muslim family. You get to know Nima's brave mother, her popular best friend, her deceased father ... but most importantly, you get to learn about Nima as she learns about herself. Teenage girls will see themselves and their struggle within Nima, regardless of their race or heritage, and will be able to relate to this candid and sensitive girl as she learns the true definition of family and home.

POWERFUL!!!! To read a story about how do I fit in/belong in a world were I myself is lost was PHENOMENAL!! The verses are fire and hit close to home!!

How does one belong in a world with little representation of a BIPOC. Truly one of the best in verse books I’ve ever read!! Thank you netgalley for the eARC

“i feel warm in the yellow
in my belonging to her as she names me
my precious girl
my graceful one”

This was my favorite poetry book I read this year. It really captured the heartache a second-generation young immigrant might have in wanting more for their parents and themselves, as well as the struggle in balancing two different cultures in a westernized environment. I loved the way Elhillo added fantasy and magical realism in a realistic fiction novel. Adding those two elements in the story showed the disconnected feelings Nima had in wanting to connect with her mother, her culture, and in herself. Definitely worth picking up, and it’s a book I would love to get a physical copy of since it’s something I’d want to reread once in a while.

Thank you Random House Children’s and Netgalley for providing me an eARC of Home is Not a Country in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoy novels written in version. This book did a beautiful job conveying the feelings of a young girl born to immigrant parents. Thank you Penguin Random House for the advance copy.

I feel really bad about how late I am reviewing this but better late than never! It came to my attention again when it was nominated for the Goodreads Poetry Award and for good reason. I loved the magical realism aspect that really comes out about halfway through with Yasmeem. While the poetry aspect isn't as prominent as other books (the enjambment and line breaks don't often accentuate anything, and like most modern poetry books there's no rhyming), I really enjoyed it for its story and for the Christmas Carol-esc character development Nima experiences in the last quarter of the book. If you like narrative poetry like Elizabeth Acevedo or Brown Girl Dreaming, you'll enjoy this book. You'll also enjoy it if you like magical realism and/or personal journeys.

What a beautiful book!!!! The writing was just perfect and the story brought up so many thinsg I had never even thought of. Loved it!

I had a hard time getting into this book and I actually ended up dnfing it. I thought it would be interesting to me but it couldn’t hold my interest.

Such a haunting and emotional look into grief, family, origins, and identity. Absolutely adored it and would recommend it to anyone who's looking for a moving tale.

I am so excited to see kore novels in verse, and Sofia has done a masterful job in creating an engaging and moving story in poem. I am so fortunate to have read this in advance.