Unfortunately, Hope Ablaze was just fine for me. For teens who haven’t read many similar books, this would likely be eye-opening, thought-provoking, and enjoyable, but I’ve just read a lot of other books that have told similar stories and done it better (authors like Elizabeth Acevedo, Mariama J. Lockington, Abdi Nazemian, Safia Elhillo, and more). Comparing a book to anything by Elizabeth Acevedo is a huge risk, and for me the writing, especially the verse, just didn’t live up to that comparison. I do think stories like Hope Ablaze are really important, but as we’re thankfully beginning to get more and more diverse YA stories, publishers and editors need to push for books that offer a unique voice. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.

Rating: 4/5
I received an eARC for my honest opinion.

Wow, this book will leave you with so many emotions and they’re all beautiful. It will give you a whole new look at what Muslims in America have/still are going through after 911. This book will explore the Muslim community, the racism that they endure, islamophobia, American politics and learning to accept oneself.

This book was so beautifully written. I loved the poetry that was mixed into the book, it really helped to understand what Nida was feeling at the moments in her life. I enjoyed how the author really shined a light on the injustice the American Islamic people lived afterwards and how they’re still learning to deal with the actions. I thought learning about the Pakistani culture and a little about their history really helped me to connect with the injustice of it all but to also see the wonderful story that Rana brought to us in this book.

I thought the closeness of the community that Nida lives in was beautiful, everyone is so caring and willing to help out each other at any cost. I loved that the older generation and the younger generation rallied together to help Nida with her wishes at a poetry rally. Also, the ending when they went to vote, I loved how the author explained the thoughts of the people running and how sometimes you must go with the lesser evil one to see a brighter future.

I want to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

nida is a teen poet who feels pressured to fill the shoes of her uncle, who was wrongfully incarcerated under terrorism charges. after nida is illegally frisked at a political rally, she writes an angry letter to the politician, expecting it to come across nobody’s eyes except her own. however, someone submits this letter to a poetry competition, and suddenly, nida has gone viral overnight. after this, she loses the ability to write, and has to learn how to balance this with the expectations of her family, community, and herself.

this was a beautiful book exploring community, racism, islamophobia, american politics, and more. i enjoyed the writing in this book, especially the poems interspersed throughout. i feel like the poems were a good way to more deeply get to know nida.

i highly recommend this book and i’m looking forward to what sarah mughal rana writes next.

The author included Nida’s poetry between many of the primary chapters of the book, which was both a positive and negative thing. I enjoyed the poetry as it was a good way to provide Nida’s inner thoughts as well as some background to her life and events in the book. However, there was a lot of it included, and especially towards the middle and end of the book it drastically slowed down the plot and began to detract from the reading experience. The writing also became rather repetitive, especially with Nida’s inner dialogue. These aspects negatively impacted the pacing of the work and my interest in it.

There was an aspect of magical realism included that just didn’t fit with the rest of the book. It felt like it appeared out of nowhere and wasn’t really explored until well into the book. Even then, the exploration and explanation still left me wanting much more from this aspect, or realistically, for it to not have been included at all.

This book contains some powerful themes relating to finding your voice and inner strength. While these were explored through things that happened, the growth never became apparent in Nida’s character. I wanted so much more from her growth and expected her to blossom by the end but was left wanting more. The remaining characters were too copy-and-paste for me to find them relatable or for them to contribute to the read in a positive way.

I was sure going into this YA read that I would rate it quite highly, but there were too many places where the book was lacking for me to rate it higher and it was a struggle to finish this one. With some tightening up (editing), more development of characters, and deeper exploration/incorporation of the themes, this book could excel. My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

An important and potent voice, Sarah Mughal Rana delivers a YA full of family and identity while asking hard questions that continue to impact many minorities today. A must read for coming of age YA readers of all backgrounds!

I’m so proud of Sarah for writing such an amazing book! Hope Ablaze is a contemporary YA novel with a hint of magical realism and told partly in verse that follows Nida, a Muslim teen finding her voice in a post-9/11 America. As a poet, Nida follows in the footsteps of her uncle, Mamou Abdul-Hafeedh, who was wrongfully incarcerated during the war on terror. But Nida’s poetry letters are her heart and sharing so much of herself with a world that stereotypes her faith and her hijab is not an option.

When Nida is illegally frisked at a Democratic Senatorial candidate’s political rally, she writes a scathing poem about the politician, never expecting the letter to go viral weeks before Election Day. Nida discovers her poem has won first place in a national contest, a contest she never entered, and her quiet life is toppled. But worst of all, Nida loses her ability to write poetry. In the aftermath of her win, Nida struggles to balance the expectations of her mother, her uncle, and her vibrant Muslim community with the person she truly wants to be.

Sarah of course does an excellent job of writing about the experience of being a young visibly Muslim woman in America while dealing with racism and Islamophobia. While the content of the book is heavy at times, I really loved how Sarah wove these scenes with uplifting and hilarious moments. Seeing Nida among her Pakistani family members, other Muslim family friends, and fellow poets was honestly super heartwarming. I found myself cracking up numerous times reading about the shenanigans her mother and aunties got into (iykyk 🐐). The gorgeous art print is also made by @ay.m in case you needed another reason to pick up this book. Congrats Sarah on your debut! 🥳

This one is a difficult one for me to rate, I think this book discusses so many critical concepts such as islamophobia, diaspora, hate crimes, and free speech (to name a few).

Unfortunately, the prose (both poetry and not) didn’t create that sense of action and response from the reader. I found the characters to be caricatures and a lot of the actions they made didn’t make sense. Pairing that with the magical realism that took a sharp turn after 70%, it almost made me feel like I was reading 2 separate books.

The sense of home and family and understanding in this book was very well done. I liked that there was more to find out about family and tradition, as well as seeing a young female character who is very convicted in her religion and beliefs. I learned a few things from Nida, and I appreciate that in a book.

I think this author has a very bright future and I honestly look forward to seeing how her craft grows over the years. There is something important to her work, and I believe hers is a voice worth listening to.

Hope Ablaze is a stunning and heartbreaking book. Nida is a poet, just like her uncle. But when her uncle is wrongfully incarcerated, Nida feels a light inside her go out. The words for her poems don’t seem to come so easily anymore. When Nida is illegally searched at a political rally while she is praying in the park, Nida unleashes her pain into her writing. Nida never expects that her words will be submitted for a poetry competition without her knowledge. Suddenly Nida has lost her words and her connection to poetry. In Hope Ablaze, Nida struggles to balance her family’s expectations, her safety, and the desire to be who she wants to be.

Hope Ablaze was a book that I devoured in a day. It is really hard to put it down. Nida is such a great character and your heart will absolutely break at some of the situations she goes through. The power and pain from Nida’s words shine through and will stay in your mind long after you turn the last page. I loved how Nida’s complicated family situation was shown- she has people who will do anything for her and yet what she most wants is for them to let her be herself. I really appreciated the growth in her relationship with her mom - Nida learns more about why her mom is the way she is.

Hope Ablaze is a beautiful and heartbreaking read, which I would highly recommend to anyone. It does deal with serious topics that will spark important conversations. Nida must confront blatant racism, Islamophobia, and betrayals from people who she trusted. Nida must also develop the courage to speak honestly to her family about her poetry. Readers who enjoyed Sabaa Tahir’s All My Rage and Hannah V. Sawyer’s All the Fighting Parts will love this book. Sarah Mughal Rana is definitely a writer to watch and I can’t wait to see what she writes next!

Thank you to Sarah Mughal Rana, Wednesday Books, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For publisher: My review will be posted on Goodreads, Instagram, Storygraph, Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc.

Will be withholding my review on netgalley + all other sites as long as St. Martin Press is under boycott. Will update with a full review once the boycott is resolved.

A big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC. While I was initially excited to dive into this book, I found that the writing style didn't quite resonate with me. By the halfway point, I started skimming through the poetry sections. Overall, it was an interesting read, but it didn't fully capture my attention

I finally caved and requested this book thanks to Gretal (yet again). It's always weird reading a book written by an author you kind of know. Or in this case, you know their twin sister. I was worried I wasn't going to like this book like so many other muslim contemporary books, but I really enjoyed this one.

This book made me laugh, it made me emotional, and it made me angry. The release of this book coinciding with the genocide in Gaza and the world waking up to the terrorism that is zionism and Israel could not have been more perfect. Everything Nida goes through are things we've been experiencing and seeing with our own eyes. The rage she feels felt like our rage at the world right now. And the hope she has inside of her, is the hope many of us have that something will be different this time.

The interview scene was probably my favourite scene in this entire book. It made me so angry I wanted to break something, especially after seeing this exact scene play out on the news the first few weeks of this genocide when Palestinians were being interviewed and asked to condemn Hamas. Watching Nida fight back and say everything I've always wanted to say was so satisfying. I loved seeing her take charge of her story and find her voice, and also realize she doesn't have to write poetry because of her mamou or stop writing poetry because of her mom, but she can write as a way to express herself and her anger and her truth.

Also shoutout to the Shia side character in this book, Rayan. It was so nice to see that seamlessly added to this story, especially considering people forget we exist most of the time.

My few issues with the book were Jawad. He was just so mean to Nida. I'm glad there was no romantic subplot between the two of them, but I think he could have been more understanding of what Nida was going through and realize just because he would do things a certain way, doesn't mean everyone else should.

The magical realism aspect of this book was interesting, though the entire time I thought it was a manifestation of her anxiety, before it was revealed that it's actually a family curse. I wasn't really expecting this in a contemporary book so it did take me out of the story sometimes.

The only other issue I had was some of the dialogue didn't flow super well or feel like an actual conversation between two people, which might have been changed since I read the arc.

Also the arc has horrible formatting for the poems if you read it on the Kindle app which was kind of annoying 😭

But overall, this was a pretty good read and I'm glad I picked it up!

3.5/5 stars

This book was so well written and thought provoking! I loved every second of it. The characters are all so interesting, relatable and complex. As were all the relationships.

I loved the poetry that was intertwined throughout the book. I thought it moved the story forward in such an interesting way and really helped us get into the minds and feelings of the characters.

The subject matter and struggles of the characters really opened my eyes and made me question a lot of what we’ve been told as Americans. I think the message of this story is an incredibly important one and it is told so beautifully!

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone and everyone!

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and statements are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC.

Pick this up. Grab your tissues. Get ready for an experience that will haunt you, and stay with you. What an experience.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

Hope Ablaze follows Pakistani teen poet Nida in the wake of a racially driven illegal frisk that was permitted by a Democratic senatorial candidate.

In the grand scheme of things, I think this book does a lot of good. It certainly starts a lot of conversations -- about racism, political responsibility, religious persecution, identity, self-expression, voter responsibility... the list goes on. My primary issue with it is that though it starts all these conversations, it doesn't really finish them, or flesh them out in a way that feels meaningful by the end of the book. Other than finding her voice -- or finding the confidence to use her voice? -- it doesn't feel like Nida goes on a satisfying journey as a character, either. Rather, she is a vehicle for her lived experiences, and for the thematic issues raised by those lived experiences. Beyond that, because there are so many ideas on the page, it's hard to figure out what really was the plot, or to feel like this was anything beyond essentially an empty space where the author poured all of her political perspectives out for us to see.

That said, I think there absolutely is merit to this story, because it does work as a foundational point for so much nuance and understanding of the intricacies of Islamophobia, as well as its history in the world and in America. I think most people who pick this book up will learn something new, and will want to learn more because of it.

Nida is frisked at a political rally where a candidate does more than just turns a blind eye to the actions of the police. Enraged by her experience, Nida writes a poem to help her work through her emotions. Through no actions of her own, her poem is entered into a contest, and the result will have implications far beyond a simple content entry, that will affect not only Nida, her family but also her community.

Nida’s story is beautifully written. You can feel the hypocrisy from society in every action that is done onto Nida. Yet despite her age she’s able to articulate her point across better than people twice her age. Well I don’t understand and love poetry (and probably never will) and only quickly read through the chapters of interjected poetry throughout the book. Nida's passion and the way she uses it as a tool to express herself, is definitely something I can stand behind.

This story explores Islamophobia and standing up for your convictions in a thought provoking way. The events are wholly realistic and Nida’s reactions are raw and visceral.

Thank you to Wednesday Books for providing an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

In Hope Ablaze by Sarah Mughal Rana, a young woman, Nida, after a humiliating experience due to the misunderstanding of her religion and culture, wants to use her voice. At the same time, her journal is sent to a competition, and her world is upended. She needs to find her bearings fast, or else there are repercussions. Expected Publication is February 27, 2024.

In all honesty, it is very difficult to review a book like this. Not because I don't have opinions, but because it is an author's narration using her voice and choice in a polarized world. As a South Asian immigrant and a brown person, I have faced marginalization and microaggressions in spaces that I have occupied, so I can definitely relate to this book in many ways. Religion and culture are so important to each one of us in some form or the other. And when these two are misunderstood with colonialism and radicalism added into the mix, that's when wars, dehumanization, and human rights violations happen. Just look at the world right now. I am just going to leave it at that.

The blurb of the book says that the prose is mixed with poetry, but I won't call it poetry. It's more of a young girl's musings or thoughts in a journal.

Thank you, Wednesday Books, @wednesdaybooks , and St. Martin's Press @stmartinspress for this book.

An incredibly powerful book that will have you crying from the first chapter...

Seriously it says something about Rana's writing if it can make me feel so much pain and anxiety in such a short time. This book was in impactful, the poetry gave me chills, everything about it was a masterpiece.

This is certainly a very hard book to read, emotionally. I really had to take my time with it but it was absolutely worth it to push through the pain.

This is the only SMP title I will be reviewing until the boycott ends and SMP has address the harm their racist employee has caused.

Growing up and finding yourself is difficult, and even more so when you’re thrust outside of your comfort zone and put in situations you were not ready for. I didn’t know what to expect from this book going in and it told such a profound and reflective story.

I really enjoyed the poetry aspect of this book, especially since that’s how I found my voice as a teen too. Our protagonist Nida comes from a long line of poets who weave stories about their family and the suffering that they have endured for generations at the hands of multiple colonial and hypocritical powers. While Nida treasures her poetry, she knows the possible repercussions of what could happen if her poetic letters become public. When a close friend betrays her by making a letter about her being illegally frisked at a political candidate’s event, Nida is thrown into the dangerous waters that is the American media who twists her words to fit their narrative that overlooks the true meaning of Nida’s work. Her fight to find her voice and retain the narrative to fight racism and Islamophobia was brutal and difficult and all too real. It paints an eerily similar picture of the reality too many are scared to acknowledge in today’s world but was necessary to tell. Nida’s rise to the occasion alongside her support system of close friends and family was touching and a reminder of the importance of collaboration for a cause.

A difficult yet touching and absolutely necessary story, this debut will have you wanting to break your own blue thread that’s holding back your truth.

I thought this book would be in verse, so I was a bit disappointed when I realized it wasn't! But I thought I would still give it a try.

This book felt dated at points, almost as if the book was written 5-7 years ago. There were some scenes that made me feel uncomfortable, not in a way you would hope a politically or diverse book would be, but because there were moments where the very diverse characters made decisions that were very out of left field in a way that I would think someone who was not familiar with their culture was the author.

This could still be a good first step for the young adult audience to learn about Islamophobia, so if you have a curious teen, I would recommend it.

3 stars

_Hope Ablaze_ is an intriguing title for this work, but I admittedly saw a lot more of Nida - the m.c. - being on fire than finding hope (though the latter does come into play, too, of course).

While I enjoyed the concept, there are parts of the novel that I struggled with consistently. Some aspects of it felt dated, and some of the cultural connections were a bit clumsy at times. Because teen readers are more socially and politically aware these days, I suspect they'll be more likely to interrogate the comparisons than they might've been a few years ago. That's good for them but maybe less so for the unity and credence of the narrative.

I love to learn while I read, but I'm not necessarily looking for a fully didactic experience in my contemporary YA novels, and I really felt that from cover to cover. At times, character development and plotting suffer in favor of LESSONS. For me, this felt distracting too often.

Overall, this book does fill an important niche, and there are clear elements that make me want to give this author more chances. This is a promising debut and I look forward to the evolution.