Quote: “Stories are like a journey; the unprepared traveller will get lost in translation.”

Review: 3 Star

This is a raw, unapologetic story told through the eyes of Nida, a Muslim teen poet who experiences the frisking the guards of a potential political candidacy and there were no consequences. Themes explored were Islamophobia, the dirtiness of Politics, the gift of expressing oneself, the art of poetry, culture and the strong sense of community.

While I am not American and cannot speak to how strong Islamophobia can be in America, it does exist but I did immigrate to North America in my teens and could speak to the unjustness of how immigrants are treated here at times.

This is also a great representation of the Muslim Pakistani community, the strong community support, the elders, the faith they have and the struggle they face as immigrants in a foreign land. So, I appreciate what the author has done to bring this book to life. The poetry was magical and the emotions wrought throughout the book were incomparable. I highlighted so many bits and pieces that speak to my heart.

Some cons: there were moments in the book where the plotlines felt flat, the character development was a bit lacking, the conversations and the usage of modern slang felt “forced”. I was very confused that there was magical realism present and felt that the book could do without it and push for better character development. Some parts were dragged out so much that the message it wanted to convey fell flat which led to a lack of wanting to continue reading at times because I was not invested in every scene!

Regardless of the 3 star rating, this is a great representation to the Muslim culture which readers will appreciate.

This is an intense and well-done read. Dealing with Islamaphobia in a kind of reimagining of post 9-11, this shows the big problems and the smallest sleights and how these things mix together and corrupt our world.

This author makes some great points, but I will warn you that this can be tough to read at times. However, I also think it's a very important topic to understand.

Out February 27, 2024!

Thank you, Netgalley and Publisher, for this Arc!

Hope Ablaze
By Sarah Mughal Rana
A Review by Jamilla (@ LandsAwayBooks, a wordpress blog)

The sharpest sword is the tongue.

In a world where the u.s. and other western powers collude to plunder, enslave and destroy the rest of us, this book and the poems within are both a balm and a call to action.

I’m so pleasantly surprised that a story speaking truth to power like this can be published in this current period of coddling conservative bigotry.

Hope Ablaze, is a story of the power of words and of community. It delves into the long and storied history of resistance through poetry in the Islamic world and recalls the tragedy and violence of the partition of India & Pakistan.

It’s also a bit of an ode to mother daughter relationships as our protagonist’s yearning for closeness and communication with her mother is gained through understanding of the past.

Though a story tackling the Islamophobia rampant in the west, it is the bravery of the fictional community of Al-Rasheed and the familial bonds that develop amongst immigrants from similar cultures in a strange land that lingers with me. The laughter, light and …er…goats, the community shares in not only brought a smile to my face, it brought back a fierce nostalgia with it.

Hope Ablaze is memorable, painfully relatable at times and makes for an outstanding debut from an author that I will be certain to keep an eye on!

+ The stakes were VERY high for the main character from the outset, which was a savvy move by the author to communicate how important and weighty the main character’s decisions were. As a white reader, I understood quickly that a stop at a local park was profoundly different for Nida than it would be for me.

+ I also appreciated how much (creative) language mattered in this book. Poetry is the obvious one, as the main form of resistance for Nida and her community. But even the ways that characters speak (or not) and what they choose to say (or not) are clearly identified as big decisions, big moments in this story.

+ REPRESENTATION in a meaningful, believable way.

- There were issues with pacing and plot development that are pretty standard for debut books.

Hope Ablaze is a powerful story, hope and passion, and of finding one's voice, even when the world does its best to stifle it. The novel is told through the story itself and poetry. A must read for readers [ YA & up ] who enjoy contemporary drama with poetry and a bit of magical realism.

Content Guide: illegal, very physical, 'frisking' [ I feel thats too light of a word to describe this scene ] of a young Muslim girl who is cornered by men, and they forcible remove her hijab and attire, while saying racist comments

I was given an Advanced Reader's Copy through Wednesday Books Publishing and Netgalley. I give my honest review voluntarily. My review is my own thoughts and opinion; my experience in reading this story.

I want to keep it short and quick in my Goodreads and NetGalley review but I will put a link to my full review at the end. I myself am a hijabi practicing Muslim, so I guarantee you the review is not low because of islamophobia. I've seen a lot of posts where the author talks about how this book was rejected a lot because there's islamophobes everywhere, and while islamophobia exists, maybe this book was rejected because it's just so bad.

I thought the mention of the partition, the mention of the hijab as an obligation, and the recognition of the innocent prisoners in places like Guantanamo Bay were all positive aspects of this book.

Then to quickly go through the negative aspects: The poetry in this book was mediocre, the magic realism was strangely placed, there are several scenes in the book where the mom brings a goat in the house (in the United States!!!!!), to slaughter as protection from evil eye according to Islamic tradition. I had to take a pause at the goat here. When the scene occurred the first time, though it was cringe and ridiculous I tried to overlook it. But then it happened again and again. The diversity of the community that the author said was going to be present, was very much not here as 99% of the Muslim characters are Pakistani and 1% Uyghur, not really any other Muslims beyond that. Lastly, the storyline of this hijabi girl being wrongfully harassed by a powerful Democratic politician, who caused a lot of pain to not only the main character and her family, but to all American Muslims, but then the main character admits that she ended up voting for him, is extremely lame disgusting and embarrassing.

Free us from books being published just because they have Muslim characters. The writing should actually be good and the story should not be so messy. XOXO

This is my formal notice to Sarah Mughal Rana – I will be pursuing legal action for financial compensation for my therapy bills. I feel wrung out and left to dry after reading HOPE ABLAZE – in the best way possible.

Before I continue with this review, I’d be really remiss to not mention the St. Martin’s Press marketing boycott – especially since it was the bigoted, Islamophobic behavior of a Wednesday Books employee AND their subsequent silence when asked to address and denounce the Islamophobia/racism of said employee that prompted the boycott. HOPE ABLAZE is a Wednesday Books title and is the only SMP title that I will be reviewing until readers’ demands are addressed as this book tackles the very thing that SMP will not: Islamophobia, colonization, and false progressivism.

Now, despite my best efforts, I’m not an annotating girlie. I highlighted SIXTEEN passages in this book! As a South Asian Muslim who lives in America, so much of this book hit so close to home for me, even as someone who does not wear the hijab. Nida’s story is not her own – it’s one of diaspora, faith, art, and survival.

It’s a book that I know I would have cherished as a young girl in high school, struggling with her deen. I would have stained the pages in tears as I retraced the words over and over again.

HOPE ABLAZE was a story of reclamation – reclaiming Islam, reclaiming history and reclaiming agency.
The speculative elements of the book, though beautifully written, felt jarring in the inclusion of it in the story and thus didn’t work for me. The pacing I also took some issue with as it was tense and super-fast paced for a few chapters, followed by some chapters of nearly no plot development and just exposition. I also have never seen ‘wallah’ be used the way it was (ie. ‘I could wallahi that I hadn’t left my notebook’ / ‘wallah on that?’). It’s a small thing, but as a Muslim American, reading that was just extremely jarring (in my experience, you would be demanded to say instead, ‘say wallah.’).

Where the book shines are through its poetry and through its characters. Nida is a poet and you felt her emotional vulnerability through the poems interspersed throughout the book. It’s a book that mirrors our reality, from the wholesome depiction of Nida’s multicultural Muslim community that rallies behind her, to Nida’s rocky relationship with her Amma who uses Pakistani food to soothe the soul, to how colonization and the scars of the 1947 Partition affect the Pakistani diaspora to this day. I’m not Pakistani but the Partition affected Bengal too; I know only too well the horrific legacies of the British in our subcontinent.

This book was personal to me and made me feel entirely soft – for Nida, for Amma, for Mamou and for myself. I was angry on their behalf too, angry at their forced survival and the expectation to conform. It's an expected conformity that I know only too well. This book should be required reading for Islamophobia in the West, regardless of if you’re Muslim or not.

Special thanks to Netgalley for sharing this digital reviewer's copy with me in exchange for my honest views.

What worked for me was a journey of faith story of a lesser explored space on the public stage. There will be patrons glad to find this on the shelves.

What didn't work is the true lack of story here. It needs to tell a story not just inundate the reader with ideas.

I will not be sharing my thoughts on a public platform. I will just rate it a 3 and leave it at that.

This young adult book is an intense raw unflinching read, containing  incarceration, assault, politics, Islamophobia, immigrant pressure, and loss throughout the 384 pages that mix poetry and traditional writing.  At times the book is incredibly hard to put down as the commentary on two party politics and Muslims in America is articulated in a way that transcends the fictional constrains and affirms reality.  But unfortunately, it took me a long time to complete the book, because when I did put it down, I didn't feel that relentless urge to pick it up and see what happens next.  I had been alerted to the fact that there were elements of magical realism, but even with that knowledge, I still felt it misplaced, and truthfully, unnecessary.  The pacing was inconsistent, and many points unnecessarily forced.  It often felt the author was simply trying too hard to tell the story and make sure the reader got all the messages intended.  As a result many characters are flat, many plot holes exist, and the reader is left wishing things were done just a little bit different to make the book what it could have been, not what it is.  I know it is a debut, so I'm not going to be overly detailed in my harshness, I am fairly positive I will read anything this author writes down the road, I took pictures and shared passages that I loved on my socials.  The book is good, it just really could have been great. 

SYNOPSIS:

Nida is a poet, her uncle is a poet, and her uncle is in prison.  When Nida is frisked, her hijab removed by a political candidate's team as she makes salat in a public park, Nida is forced to find her words, her voice, and her place in an unkind Islamophobic world.  High school friendships, immigrant Muslim community pressures and idiosyncrasies persist for Nida as she navigates media manipulation, injustice, slander, and political talking points.  Life was already complicated with her father's departure, her maternal uncle's wrongful incarceration, and the goats that her mother brings home to sacrifice, but with the support of the Poet's Block, her Muslim community, family, and the thread tied to her family through generations, she will find she isn't alone, and she has support, she just has to take a stand.

WHY I LIKE IT:

I love how much mirrors contemporary reality, the MIST competition, the politics, the media, the dirtiness of it all. I also like that it has a fair amount of humor, the Islamic accuracy, friends getting called out for boys and girls texting each other.  Overall though, it just felt so forced. I think some subtly and nuance and undercurrents would have given the reader the ability to connect the dots for themselves, so the book would have lingered and taken up space long after the last page was read.  It is hard to write a book about how great a writer is, how powerful poems are, so at times it really felt spoon fed that this is powerful, here read it, see it was powerful.  Additionally, I think when the author did try for subtlety, it just came across as lacking.  I still don't fully understand any of the side characters, their relationships, or their purpose.  From the betrayal of a school friend, to the new friend from MIST, to the little brother, to the friend and his uncle who is imprisoned, there ultimately lacked a lot of emotional heart for minor characters, who remained stagnant, while passionately emphasizing issues at their expense. 

The OWN voice Islamic rep is so spot on even if the evil eye passages seemed amplified and repetitive. Islam is centered, it is unapologetic, it is the characters identity, comfort, and soul.   Only one point really stood out as erroneous, but I read a digital ARC so it could have been fixed or it could have been a spacing issue since it was in a poem, but it has sajood in janazah, and I'm really hoping the final book will not have it wrong, as there is no sajood in janazah.

FLAGS:


Assault, frisking, incarceration, death, profanity (not a lot, damn, hell, shit), Islamophobia, racism, systemic abuse, lying, talk of terrorism, stereotypes, gaslighting.

TOOLS FOR LEADING THE DISCUSSION:
I'm on the fence about using this book for a book club read.  I love the Pakistani culture, the Islam, the contemporary relevance, and the political commentary.  I think it would have actually more success in a guided or required reading situation with teens than it would as a pleasure read.  Undoubtedly I will order a copy to put on my library shelf, but I might test it out a bit on a few readers to see how their thoughts before I present it as a book club selection or not.

🦇 Hope Ablaze Book Review 🦇

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

❝ The sharpest sword is the tongue. ❞

❝ They cry,
These are our human rights, but the right is just a pretty way of saying,
We prefer the shade of white. ❞

❝ "Mr. Daniels, it’s racist to think, a girl can’t have the right to her own beliefs, in a country that applauds itself on diversity, and multicultural plurality. Last time I checked, this is a free country, so let the Muslim girl wear her hijab and sweatpants in peace.” ❞

❝ To write is to show the world your heart before letting them stomp all over it. That kind of permission was dangerous, because consent didn’t matter for our art when we never had ownership to begin with. ❞

❓ #QOTD What BIPOC books have you read so far this year OR is there one on your radar? ❓

🦇 Though Nida's uncle was wrongfully incarcerated during the war on terror for his "radical" poetry, Nida has always found comfort in the written world. After a Senatorial candidate has her illegally frisked (her hijab torn off in the process), she writes a scathing poem in response; a poem she didn't intend for a mass audience, only for it to win first place in a national contest. When the poem in mentioned on the news, Nida must struggle with the aftermath, all while trying to demonstrate pride in her Islamic faith and Pakistani culture in a world of Islamophobia and racism.

💜 What a dazzling, thought-provoking, raw debut. As a Muslim who grew up in a post-911 world, I understand and empathize with Nida's fears and applaud her courage. Sarah Mughal Rana does a beautiful job at capturing so many familiar experiences; the power of a supportive community, the struggles of the immigrant experience, the conflict between wanting to hold onto your roots and culture only to be punished for what other people don't even want to understand. Hope Ablaze is a reminder that we must fight to find our voices, even when they're drowned out by oppressive, ignorantly righteous rallies of racism. Many of the layered themes in Nida's story reflect not only Palestinian experiences in America, but I'm sure similar experiences of other Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian immigrant families. While Nida is still a high schooler, this is a story many adults can benefit from reading. Nida's emotions BOUND off the page, not only through exposition or dialogue, but strongly through her poetry. I adored the use of poetry to describe scenes we didn't need full chapters of, giving us insight into Nida's emotions and thought process while keeping the pacing from stalling.

🦇 If you've read even a handful of my reviews, you know I thrive off experiencing other cultures through food, not because I'm a foodie, but because I think it's the easiest way for people to relate to one another. Nida's mother owns a catering business, so there's no end to Pakistani delicacies in this book. However, even with a modest understanding of Arabic (I can write it and pronounce it but not translate it, which is SO helpful), and a vast familiarity of Islam, I had to look up a few words. I'm worried that those unfamiliar with the religion or culture will have a difficult time relating to the story, even on a surface level. The magical realism feels a bit misplaced--was it the overactive imagination of a creative mind, or the ancestral magic of Nida's power over spoken word? Some sentences lacked context clues that would have helped. There are a few segments that felt repetitious--this novel would have benefited from an extra round of edits--but otherwise, a strong debut.

🦇 Recommended for fans of Internment, The Poet X, and All My Rage.

✨ The Vibes ✨
🖋️ Thought-Provoking Debut
🖊️ Teen Muslim FMC
✒️ Magical Realism
📜 Poetry Letters
🖊️ Racism & Islamaphobia
🖋️ Immigrant Experience

🦇 Major thanks to the author @sarahmughal769 and publisher @stmartinspress @wednesdaybooks for providing an ARC of this book via Netgalley @netgalley. 🥰 This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

2.5⭐

Unfortunately the writing style for "Hope Ablaze" just wasn't for me, this ARC took me quite awhile to get through.

I think that the subject matter is important and I hope that this book finds it's intended audience.

Thank you to Sarah Michal Rana , Net Galley and St Martin's Press - Wednesday Books for providing me with an ARC of this book.

I come from a desi background so some of the things that occurred in this book hit so close to home. I couldn't get enough of this book. It felt so deeply personal and soft and harsh and angry all at once. I just have to make sure everyone gives this book a chance this year, for it deserves it.

I really enjoyed this novel. I just finished it and I currently at a lost for words at the moment. When I can gather my thoughts more correctly I will edit this review. At the time that we are currently in , I genuinely feel that this book is extremely relevant. I highly recommend.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an eARC for an exchange of an honest review.

I always like checking out debut authors in hopes that I find something special. With the idea that Hope Ablaze was like a mix of All My Rage and The Poet X, I was definitely intrigued and excited to dive into a culture that I'm not overly familiar with.

Upon starting the book, I almost put it down and didn't finish it. I think ultimately that the age group that it was geared toward wasn't really for me. It was for YA and although I do like and read those books, I wasn't feeling all too connected with it, although I was enjoying the pieces of letters as poetry that was included. I decided to keep going and I'm glad I did. I got to see a young woman that felt strongly toward her culture and religion and came from a very close knit family that happened to have very strong ties to their community. And it was that community that played a huge role in not only her life, but also to the plot of the story.

When Nida is put through an uncomfortable situation at a political event, it triggers something in her in a way that she must get out her feelings through the written word. Unfortunately (or fortunately), those words get into the hands of the wrong person and her poetry becomes viral. For people that already saw her community as a danger, it became even worse for her.

I truly liked the voice of the author and the way she was trying to get a huge message across, especially during the current world climate. She dealt with politics and how broken our system is and combined that with racism and Islamophobia. It was a lot to chew for a story that is geared towards young adults and at times was repetitive and didn't always succeed. BUT, I commend the author for taking such huge steps toward getting her words and thoughts out into the world so more people understand cultures in which they do not belong to.

Although not everything worked for me, there was lots that did. I loved Nida and her family and how strongly culture and food played into their home life. I liked that her family backed her up and supported what she needed to do to get those around her to understand what she was trying to say in her letters of poetry.

Overall, this book wasn't necessarily written for my age group, but I enjoyed aspects of it. The poetry included was timely and added to the movement of the story. I also loved seeing a young woman come to terms with who she is and the voice she was given within her community. She evolved and grew from her experience while also learning how important her family was, but especially her voice.
Sarah Mughal Rana is a promising young author and I can't wait to see where she goes from here.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to review this ARC.

What a beautifully written story of strife, loss, family, and most importantly community. I absolutely loved the opportunity to see some of the intricacies of Pakistani culture through the eyes of a young girl.

I really appreciate what this book was trying to do — we need more YA discussing Islamophobia and hearing from voices that are frequently silenced. I picked it up seeing that it was compared to The Poet X in regards to the integration of poetry and deep-felt emotion. Unfortunately, this book just did not work for me. The writing itself was extremely repetitive, the magical realism wasn’t cohesive, the poetry felt basic, and it felt outdated. I’m sure this book will be great for some, but I would not rush to recommend it.

2.5⭐️

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
This book is wonderfully written. It a story that will resonate with you.

This book is phenomenal, easily one of the best debuts I've ever read. Starting off the year on such an incredible high feels like nothing will ever come close. It was incredibly well written and the characters were so phenomenally real. I loved every second of this and think it is a must read for all

I've been going through my acquired ARCs back to back, and the past couple days have been totally duds. This, unfortunately, joins that list.

The main story was so repetitive. Nida got frisked by the candidate and his security, her neighborhood goes into protective mode, her mom and fam freak out for dishonoring the family, the media paints her as a radical, and then the cycle repeats itself with a few bits of new info sprinkled in. It was exhausting to read Nida stretching between extreme depictions of racism/Islamophobia and her fighting with everyone in her life for one reason or another. Despite this book supposedly being about hope and continuing the fight against systematic oppression, I felt none of that.

One thing that really confused me was when this took place. By the description, I assumed this took place in the early 2000s. But then when social media was made essential to the plot, it's clear it actually takes place in the modern day. I feel like that's really stretching the Post-9/11 America as a descriptor.

The poetry parts weren't that good, either. It's so blocky and long-winded; it's the exact poetry I wrote in my beginner's workshop that was mediocre because I'm a prose girlie. I ended up skimming through them after the halfway mark, which didn't do much good because some scenes are started in a poem before dropping back in prose. That annoyed me a lot. I don't understand why a book about a poet isn't written in verse. Or, if the author still wanted prose, why the chapters alternate between all prose and all verse.

My last thing is something small, but, dammit, it irritated me so much. So, Nida has this friend (Kinda love interest? I dunno, it was hinted at but no official romance came out of it) named Jawad who brings up he has ADHD at one point. He says he gave up music for Ramadan and that it's help him cleared his mind. As someone with ADHD who uses music to help me focus, I was raising a brow, but that's why it's called neurodivergence. Some people with ADHD find music distracting, and it helps with others. But then he goes on to say everyone can find the willpower to get over their fears if they remember it's all in their head. This line pisses me off so much because it simplifies and minimizes neurodivergence (As well as anyone who has a mental illness). As if the brain isn't the most powerful organ in our body! As if forcing ourselves to adhere to neurotypical standards is so simple! This whole thing left an extremely sour taste in my mouth.

A powerful debut that’ll make you think and reflect. With a unique blend of prose chapters and poem letters, Hope Ablaze is a heartfelt reflection on what it means to be Muslim in America. Beautiful, heartfelt, and gorgeous. An absolute must read.