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.

I don’t actually know where to start with talking about Hope Ablaze. Wow… I guess I can start at the beginning: I’ve not read any Muslim immigrant in America stories before. I have read a few books from South Asian/South Asian immigrant in America lenses, but as with most places in the world, South Asia isn’t only one race/ethnicity/language group, so Nida’s Pakistani Muslim immigrant point of view was wholly new to me. I think this book should be required reading. Period. Having a background in literature, this book would be wildly beneficial to anyone studying post-colonial criticism; I read it as an allegory of cololinzers taking indigenous art–without spoiling too much, Nida’s poetry is entered into a contest without her consent. But outside of literary critique, this story is so important for its representation of Muslim American life, especially post 9/11–and yes, while that was over twenty years ago now, its impact is still lasting in everyday American life.

Moving away from the above themes, on a writing level and surface of the story level, Sarah had me hooked from the start–I lately have had a hard time getting into text-based books as I become more addicted to audiobooks and the versatility they provide to my reading schedule. But Hope Ablaze set the stakes so high, the pace so consistent, and the writing so fluid that I had a hard time putting it down and only did when I absolutely had to do something else! Furthermore, the poems interspersed that gave us further insight into Nida’s mind and emotions could stand on their own in a book of poetry, or even as a novel in verse because there are times in the story when the poem before or after a scene actually gave us the plot of a preceding or following event.

I think one of my favorite aspects of this book were the various grey areas and moral ambiguities and the fact that the end doesn’t give us a “clean” solution, as life is truly messy and this story portrays LIFE. And yet, there was also this lovely magical realism subplot that I was not expecting and added a bit of je ne sais quoi that peppered the plot with literal color (iykyk).

This book is the kind of book I want to scream about from rooftops and make everyone read, so yes, 5 stars, easily. Sarah has definitely become a new favorite author of mine, especially when considering her addition to the anthology My Big, Fat Desi Wedding that I also loved!

Really enjoyed this story and the characters! It was surprisingly easy 5 star read and I’ll definitely be recommending it to my followers!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book to review.

In Sarah Mughal Rana's debut novel, high-school senior Nida is shocked to find that she's won a poetry contest ... that she never entered. Worse, her poem talks about her experience being frisked by the police under the watchful eye of a Senate candidate.

With her uncle in prison for an act of terrorism he didn't do, her father gone back to Pakistan, and goats occasionally wondering through their flat, Nida's life is already full of heartbreak and conflicting emotions. When her poem brings the national news to her door, she feels in turmoil--and all the worse, no longer feels like she can write.

What I liked about this novel:
1. It goes back and forth between prose and poetry, which felt super appropriate for a novel where poetry plays such a big part.
2. It's an own voices story about Pakistani immigrant culture, being Muslim in America, and the narrator's faith that not even her mother always understands.
3. It doesn't back away from hard juxtapositions and truths. The political candidate is a Democrat, so Nida and family are faced with the issue of supporting a party that vocally hates them or a candidate who obviously is Islamaphobic and hurts Nida personally.

What I didn't like as much:
1. The magical realism element felt a little disjointed and like it didn't really fit.
2. The author tried to attack A LOT of issues in one book. For a YA novel especially, it's a lot.

The author is very young (still in college), and there are places I felt like that was obvious. I look forward to reading more of her work in the future and seeing how it matures! She has a phenomenal, fearless voice ... much like the one Nida finds in the course of Hope Ablaze.

The story was easy to drag a reader along for the ride. The characters were all thought out very well and didn't seem flat. The main character was a bit repetitive with her wishy-washy thinking at times. It was kind of bizarre that the red string kept on popping up without any in-depth explanation until the near ending of the book which was kind of confusing at times as to what the string was supposed to represent. Overall, the book had an interesting premise that delivered and the writing style was OK. You can tell that this was written by a first-time author, but this author will improve with time.

In light of the fact that St.Martin's Press is refusing to provide actionable items on how they plan to prevent harm to their readers and reviewers due to racism and islamaphobia, I will not be reviewing this title in solidarity with the marketing boycott that has been put in place.

spectacular, excellent, tearjerker. thanks for the arc! i would recommend it. deeply discusses racism and islamophobia, both blatant and ingrained sions. thanks for the arc

Honestly, I really wanted to like this book. It is so important and I love to support debuts, but ultimately it felt not edited enough and needing more work on the plot

Hope Ablaze by Sarah Mughal Rana tells the story of Nida, a teen who enjoys writing poetry and participating in a Muslim-only poetry group. When one day she is illegally frisked while walking near a rally, including having her hijab removed in front of a political candidate who claims to support Muslims. The experience is understandably traumatic for her and she works through the trauma by writing her poetry, including naming the politician. When someone close to her submits her poem to a competition without her permission, the candidate fights her for defamation and soon Nida's family is in the media spotlight leading to a number of uncomfortable, and potentially unsafe situations. Told through a blend of narrative and poetry, Hope Ablaze is a beautifully crafted and thought-provoking story that reminds readers of the importance of speaking up for yourself and your community, holding people in power accountable for their actions and the therapeutic value of writing down your thoughts and feelings, even if you're the only one who reads them. For me the only downside was that I am not a huge fan of poetry, but I could appreciate the use of poetry in this context.

While aimed at a YA audience, I think adults would enjoy this book and all readers can benefit from the messages sent. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher stmartins press wednesday books for giving me the chance to read and review this book ahead of its pubdate: March 2024.