I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

It’s 2003, several months since the US officially declared war on Iraq, and the American political world has evolved. Tensions are high, hate crimes are on the rise, FBI agents are infiltrating local mosques, and the Muslim community is harassed and targeted more than ever. Shadi, who wears hijab, keeps her head down.

She's too busy drowning in her own troubles to find the time to deal with bigots.

Shadi is named for joy, but she’s haunted by sorrow. Her brother is dead, her father is dying, her mother is falling apart, and her best friend has mysteriously dropped out of her life. And then, of course, there’s the small matter of her heart—

It’s broken.

Shadi tries to navigate her crumbling world by soldiering through, saying nothing. She devours her own pain, each day retreating farther and farther inside herself until finally, one day, everything changes.

She explodes.

Short and Sweet Review

Its two years after 9/11 and tensions are running high, but Shadi has other important things to worry about than people looking down on her for being Muslim.

Honestly, I wish this book was better than it was. I thought it would be more about navigating life after 9/11 especially because our main character is Muslim but the plot in this book is so weird. So Shadi has lost her older brother, her father is in the hospital, and her mother is struggling with her mental health, and I would say Shadi is too but she is like checked out to those around her. Her older sister is unimpressed with her lack of emotion and we can see how disconnected Shadi is. We also see Shade reconnect with Ali, her ex best friend Zahra’s brother. Zahra doesn’t want anything to do with Shadi anymore for whatever reason, and every time they interact Zahra comes in hot, which I felt was common for most of the conversations Shadi had with other characters. I’m not sure this book actually had a plot. It was just Shadi navigating her emotions or lack thereof about situations going on around her.

I really wanted to like this book but I was not interested in what was going on or even our main character. It was hard to be invested in a story when the main character wasn’t even interested.