Reviews with content warning for Racism - Liefde van A tot Z

Aside from the classics assigned during my college years, I've never truly ventured to contemporary Muslim fiction, in which I did assume that they are minimum in numbers and old-fashioned in narrative. For those thoughts alone, I am ashamed to have such prejudicial presumption towards the fiction style since the reality of contemporary Muslim tales are as modern as they are aware of the culture revolving around the religion.

Come by the romantic story of two people meeting at the airport as they are boarding the same flight to Doha, in which they are delightedly surprised to expect their interaction to be more frequent as they are familiar with related mutuals. However, the essence of romantic comedy serves as a veil to the eventual discussion that Love from A to Z aims to confer through the correspondence between Adam and Zayneb that is the exploration of their complex Muslim identity.

In her assertion of a love story, Ali elaborates on their Muslim individuality that is seemingly similar at first glance, yet their conspicuous leanings gradually emerge to define how the religious faith integrates with their identity in the matter of idealistic perception. For Zayneb, who has lived her life under extreme scrutiny for the physical signs as a Muslim woman, her unapologetic assertiveness in abating the negative light on her religion is her way to combat the racial yet religious prejudice that she has to endure at school because of her teacher. While Adam does not experience similar discrimination as Zayneb, he projects his Islamic faith as his path to find peace as he inadvertently faces internal difficulties that could threaten his life in the present or future altogether.

The differences in their way of living expectedly clash Zayneb and Adam against one another, particularly in realizing the fact that all the expectations of understanding each other's situation are not met by the reality of their interaction. However, Ali utilizes the collision to create a reflective momentum for Zayneb and Adam to reconstruct their thoughts that gradually adopt each other's ideas to form a better sense of approach in handling their respective struggles.

Despite having such a heavyweight character-driven story, it does not mean that the book is boorish by all means. Ali engages her readers through journal-style writing as if it is realistic documentation from the real parties involved in the story. As a result, her story is as communicative as it is empathetic—she readily illustrates dialogues and situations where readers, notably young adult Muslim readers, to relate with the circumstances of the characters, whether they are the main or the supporting ones.

To conclude, what a wonderfully heartwarming tale of two Muslims engaging with each other that duplicates as a character study of their cultural identity. For some, books like Love from A to Z are oddities in the sea of generally Caucasian-esque focus of young adult novels, but it is a stunning marvel in illustrating diversity in literature.

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debosmitathereader's review against another edition

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3.0

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internationalreads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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lida_magg's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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ohlovehandles's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

The concept of the book is great, but I honestly took a long time to get through it. There were points where I loved the writing and enjoyed where it was going. Then other parts where it dragged on and made it difficult to enjoy.

It's a beautiful love story and I'm glad that we're finally getting to a point where halal romance books could be a mainstream thing that a lot of Muslims could just walk in a bookstore and get. I still would've liked for more care to have gone into the structure and writing.

Overall I think someone who's 13 would enjoy this a bit more and not necessarily be too critical on the writing. The thing is, it's a romance following characters who are 18+ and touching on a lot of dense and dark topics, it should have aimed to be written with the standard of readers within that age range and maturity in mind.

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kingrosereads's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

“This is a love story. You’ve been warned.”

Fantastic, brilliant, beautiful, effortless YA contemporary romance that is also a drama and somewhat of a coming-of-age.

I’m not even going to go into depth about what the book was about. You just need to know that two very beautiful souls serendipitously meet and they fall in love while going through the hardest things a person can go through.

This book was beautiful from start to finish. It is unapologetically Muslim and I friggin loved every second of it! I love Zayneb’s passion and Adam’s ability to see the beauty in the world. At first I didn’t see the chemistry between them and aside from them both keeping this journal based off an ancient manuscript, I didn’t think they had much in common since they’re SO different. But the book just unfolds in this amazing way, where you fall in love with Zayneb and Adam as individuals then watch them come together and fall in love with them as a couple.

Zayneb is dealing with Islamophobia throughout the book (at school, on a plane, at the pool, etc) and the injustices in the world make her righteously angry. And she tries to “tone down” her anger, but she learns she doesn’t have to hold back, she just learns how to be smarter than the bigots. Then there’s Adam and he is this peaceful soul that I just adored and is more behind-the-scenes in his support. He’s such a family guy and I loved his softer way of caring. They both deal with loss and grief in their own ways that make you want to tear your heart out.

I think this book does a fantastic job depicting a traditional Muslim relationship, grief, anger, prejudice, and dealing with a chronic medical diagnosis. I can’t speak for its accuracy but it seems authentic and raw. I loved that these two opposites started meeting in the middle on their own in a natural way (they weren’t forcing themselves to change to fit with the other). The book had me grinning like a fool, crying like a baby, and it even had me laughing a few times. Just a gorgeous, well written story.

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calamitywindpetal's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative lighthearted sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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