Reviews with content warning for Islamophobia - Amor, odio y otros filtros

Okay, let me just say that at first I was very excited to read this book because I saw all of the positive reviews and heard that it had a lot of good representation. I come from a Desi family myself, so I was very excited to read a book about a character like myself. This book is not the rep you're looking for though.

This book was incredibly frustrating to read, and honestly at the end I was just pissed. The book is full of stereotypes, and the story is incredibly rushed and overshadowed by Maya's love life. 70% of the book is just Maya pining for Phil and leading Kareem on. We also barely hear about the terrorist attack, even though that's supposed to be a major part of the plot, we get a page in between chapters and the actual attack happens after 2/3s of the book is over. The writing is also incredibly juvenile and sounds more like a Wattpad fanfiction than an actual book. It's just all over the place.

Maya's parents just want to

marry her off to a "suitable" boy, become a lawyer and were basically extremely stereotypical Desi parents. They also had a "love marriage" but opposed her picking her own spouse?

Maya is an unlikeable character as well and she's always making irrational, stupid decisions without thinking them through. She hates her culture and wishes that she was someone else. Maya's always complaining about how her house "smells like onions" and it honestly kind of offends me. The author also can't come up with snacks that aren't samosas and parathas. Like for an Indian author, she did an absolutely terrible job at representing Desis? I expected more from this book and it was such a let down. I also expected Maya to be an intelligent character, but she acts like an immature little girl in every chapter.

Not to mention, her crush on

Phil and Phil himself

are extremely irritating to read about.

She has "swimming lessons" (basically goes on dates with him in a BIKINI), and they both flirt with each other while he has a girlfriend?? And neither of them feel any regret at going behind Lisa's back either. Lisa is just a one-dimensional "villain" because she stood in between Maya and Phil. Phil himself is also the stereotypical hot jock, and captain of the football team.

After the terrorist attack happens, the story just gets even worse.

Her parents are scared for her and won't let her go to NYU, even after it turns out the terrorist isn't Muslim or Indian. Maya gets attacked by Brian and breaks her elbow. Then she decides to run away to "escape" from her "suffocating" house and lies to her parents about going to Violet's house. This is such an idiotic decision because her parents are going to lose even more trust in her and are DEFINITELY not going to let her go to NYU. Anyways, she goes to a cabin in the woods (with no food, no electricity, and no way of contacting ANYONE). She also goes outside half naked, and is found by Phil who takes her back home.

The story then jumps to her telling her parents that she's going to NYU with or without the support of her parents, and her parents are extremely petty and disown their only daughter. In the epilogue, after all that, she isn't even dating Phil?

The story honestly felt pointless to me and Maya came off as whiny, privileged, and immature. The only likeable characters were Violet, Kareem, and Hina. The fact that this book has so many books is astonishing to me, because it's honestly one of the worst books I've read. The marketing doesn't make sense either, because it's supposed to be about a young Indian Muslim girl dealing with Islamophobia in America, but in reality more than half of it is about Maya's love life. I feel like it really doesn't represent me at all and that the author, being Indian herself could've done a better job.

Content Warnings

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective 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? No

4.5

Content Warnings

alittlebitheather's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

This book's rating maybe suffered a bit in my mind since it followed a real heavy non-fic listen in my rotation, so take this review/rating with a grain of salt. My rating has nothing to do with the topics addressed (it does have some excellent commentary on racism and Islamophobia), nor the characters themselves - I just never super connected to this book. Ahmed does great story line within a story line, however, and those little nuggets kept me intrigued enough to finish.

Content Warnings

nannahnannah's review against another edition

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3.0

Oh boy, I think maybe contemporary romance is just not my thing. Everyone seems to love this book, but I didn’t enjoy it very much -- and mostly because the romance really just got on my nerves.

Representation:
- the main character and her family are Indian-American Muslims
- one of her love interests is also Desi and Muslim

17yo Maya Aziz’s parents expect her to be a “good Indian daughter”, going to a college close to home to become a doctor or lawyer and marrying a muslim man. But Maya feels stifled and dreams of going to New York for film school -- not to mention there’s her whopping crush on the white (presumably Christian) jock at school that her parents would never approve of. Things get from tough to impossible when a suicide bomber kills hundreds of people in a nearby town, and a Muslim man is the suspect.

I really, really didn’t like the first half of the book. Many times I was tempted to give up, especially with all the cliches (swimming lessons so she could wear a bikini, the overly strict and overbearing parents, her falling for/liking the white boy [especially as a way to rebel], and the super wild best friend) and the overly sugary romance. The second is definitely just a matter of personal taste. All the same, the excessive blushing and giggling made it incredibly tiresome.

The romance(s) is placed front and center, with Maya’s wanting to go to film school and the terrorist attack being shoved back. This, I’m told, is what the romance genres are about (thank you, friend)! So I think I was expecting something different, is all.

The author's note, however, was gorgeous and nearly had me in tears (as well as the "Michigan Public Radio" insert in between two chapters).

Content Warnings

parasolcrafter's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted 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? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

abby271's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

booksanna's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring tense 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? Yes

5.0

Love this book. A perfect mix between romance comedy and drama. This books shows so much more perspective and culture that I fell in love. I love Maya and her journey in finding herself(and some love), my favorite character is probably Hina. The book was so emotional and greatly written, I read it in 3 days. Great book to read not only for teens trying to find themselves but also children of immigrants that are battling between different cultures.

Content Warnings

alaina_soza's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring 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

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