Reviews with content warning for Suicide attempt - The Beauty of Your Face

My immediate expectation when I saw the blurb for this book was that it was going to be a tense, fast-paced read set in a single location over a short period of time during a tragic school shooting. But, although the shooting is a key part of the novel, it by no means defines it. That was what I ultimately loved about The Beauty of Your Face.

At its core, this book celebrates women. It celebrates standing up for your beliefs and being brave enough to follow your heart despite ignorance and judgement from wider society. It celebrates strength, courage, and community. It is a raw and tender portrayal of a family broken apart by loss with unsuccessful attempts to reunite through religion. It spans decades, starting at the scene of the shooting, then flashing back to 1976 when Afaf is 10 years old and an unexpected event ripped through her family. We then flash forward, catching glimpses of Afaf's transition to adulthood, her commitment to her faith, her career choices and family life. The targeted school shooting intersperses with these chapters, reminding us we're leading up to this callous attack, all because the school is Muslim.

It's simple - I loved this book; loved the complex characters and their individual struggles, loved the diversity of a Palestinian family trying to find their place in Chicago, loved the underlying storylines that resolved towards the end of the novel, and loved the saga that unfolded between decades. It was insightful, thought-provoking, and all too real- it felt like I was reading a true account of Afaf's life. I hated the islamophobia, the bigotry in school, the judgement for choosing to wear a hijab - but these are all things Muslim women faced then and now. It might be fiction, but it's certainly not invented.

I can't emphasise how powerful this novel is - I'd encourage everyone to read it.

Rating breakdown

Plot/narrative - 4.5
Writing style/readability - 4.2
Characters - 4.5
Diverse themes - 4.7
Ending - 4.3

Overall - 4.4

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belle2008's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes

5.0

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fromjuliereads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective 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

4.0

This book was so heartbreaking in so many ways but such an incredible and important read. It explores finding Islam, experiences of Islamophobia, a hate crime, so much loss and grief.
The only reason I felt like I really couldn't give it 5 stars was that the writing was a tad repetitive at times, and it would pull me out of the story. BUT I would argue that the story itself is 5 stars.

We really need more people to read stories like this one.

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spellboundchapters's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad 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

4.0

She’d wanted to make every child feel they weren’t alone, to fan their potential into roaring flames of hope and promises to be fulfilled one day. Teaching gives her a sense of purpose and, unexpectedly, intoxicating independence. No matter what, she knows she’ll survive.

Afaf, a Palestinian-American, is the principal of an all-girl Muslim school. The book opens the day a shooter attacks the school. We then alternate between that day, and different stages of Afaf’s life, starting from when she was a little girl and her older sister disappeared.

For a book this short, it addresses a lot of different themes : untreated mental illness, racism, islamophobia, loss of a child, religion and faith, complicated mother-daughter relationships…
Maybe too many themes, because at moments it felt very superficial and I would’ve liked for it to be a little more dept.

I absolutely loved the writing style and how emotional it was! The characters were very well fleshed out and felt very real.
I cared a bit less about the present time events. The shooter’s POV was something I wasn’t expecting. I have to say, it kinda threw me off at first, but at the end I found it pretty interesting to see how fear and misinformation can turn someone into such a hateful and violent person.

My favourite thing about this book was probably witnessing Afaf’s relationship with religion develop, and seeing her finally find a community and a place to fit in.

In short, a book I won’t stop recommending to everyone!

Content Warnings

bookreviewswithkb's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-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? Yes

4.5

[ 4.5/5 🌺🌺🌺🌺🌷 ] this book should have been longer. it’s a masterpiece but i wanted more

this is a book about what happens to us when we hold in our pain, when we refuse to let out the things that have hurt us. maybe it’s in the name of protecting others or of protecting ourselves. but in the end, it creates more pain. so many of us have only been taught it’s not okay to feel emotions, it’s not okay to have struggles with mental health, that it’s not okay to talk about the things that are bothering us, but look where that’s left us. i don’t have to name the many atrocities in our society occurring every single day; how many of them stem from our inability to be honest, to see the humanity in each other, to feel our feelings and express them in healthy ways, to heal from our past?

maybe if Afaf’s mother received the care she needed for her depression, she wouldn’t have inflicted her pain onto those she loved most in the world. maybe if the shooter was able to talk about the wounds from his childhood, he wouldn’t have felt the need to unleash his anger on innocent Muslim students. maybe if Afaf could express what was happening to her at home, she wouldn’t have tried to seek comfort in white boys who saw her as a prize.

what do we have to lose by turning towards our emotions?

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