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zeemonodee's review
1.0
All's pretty much good...until you get to the epilogue that does everything it can to fan out the flames of racial and religious hate & intolerance! A total thumbs down because of those 2-3 last pages
jackiehorne's review
I requested a copy from Netgalley because the subject matter (a Muslim girl arrested for a hit-and-run of a white army vet, and the prejudice/racism that results) interested me. I have to admit, though, that I DNF this after reading it halfway through. The story is told mostly from the point of view of Lily, a teacher at the school where the Muslim girl was arrested, but with the POVs of several teens thrown into the mix—I had a hard time figuring out just who this story was aimed at, adults or teens? The writing was also pretty clunky, and the characters rather flat. I didn't find any romance in the first half; perhaps it comes in more in the second? In any case, the story read more like a moral lesson than a deeply imagined story with complex characters.
lacunaboo's review
3.0
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction...The chain reaction of evil-hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars-must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation."
This Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. quote sums up the message of Eileen Carr's novel, Veiled Intentions.
A high-achieving Muslim high school student gets accused of a hit-and-run accident involving a veteran of the war in Afghanistan. Jamila is stunned, and heartbroken, to see how quick all the people she has grown up with and known her whole life are to suddenly label her as "Other", even though she denies any involvement in the accident. She, along with other Muslim families in the community, become targets for bullying and hate crimes. They are alienated in their own hometown. Jamila is no longer a seventeen year old high school student active in community projects who also practices Islam; now the view of her is limited to simply to her religion. In her distress, she turns more toward the only aspect of herself that society will allow her to be defined by.
Veiled Intentions looks not only at Jamila and how she feels about and reacts to everything that ensues, but also all of the other various members of the community. We see all the different viewpoints involved in such a situation-the good, the bad, and the ugly. This is not a "feel good" book. However, it takes a necessary look at issues that are prevalent in the world today. It does an admirable job of surveying all of the different thoughts and opinions found in society today about issues of religious or cultural differences and how they should be 'dealt with'.
In addition to representing all of the views that crop up about such matters in a smart fashion, this book drives home the lesson Dr. King was attempting to teach decades ago: Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. This is a call for the world to find a way to stop the cycle of discrimination and violence.
This Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. quote sums up the message of Eileen Carr's novel, Veiled Intentions.
A high-achieving Muslim high school student gets accused of a hit-and-run accident involving a veteran of the war in Afghanistan. Jamila is stunned, and heartbroken, to see how quick all the people she has grown up with and known her whole life are to suddenly label her as "Other", even though she denies any involvement in the accident. She, along with other Muslim families in the community, become targets for bullying and hate crimes. They are alienated in their own hometown. Jamila is no longer a seventeen year old high school student active in community projects who also practices Islam; now the view of her is limited to simply to her religion. In her distress, she turns more toward the only aspect of herself that society will allow her to be defined by.
Veiled Intentions looks not only at Jamila and how she feels about and reacts to everything that ensues, but also all of the other various members of the community. We see all the different viewpoints involved in such a situation-the good, the bad, and the ugly. This is not a "feel good" book. However, it takes a necessary look at issues that are prevalent in the world today. It does an admirable job of surveying all of the different thoughts and opinions found in society today about issues of religious or cultural differences and how they should be 'dealt with'.
In addition to representing all of the views that crop up about such matters in a smart fashion, this book drives home the lesson Dr. King was attempting to teach decades ago: Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. This is a call for the world to find a way to stop the cycle of discrimination and violence.
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