All My Rage: A Novel

I'd really enjoyed Sabaa Tahir's fantasy books, so I was really excited to see how she was at YA, and oh my god it was so good! Thanks to @bookishfirst and @penguinteen for the early copy of this! * Synopsis: Sal and Noor are two Pakistani-American teens who are trying to rekindle their friendship after a falling out. Sal's mom is gravely sick and he's doing everything he can to help the family motel survive, while Noor desperately wants to go to college but her uncle who takes care of her wants to stop her. This also flashes back through Misbah's life (Sal's mother) showing how the family got to where they were. * This was amazing. Well-written and layered and powerful and emotional. There are a lot of triggers so definitely check those out before reading, but otherwise run out and get this ASAP. This gave me so much to think about and was heartwarming and heartbreaking all at the same time. * Rage is an emotion that is not really addressed much in fiction, at least not in a meaningful way that I've seen. Rage usually only comes up with someone evil, someone who's resorting to violence. But this does such an amazing job of showing Sal's and Noor's emotions and how they change over time and how rage ends up being not only justified but necessary. I really appreciated how that was addressed here, and making Sal and Noor so incredibly real.

This Book Deserves All the Awards This is my first book by this author and I have absolutely zero regrets choosing to spend my day reading this raw and riveting novel. Despite the trigger warnings of drug and alcohol addiction, drug dealing, physical abuse, death, Islamophobia, overdosing, and racism, I believe this is a novel that should be in every library, taught at every school, and put in every reader's hands (adults included). This book is told mainly through dual points of view of Salahundin and Noor with powerful glimpses into the past through Misbah's point of view. The bond between Salahundin and Noor is stronger than friendship, despite secrets that both either refuse to see or don't want to see. Each character deals with so much and at times, they are each other's only safe space. But even in their shared space, they remain strangers and my heart ached for them. The family and found families are imperfect and at times broken; these characters also endeared themselves to me. The writing is some of the best I've ever encountered and I always felt as if I were living this novel as I read. In my opinion, this book will receive so many honors that the cover may need redesigning to fit all the shiny stickers. This powerful novel will be one I think about for a very long time, one I recommend to everyone, and one that will easily be my favorite of the year. This is one of those books that gripped me, broke my heart, and yet, still gave me hope.

Destroyed me in the best way possible. After I finished reading I was blown away and needed some time to catch up with the waves of emotion that had destroyed me. At first I was actually not sure if I'd be able to read this book because of the dark themes that were mentioned beforehand. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to handle it to be honest, so much is/was happening, that I needed a light hearted read before diving deep into my feels with this book. And then reading another light hearted book after this book so I wouldn't be pulled into a depressive state. So this is a trigger-warning for those that aren't in the mood to read darker themed books. Though my disclaimer might go unheard of I thought to just put that out there. This book is an exceptional, dazzling, and heart-breaking book about family. And whay family's go through; of both tender and despondent of times in ways that are relatable to any family in the world. To say simply, I found this book quite sad and relata