My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 Stars
Quotes to Remember:
If the decision you’ve made has brought you closer to humanity, then you’ve done the right thing.
I didn't believe it was possible to hide a woman's beauty. I thought women were gorgeous no matter what they wore, and I didn't think they owed anyone an explanation for their sartorial choices. Different women felt comfortable in different outfits. They were all beautiful.
If maybe, just maybe, I'd been so determined not to be stereotyped that I'd begun to stereotype everyone around me.
Because I always say that. I always say that I don't care what other people think. I say it doesn't bother me, that I don't give a shit about the opinions of assholes but it's not true. It's not true, because it hurts every time, and that means I still care. It means I'm still not strong enough because every time someone says something rude, it hurts. It never stops hurting. It only gets easier to recover.
I mean, I wasn't fine. I would be fine. But I wasn't there yet.
Be honest. Remember, honesty is everything. Without it, we can never move foward. We can never have productive discussions. So be honest.
I looked out at the world around me and no longer saw nuance. I saw nothing but the potential for pain and the subsequent need to protect myself, constantly.
I was so raw from repeated exposure to cruelty that now even the most minor abrasions left a mark.
I’ve been trying to educate people for years and it’s exhausting. I’m tired of being patient with bigots. I’m tired of trying to explain why I don’t deserve to be treated like a piece of shit all the time. I’m tired of begging everyone to understand that people of color aren’t all the same, that we don’t all believe the same things or feel the same things or experience the world the same way.
Publisher's Description:
It’s 2002, a year after 9/11. It’s an extremely turbulent time politically, but especially so for someone like Shirin, a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl who’s tired of being stereotyped.
Shirin is never surprised by how horrible people can be. She’s tired of the rude stares, the degrading comments - even the physical violence - she endures as a result of her race, her religion, and the hijab she wears every day. So she’s built up protective walls and refuses to let anyone close enough to hurt her. Instead, she drowns her frustrations in music and spends her afternoons break-dancing with her brother.
But then she meets Ocean James. He’s the first person in forever who really seems to want to get to know Shirin. It terrifies her - they seem to come from two irreconcilable worlds - and Shirin has had her guard up for so long that she’s not sure she’ll ever be able to let it down.
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