Title: All-American Muslim Girl
Author: Nadine Jolie Courtney
Publication date: 2019
Date started: 11/12/2020
Date finished: 15/12/2020
First sentence: “We’ve passed through security and we’re boarding the plane when the breaking news alert hits my cell phone: There’s been a shooting.”
Last sentence: “Hamdulilah, I am enough. Just as I am.”
Summary (spoilers): Allie and her family are Muslim, but because they aren’t very religious, and that she’s white passing due to her white mother and her dad being Circassian, none of her friends know about it. That includes her new boyfriend, Well, whom she’s very happy with… until she learns that his father is a famously islamophobic tv host, making all his money on fear mongering. Little by little, Allie gets curious about her religion and starts to attend a Quran study group and to pray – while hiding it from her father, who is quite against religion. But eventually she starts being more open about being Muslim and if Well’s father is furious, Well and her own parents accept it.
Opinion: I enjoyed this story! Young adult, western stories with Muslim characters are still very rare, and this is the first one I see that explores the complexity of being Muslim while white passing. I thought it was quite well done, and I enjoyed the story and the characters.
Loke Reads 