A very large expanse of sea

There are not a lot of author’s I wind up buying whatever they write. But Tahereh Mafi is official one of my must buy authors. I absolutely adored this novel and you should definitely pick up a copy today!

I am literally doing an ugly cry right now!

I honestly have a broken heart. This story touched my inner child so deeply I felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest. High school can be challenging for all of us, but some had it way worse than others. I found myself going down memory lane, asking myself who and what could I have treated differently. In a world with advance technology, our way of treating others haven’t developed as much as it should have.

Initially it felt like I couldn’t get into it, but it turns out I was so, so wrong. This story is a must for everyone! EVERYONE! The first few chapters of back story and setting got a bit long in my opinion, but with it being covered in so much detail early on, that you can solely focus on the dialogue and plot development.

The writing is so emotional, you cannot help but feel EVERYTHING the characters feel. Their love, their hate, their shock and their disgust at how we as people treat each other.

Tahereh Mafi has taken a taboo topic and turned it into an eye opening story of how we as humans deal with things we in the essence of it, don’t understand. Whether it is racism, sexism, xenophobia – the lesson in this remains the same and vastly applicable.

Shirin and Ocean’s story is so moving that I honestly wish I could go back to high school and fix some of my own mistakes.

I highly recommend picking up this book. The initial detail might be boring and feel like unnecessary overshare but it is so crucial to the character development.

I just love this book.

Synopsis

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.

Would you go back and change your behaviour in high school? let me know in the comment section.