Khadijah VanBrakle

Recommended: yup
for a chilling toxic relationship, for religious shaming and pressure, for a girl who loves to cook and tries to find herself

Thoughts:
First up, this book was really hard to read and times and genuinely made me shudder because of how helpless I was watching Fatima get close to this guy who's basically a walking red flag. He's so many red flags he could just be a whole banner. My god. And it's 100% not on her, because she's hella young and has NO IDEA about anything romantic show more due to the rules of her religion. So it's not just a naive girl making thoughtless choices, it's a young girl being told these are the correct choices.

I appreciate in this book that though Fatima's religion is a driving factor in many ways, it's never blamed. There was no sweeping generalization felt in the narrative trying to either condemn nor praise it -- it was just one story of one possible path that can occur. Fatima has deep faith, even if she sometimes struggles to get up for early morning prayer. But her faith in God, though it's not one I share, was moving, and was a part of her that I really admired.

Baking is the other huge focus, and a nice little touch is a few recipes at the end of the book of dishes that were featured during it. I'm not a baker, but dang do I love when food-focused books actually deliver the chance to eat what the characters eat! Fatima works hard to carve her path, even when she's extremely unsure of what it should look like by any definition. Which, yeah, is pretty common for many late teens, I think. xD She tries very hard to be bold, even when she ends up getting burned by it.

The story narrative is very straightforward: Fatima's conflicts are with her relationship with Raheem, and with pursuing baking despite her parents wishes. With such a narrow focus, you get a lot of detail on each, rather than many side stories weaving together. For some reason I expected the story to start out with Fatima already with Raheem, so I was surprised but pleased to get some build up and background to their meeting and getting to know each other.

So yes, overall I think this was a strong look at the topic, though I hesitate to say it was an "enjoyable" book because it was genuinely really hard to read for me at times. Things Raheem said made a pit of dread form in my stomach, things like "Just remember you're mine" said with a wink. At best that would be affronting to my independence, but in this case it's a sign of something so much worse. If you read this, just be ready for those moments, if that's something that will affect you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Holiday House for a free advanced copy. This is my honest review.  show less

3.5