“The bighearted, wildly charming, painfully real love story I’ve been waiting for.” –Becky Albertalli, New York Times bestselling author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda “Heartfelt and powerful.” –Kirkus Reviews (starred review) From William C. Morris Award Finalist S.K. Ali comes an unforgettable romance that is The Sun Is Also a Star meets Anna and the French Kiss, following two Muslim … a Star meets Anna and the French Kiss, following two Muslim teens who meet during a spring break trip.
A marvel: something you find amazing. Even ordinary-amazing. Like potatoes–because they make French fries happen. Like the perfect fries Adam and his mom used to make together.
An oddity: whatever gives you pause. Like the fact that there are hateful people in the world. Like Zayneb’s teacher, who won’t stop reminding the class how “bad” Muslims are.
But Zayneb, the only Muslim in class, isn’t bad. She’s angry.
When she gets suspended for confronting her teacher, and he begins investigating her activist friends, Zayneb heads to her aunt’s house in Doha, Qatar, for an early start to spring break.
Fueled by the guilt of getting her friends in trouble, she resolves to try out a newer, “nicer” version of herself in a place where no one knows her.
Then her path crosses with Adam’s.
Since he got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in November, Adam’s stopped going to classes, intent, instead, on perfecting the making of things. Intent on keeping the memory of his mom alive for his little sister.
Adam’s also intent on keeping his diagnosis a secret from his grieving father.
Alone, Adam and Zayneb are playing roles for others, keeping their real thoughts locked away in their journals.
Until a marvel and an oddity occurs…
Marvel: Adam and Zayneb meeting.
Oddity: Adam and Zayneb meeting.
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You can also read this review on my book blog: https://genzbibliophile.com/love-from-a-to-z/
Before anything, I must give a heartfelt thank you to Muslim and BIPOC authors that give a voice of comfort and understanding to those of us that have, while growing up, seen such little representation and always had to wonder and imagine why our life experiences were nothing like those we read about in fairytales. Love from A to Z is a dual POV story told by Zayneb, an 18-year-old Hijabi who is in a constant battle with islamophobia, and Adam, who is quietly battling MS (multiple sclerosis) alone.
While reading Love from A to Z, there was a sense of familiarity with the struggles Zayneb (the main character) faced daily. While Zayneb is portrayed as the fierce advocate against Islamophobia, the reality for many little Muslim girls around the world is of quiet acceptance, hurt and confusion. It’s a constant battle. S.K. Ali created, with this book, a home for Muslims who have never been able to see themselves in the characters we read about. It portrays reality for all its hardships and its beauty.
I loved absolutely everything about this book! The characters were not only believable but lifelike, the character growth is immaculate, and it discusses important and relevant topics.
As a heads up, this book discusses Islamophobia, prejudice, discrimination, cultural appropriation, chronic illness, grief, trauma, mention of rape & sexual violence, and discussion of war and war victims.
I absolutely adored this book! Although it was slow at the beginning, it quickly picked up pace and kept going. I’m off to read all that is S.K. Ali because judging from this book, she is an amazing author. I love how she kept the romance aspect modest as she was writing a book about Muslim teenagers after all.
Ahem….from the moment I read that Zayneb’s maternal grandmother was Trinidadian I was sold!
Get ready to excite EVERY one of your senses. I highly recommend.
I loved this so much and I’m trying to figure out how to get my hands on The Eid Gift: An Adam and Zayneb Story because of how much I love the writing and these characters! It was even better than Saints and Misfits!
The Story
Zayneb has an extremely Islamophobic teacher. He regularly tries to rile up the class against her. It’s no surprise when she gets suspended for “making threats” against him. During her suspension, Zayneb’s parents send her to Doha to chill with her aunt.
Adam was diagnosed with MS, the same disease that killed his mom, but his family doesn’t know yet. No one knows. During spring break (even though he stopped going to classes), he visits his Dad and sister in Doha, and on the airplane there, he meets Zayneb.
This adorable Halal romance is about “Finding love in a time of Islamophobia”
The Good
I loved the writing style! It was funny and balanced the main plot with the subplots perfectly.
The characters were even better. I love Zayneb and found her very relatable. Adam was so sweet! Hanna was adorable, and Auntie Nandy is now one of my role models!
Plus, there are so many lines from this I want to quote!
The bottom line is this book was perfect!
Love From A to Z is an emotional read, at turns joyful, sad, fierce, fanciful, and more. All the characters are so alive, and the love story between Adam and Zayneb left me with a smile.
My heart at this moment is full of many different emotions and that’s because I finished reading this marvelous book while doing a review which might not be a good idea but I couldn’t wait to process my thoughts because NOW I have many thoughts that I need to put down in this review!!!!! I definitely loved this book more than Saints & Misfits and of course this book gets a 5 star (I would give more if I could) rating from me!!!!!
This book will always resonate me forever because as a Muslim and Canadian myself, I felt represented 100%!!!!! I love the Islamic references that is used in this book and not only did it warmed my heart, but also there were some scenes that made me laugh out loud!!!!!
As her previous book, Saints & Misfits, this book also deals with a serious topic and that is Islamaphobia and bombings, but mostly Islamaphobia. The author did a fantastic job in showing the prejudice of people towards Muslims in a raw, truthful, and angry tone, just like our main character, Zainab!!!!!
Speaking of Zainab, I really loved her character so much!!!! She is an angry girl in her own right who has a very strong voice that believes in justice and that gets her into a lot of trouble but she does not let that let her down and I ADORED HER FOR IT!!!!!!
Adam was also a character I really loved reading from. He is such a cinnamon roll and my poor baby is suffering from MS and I just want to give him all the hugs (air hugs in my case) and tell him that he is not alone and everything is going to be alright.
Their romance was the sweetest and so adorkable and I need MORE of them. Thankfully, they will be making an appearance in the Saints & Misfits sequel which I am so excited for whenever it will be released!!!!!
Now that I mentioned Saints & Misfits, there is actually a cameo of two awesome female niqabi characters (If you’ve read Saints & Misfits you know who I’m talking about) that made an appearance in this book which got me fangirling!!!!
The ending was satisfying and I loved every single moment of it, both about the romance and the resolution for the Islamaphobia topic!!!!! I won’t say any further because you have to read it and go through the journey!!!!!!
One last thing that I want to mention is the way the book is written (which I am a fan of) and that is it is written in journal entry by two POV which are Adam and Zainab and I loved reading from both of their perspective. I never got bored in any of their chapters or POV and that rarely happens when I read books with multiple POVs so cudos for the author!!!!!!
All in all, I adored, loved, enjoyed, and every other beautiful adjective that I can’t think of right now, this glorious book and very thankful that it has been published to our world today because this book means and will always mean so much to me!!!!!! I am excited to see the future works of S.K. Ali and definitely read all of her books that she writes!!!!! If you haven’t read this book already, I highly recommend you do (but after you read Saints & Misfits which was also amazing)!!!!!!!