Title: Love, Hate & Other Filters
Author: Samira Ahmed
Pages: 288
Publisher: 16th January 2018
Release Date: Hot Key Books
Blurb from Goodreads:
First love, first heartbreak, first brush with prejudice . . .
A romantic, searing and relevant debut about Islamophobia and how it affects the normal life of a teenage girl.
"I don't want something . . . expected. I want to go to film school and be the first Indian American to win an Oscar, and then I can meet the One and fall in big, heart-bursting love, and we'll travel the world, my camera ready to capture our adventures." My cheeks flush; I know I'm blushing, but I can't bring myself to shut up. "Oh, my God. I want my future life to be a cheesy romantic comedy."
He shakes his head. "No," he says. "You want it to be an epic."
Maya Aziz dreams of being a film maker in New York. Her family have other ideas. They want her to be a dutiful daughter who wears gold jewellery and high heels and trains to be a doctor. But jewellery and heels are so uncomfortable...
She's also caught between the guy she SHOULD like and the guy she DOES like. But she doesn't want to let Kareem down and things with Phil would never work out anyway. Would they?
Then a suicide bomber who shares her last name strikes in a city hundreds of miles away and everything changes . . .
A romantic, searing and relevant debut about Islamophobia and how it affects the normal life of a teenage girl.
"I don't want something . . . expected. I want to go to film school and be the first Indian American to win an Oscar, and then I can meet the One and fall in big, heart-bursting love, and we'll travel the world, my camera ready to capture our adventures." My cheeks flush; I know I'm blushing, but I can't bring myself to shut up. "Oh, my God. I want my future life to be a cheesy romantic comedy."
He shakes his head. "No," he says. "You want it to be an epic."
Maya Aziz dreams of being a film maker in New York. Her family have other ideas. They want her to be a dutiful daughter who wears gold jewellery and high heels and trains to be a doctor. But jewellery and heels are so uncomfortable...
She's also caught between the guy she SHOULD like and the guy she DOES like. But she doesn't want to let Kareem down and things with Phil would never work out anyway. Would they?
Then a suicide bomber who shares her last name strikes in a city hundreds of miles away and everything changes . . .
My Review:
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to Bonnier Zaffre and NetGalley*
Maya Aziz loves making films and dreams of studying film in New York.
She struggles to be the daughter her parents want her to be - they want her to be a lawyer or a doctor, and to marry a nice Muslim boy.
Maya has a crush on Phil, a guy at her school, but nothing can happen between them. Can it?
Then a suicide bomber with the same surname as Maya attacks a city, and Maya finds herself and her family in danger.
Can Maya have the future she wants?
I had heard lots of good things about Love, Hate & Other Filters, so I was excited to read it. However, apart from having a Muslim protagonist, this felt just like every other book to me.
What I liked -
The cultural representation, and the fact that there was a Muslim main character and that Islamophobia is shown.
What I didn't like -
Maya was very rude to her parents at times. While I could understand her frustrations, she didn't have to act the way she did.
Her mum was the stereotypical Indian mum who wants her daughter to marry a Muslim boy, and for her to be a lawyer or a doctor. It would have been refreshing if Maya's mum hadn't been like that.
I didn't like the romance. I just couldn't feel the connection between Maya and Phil.
While there was cultural representation, Maya didn't really discuss her faith that much.
The plot was okay but I lost interest a couple of times.
The writing style could have flowed better in places.
I was expecting more from this after all the hype.
Overall this was a disappointing read.
No comments :
Post a Comment