3.75 stars. I liked the importance and weight of how the author wrote about the culture and trauma of being an immigrant in America. (Especially one of color.) Zara’s determination, even in the face of an uncertain future and terrifying hatred, was admirable. I like how she was able feel both that uncertainness and fear, while being resilient(and even hopeful, at times)—without it canceling that out. I also was not expecting Zara’s queerness to be so important to the story! It’s not regarded as anything controversial or a twist(although she does get some shit from an aunt for it), she outright says she’s bisexual on page, and her Muslim parents are very supportive. When grappling with the decision of whether to stay in the US or not, though, she knows that if she goes back to Pakistan she won’t be able to be openly queer without jeopardizing her safety. 

Unfortunately, I felt this book was held back by its writing style. The topics tackled by Zara and her family are nuanced, and have a lot of room for in-depth, hard-hitting writing. But a lot of the descriptions were very tell-not-show. Instead of illustrating Zara being crushed, or joyful, it would say that she “felt sad” or was “on a cloud of joy”(the second metaphor was used around three times, I think?). It felt younger YA in a way I wasn’t expecting, and the only time I feel the on-the-nose writing worked was a quarter through the story when Zara’s inner and outer conflicts were just introduced and her emotions were fresh. Her grief(?) about her father broke my heart, when his health was an uncertain point of the story. (I’m sure some of that in part is due to my father passing away and revisiting that old fear of living without him, though.)

Some other issues I had were that I wish Chloe was more developed as a character before she started dating Zara—we don’t really know why Zara likes her aside from her being pretty. (Although Zara gets to be open with her later on in the book, that’s..tens of pages away, and not an initial point as to why she cares so much about this girl.) I wish we got more closure on Maria(or at least saw her have more importance), and towards the end a lot of Canada’s issues were glossed over so the ending would be more optimistic.

Please listen to me though when I say that this is a flawed book, and I criticize parts of it, I still have tremendous respect for its existence. Not many stories of people with struggles like Zara’s are published, or become mainstream. I’m sure there are people that this will resonate with that are immigrants, Muslim, PoC and queer like Zara. If you read this review and decide “Zara Hossain Is Here” is a worthwhile read for you, I say go ahead and check it out.