I'm shocked that I've seen this book catalogued as a historical novel. Like, I remember 9/11 (even if I'm not from the US). Not cool.

But anyways, it is a nice novel, with a good plot and interesting characters. My biggest issue with it is that... why can't Shirin have ANY girl friends???? I get that she's isolated herself and all that, but throughout the novel she only has negative (or negatively framed) encounters with other women. It's only in the last fifth of the book that she sort of becomes friendly with another girl, but that relationship stays in the background as opposed to her friendships with the other guys or her relationship with Ocean. Another issue I had was that the ending felt a bit rushed: for all the drama that preceded it, most of the conflict are nicely tied up before the last chapter. So, what are the stakes here?

Other than that, Mafi is a very good writer, and I believe this is a great story to tell. It does work really well at showing Muslim/Persian culture and the ways in which being a child of immigrants shape you and your attitude. I liked that Shirin felt like a real teenager with real teenage issues. Same goes for Ocean, who felt very much like a compelling character throughout the novel.