I don't know how to review or rate this book. I want to rate it a solid 3 stars, but at the same time there were some glaring issues with the Muslim representation that annoyed me.

This book does seem to be based on Nadine's own life, so I obviously don't want to invalidate her experiences, and I'm sure this book will be relatable for some Muslims. But at the same time, I think this book has some misinformation when it comes to Islam that has me hesitant to recommend it to non-Muslims.

I will admit. This book made me feel a lot of emotions. The blatant Islamophobia that Allie experiences was horrible to read and made me so angry I was shaking. But I think that just means it was done very well. I think I've been lucky for the most part because I haven't experienced the level of hatred that Allie and her friends and family experience for being Muslim, but I know these things do happen and it is much worse for so many. I loved seeing Allie going from staying quiet to standing up for herself, and I also really liked the internal struggle she goes through where she's trying to keep a low profile, and not draw attention to herself, and just be super nice and overly friendly so people don't get the wrong idea...it's stuff that I do regularly, but I just don't think about anymore. I honestly don't know how I would react if someone told me to my face to "go back to my country", because it's never happened to me, and I feel like I'm the kind of person to just walk away instead of defend myself. So in that way, Allie is quite admirable. The things she says are things I wish I could say out loud, so it was great being able to read that in this book.

I loved seeing Allie's relationship with her mom, especially seeing how supportive her mother is as Allie learns and discovers more about Islam. Her father though...I kind of still hate him. He's so dismissive and disrespectful when it comes to religion. Like I know people who aren't religious who don't go around bashing other people's faith. At one point he even refers to prayer as "nonsense", which was just infuriating. I get that by the end, we start to see some change in him, but honestly I don't know. I was expecting to get some kind of backstory of why he ended up the way he did. But we never got that. He was also super rude to his own wife, saying she only converted because of formalities and pretty much speaking for her, even when she said she converted because she wanted to.

The ending with Teta and the rest of Allie's family was perfect and so well done that I technically cried. Technically. It was heartbreaking and painful, but I think it was my favourite part of the book.

Now onto the the actual Islam portrayed in this book. There's a lot of discussion about Islam and various interpretations about the rules and what Allie's friends think in regards to all of that. I think for a non-Muslim, most of this stuff would sound complicated and/boring, though I really don't think this book is meant for non-Muslims. If it is, I feel like it doesn't really do a good job of explaining the true Islam. The little Quran circles Allie has with her friends were really annoying. I get that the point was to show the differing opinions, but these girls start talking about how to change Islam to suit their lives instead of changing yourself. And it was never challenged in anyway. We're left off with Allie sort of going "well I'm learning and growing and if people don't like me doing things my way, it won't stop me from being Muslim", which is just .... I'm not saying she isn't a Muslim, I'm just saying that for a young Muslim teen reading this book it's not the message of Islam I want for them to come across. I don't expect Allie to suddenly go from non-practicing to a "perfect" Muslim. It's hard giving up aspects of your life you're used to and even enjoy or want. But I just don't like how this was done.

Overall, giving this a 2 stars I guess, since I hate not leaving a rating.