Nevertheless, this is a once in a lifetime book. I don't want this to look like I'm minimizing the actual events because clearly Shirin prevailing and asserting her worth in that situation was still such a powerful read, but I wish Ocean's conflict that drives the emotional climax of this book could have been designed to be less. The stakes were so low because it felt too cliché and the conflict of this book reminded me of High School Musical. It felt like a flat plot point that’s a totally overused trope. not wanting to be on the basketball team. Shirin deals with racism and xenophobia and bigotry, and Ocean deals with. The reason why I took a star off is because the relationship is melodramatic to the point of being cliche. I was rooting for her the entire book, and her transformation and self-actualization was such an engrossing journey. I sympathized with her so much that my heart hurt. I haven’t lived a life anywhere near Shirin’s, but being in her head made sense. I can’t put my finger on it, but this book just. He was definitely my favorite side character! Their bond was endearing and I liked how he was her mentor and cheered her up and stuck up for her and was the reason she got into break dancing. I LOVED Shirin’s relationship with her brother, Navid. From powerful moments to funny, relatable moments to important moments to cute moments, I was glued onto the pages. I’m not even exaggerating when I say that probably 50% of this ebook’s text is highlighted. It’s different and it’s jarring, but it fits the story. Gone are the flowery paragraphs of images and metaphors, but they’re replaced by hard-hitting and steel edged descriptions of Shirin’s real life. This book cuts the crap from Shatter Me & Furthermore’s writing style and says it how it is. Despite this, I was highlighting paragraphs basically every other page because Shirin’s experiences and anger born from them was so powerful. I was nervous starting this book because the first 25% of this lays a lot of groundwork and there’s a lot of telling instead of showing. Updating with my full thoughts now that the book is out! I wrote all of this down when I first read it in May.

Tahereh mafi