Thursday 1 June 2017

Review Rant: That Thing We Call A Heart by Sheba Karim

NEW EDIT: I changed the review of the book due to some mistake of mine. 


Release Date: 9, May, 2017
Publisher: Harper Teen
Pages: 288
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Source: ARC
Rate: 1/5 
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SYNOPSIS

Shabnam Qureshi is a funny, imaginative Pakistani-American teen attending a tony private school in suburban New Jersey. When her feisty best friend, Farah, starts wearing the headscarf without even consulting her, it begins to unravel their friendship. After hooking up with the most racist boy in school and telling a huge lie about a tragedy that happened to her family during the Partition of India in 1947, Shabnam is ready for high school to end. She faces a summer of boredom and regret, but she has a plan: Get through the summer. Get to college. Don’t look back. Begin anew.

Everything changes when she meets Jamie, who scores her a job at his aunt’s pie shack, and meets her there every afternoon. Shabnam begins to see Jamie and herself like the rose and the nightingale of classic Urdu poetry, which, according to her father, is the ultimate language of desire. Jamie finds Shabnam fascinating—her curls, her culture, her awkwardness. Shabnam finds herself falling in love, but Farah finds Jamie worrying. 

With Farah’s help, Shabnam uncovers the truth about Jamie, about herself, and what really happened during Partition. As she rebuilds her friendship with Farah and grows closer to her parents, Shabnam learns powerful lessons about the importance of love, in all of its forms.

Featuring complex, Muslim-American characters who defy conventional stereotypes and set against a backdrop of Radiohead’s music and the evocative metaphors of Urdu poetry, THAT THING WE CALL A HEART is a honest, moving story of a young woman's explorations of first love, sexuality, desire, self-worth, her relationship with her parents, the value of friendship, and what it means to be true.

REVIEW

NOTE: THIS IS A NEGATIVE REVIEW OF THIS BOOK AND DO NOT LEAVE ANY HATE COMMENTS PLEASE IF YOU REALLY LIKED THIS BOOK! THIS IS MY OPINION AND I HAVE A RIGHT TO SHARE MY VIEWS.
This book revolves around Shabnam, a Muslim girl whose mom is a practising Muslim and idk what her dad is, he's either an atheist or a Muslim. She has a best friend, Farah, whose a kind-ish practising Muslim. And then we have the cutest character, Chotay Dada, who faced great struggles during the migration of Pakistanis!
Now on to what I found problematic, the first thing is that I'm a Muslim and whenever I see wrong kind-ish stuff in books revolving around Muslims, it triggers me. Shabnam is a Muslim but her life isn't totally Muslim like, it's like she kisses random guys, let's guys touch her and has no issues whatsoever with losing her virginity (Its prohibited in Islam to date guys or kiss them or loose your virginity without nikkah). Her friend Farah wears Hijab, prays and fasts (which I loved) but she does drugs like ummm what?!!? There was not a single proper Muslim character other than Chotay Dada. His character is legit so good! Her father is so confusing, one time he goes like Qur'an should be changed as people are evolving and the other time he's like Allah is the best (Dude your an adult you have a daughter, stop being confused and choose what you want to follow). There's also a usage of fabricated hadith and the denial of a Hadith by Farah! It's okay if Farah is a feminist but she can't deny what has been said by our prophet (SAW) as she's herself a Muslim. 
Shabnam's Dad! Idk if your Muslim but respect Qur'an! It was, is and will always be same.
Qur'an forbids drugs along with Wine!!!!

Her relationship with the white boy was also questionable making the book totally non Muslim. It would have been great if the guy was a Muslim!

The biggest TRIGGERING ELEMENT OF THE BOOK!

Well Farah our Prophet (SAW) did say it & you can't deny it plus no there's no such treasure hadith! It's fabricated!

Well how can you expect your daughter to respect Islam if her own dad's confused about the religion!
Please I don't want any hate comments! This is just my opinion and I had to share it! The writing skills of the author is amazing but I just couldn't get my head around the plot! It's totally your choice if you want to read it! You might love it but it might be triggering for some Muslims! 
Happy Reading! <3

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