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katiemack's review against another edition
4.0
I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This was more heartbreaking than I thought it would be. Ramiza Shamoun Koya's use of the dual narrative (alternating third-person POV between Amina and her nephew Omar) works really well and gives the reader more insight into not only these two characters, but also the world around them. It was upsetting to see that the main interfaith/intercultural relationship (that of Omar's parents Marcy and Mo) fell apart in such an intense way, but in a way it served to highlight Omar's struggle with his identity and culture.
This was more heartbreaking than I thought it would be. Ramiza Shamoun Koya's use of the dual narrative (alternating third-person POV between Amina and her nephew Omar) works really well and gives the reader more insight into not only these two characters, but also the world around them. It was upsetting to see that the main interfaith/intercultural relationship (that of Omar's parents Marcy and Mo) fell apart in such an intense way, but in a way it served to highlight Omar's struggle with his identity and culture.
abetterfate's review against another edition
2.0
2.5 maybe?
It wasn't bad enough to force me to quit reading, but it wasn't good enough to be enjoyable. Just blah.
It wasn't bad enough to force me to quit reading, but it wasn't good enough to be enjoyable. Just blah.
ameerah's review against another edition
1.0
Unfortunately, this book just really didn't work for me.
[Thank you, NetGalley for providing a copy of the ARC]
[Thank you, NetGalley for providing a copy of the ARC]
dlfowler's review against another edition
4.0
Koya explores the steep cost of cultural assimilation through the experiences of a family that descends from a region caught up in controversy and misunderstanding. The Abduls are almost indistinguishable from the rest of society, except for their names. Two generations of Abduls have already discarded their heritage to blend with their adopted culture. It is the third generation’s youthful curiosity about the family’s hushed heritage that draws their individual and collective pain to the surface. With the Royal Abduls, Koya highlights both the failures of assimilation and its ubiquitous nature. A worthwhile read. I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
jaybeeeee's review against another edition
5.0
A lovely and hopeful book about love, loss and living. And, surprisingly, a total page turner. A must read!
atharvg's review against another edition
4.0
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy
I also posted this review on my book blog:
Ramiza Shamoun Koya’s debut novel is an emotional portrayal of a Hyderabadi American Muslim family and the struggles they face in post-9/11 America. The characters are lovingly drawn, and the conflicts they deal with never felt inorganic. The story is primarily told from the perspectives of Amina and her nephew Omar.
Amina is a post-doc in Biology who has recently taken up a new post in Washington, D.C., the city where her brother lives. Through Amina, we get an insight into how insidious sexism in the workplace manifests itself. This is especially evident with Amina’s colleague Anjali and her too-friendly relationship with their boss Chris. Amina herself feels like she is in a rut, having just left a long-term relationship and not really in love with her new job. As someone looking to pursue biology at a Master’s level, I must say that Amina’s experience with her position was not encouraging to me. But I applaud the author for not sugarcoating anything, but still giving us a sense of how Amina first fell in love with biology and her continued love of field work.
Omar is the son of Amina’s brother Mo and his white wife Marcy. The family is fairly disconnected from their Hyderabadi roots, but because Omar is perceived by others to be Indian and/or Muslim depending on the situation, he naturally comes to have an identity crisis. I felt the author’s portrayal of Omar to really capture what it is like to feel lost at such a young age. With his parents caught up in their own problems and a huge gap in his knowledge of his family history, Omar begins to turn to Amina for guidance. But Amina’s own issues with commitment make her somewhat unreliable for him.
Throughout this, the realities of being Muslim in 2000s America, or really just having Muslim names, blows out of proportion situations that should have been brushed off. An incident with a knife ends up having undue consequences for Omar, and the author clearly shows the Islamophobia in the punishment and the bullying that led Omar to it. The author also did a great job of portraying how Omar’s disconnect with his Muslim and Indian heritage leads him to being more confused about how people treat him. He is trying to come to understand what it means to be perceived as Muslim even when he is not religious and has no one to guide him. The novel’s last section is set in India, and without going into too much detail, I was relieved that the author deftly portrayed the differences and similarities between the character’s life in India and the US. The threat of a majoritarian government has yet to come into fruition in India, but the author clearly shows how othering it is to be perceived as Muslim even there. India is not the homecoming the character may have thought it would be, but it still represents an important stage in the character’s development.
The author’s choices when it came to presenting the family’s culture and various elements of desi culture was thought provoking. For one thing, it is unusual to see a Hyderabadi Muslim family claim Hindi as their ancestral language. But I thought it was a bold choice to have the characters state misconceptions about different aspects of desi culture because they genuinely believed them. Omar, for example, believes initially that Hindus are more Indian than Muslims. Amina at one point gives a definition of desi to mean being of Indian heritage, when the term applies to some other South Asians as well. For a desi reader like myself it was easier to parse out the misconceptions from what was actually true, but it could lead to some non-desi readers believing these misconceptions.
Despite a somewhat unorganized start, I found that this novel built up emotion very well, so that by the end I was absolutely gripped by these characters’ stories. This portrait of a family struggling to stay together was incredibly moving. This is a book that skillfully balances heartwarming lighter moments with heartbreaking darker ones.
I also posted this review on my book blog:
Ramiza Shamoun Koya’s debut novel is an emotional portrayal of a Hyderabadi American Muslim family and the struggles they face in post-9/11 America. The characters are lovingly drawn, and the conflicts they deal with never felt inorganic. The story is primarily told from the perspectives of Amina and her nephew Omar.
Amina is a post-doc in Biology who has recently taken up a new post in Washington, D.C., the city where her brother lives. Through Amina, we get an insight into how insidious sexism in the workplace manifests itself. This is especially evident with Amina’s colleague Anjali and her too-friendly relationship with their boss Chris. Amina herself feels like she is in a rut, having just left a long-term relationship and not really in love with her new job. As someone looking to pursue biology at a Master’s level, I must say that Amina’s experience with her position was not encouraging to me. But I applaud the author for not sugarcoating anything, but still giving us a sense of how Amina first fell in love with biology and her continued love of field work.
Omar is the son of Amina’s brother Mo and his white wife Marcy. The family is fairly disconnected from their Hyderabadi roots, but because Omar is perceived by others to be Indian and/or Muslim depending on the situation, he naturally comes to have an identity crisis. I felt the author’s portrayal of Omar to really capture what it is like to feel lost at such a young age. With his parents caught up in their own problems and a huge gap in his knowledge of his family history, Omar begins to turn to Amina for guidance. But Amina’s own issues with commitment make her somewhat unreliable for him.
Throughout this, the realities of being Muslim in 2000s America, or really just having Muslim names, blows out of proportion situations that should have been brushed off. An incident with a knife ends up having undue consequences for Omar, and the author clearly shows the Islamophobia in the punishment and the bullying that led Omar to it. The author also did a great job of portraying how Omar’s disconnect with his Muslim and Indian heritage leads him to being more confused about how people treat him. He is trying to come to understand what it means to be perceived as Muslim even when he is not religious and has no one to guide him. The novel’s last section is set in India, and without going into too much detail, I was relieved that the author deftly portrayed the differences and similarities between the character’s life in India and the US. The threat of a majoritarian government has yet to come into fruition in India, but the author clearly shows how othering it is to be perceived as Muslim even there. India is not the homecoming the character may have thought it would be, but it still represents an important stage in the character’s development.
The author’s choices when it came to presenting the family’s culture and various elements of desi culture was thought provoking. For one thing, it is unusual to see a Hyderabadi Muslim family claim Hindi as their ancestral language. But I thought it was a bold choice to have the characters state misconceptions about different aspects of desi culture because they genuinely believed them. Omar, for example, believes initially that Hindus are more Indian than Muslims. Amina at one point gives a definition of desi to mean being of Indian heritage, when the term applies to some other South Asians as well. For a desi reader like myself it was easier to parse out the misconceptions from what was actually true, but it could lead to some non-desi readers believing these misconceptions.
Despite a somewhat unorganized start, I found that this novel built up emotion very well, so that by the end I was absolutely gripped by these characters’ stories. This portrait of a family struggling to stay together was incredibly moving. This is a book that skillfully balances heartwarming lighter moments with heartbreaking darker ones.
whatannikareads's review against another edition
Thank you Net Galley and Forest Avenue Press for the ARC!
I really wanted to like this book, but it kinda dragged on for a while and so I stopped halfway through. I didn't rate it lower because usually 1s and 2s actually make me upset to read. I think there were just too many superfluous details. For example, all of the details of Amina's scientific research that doesn't really add to the central plot of her and Omar's relationship. Omar, a 12-year-old boy who has an interest in finding out the Indian side of his family tree, is dealing with bullying at his schools in a post-9/11 world.
I just think most of the characters fell flat and weren't very likable except Omar. And it didn't talk about their Muslim experiences much. I also just took a particularly disliking to Omar's white mom, Marcy. Both of Omar's parents are not great, but it just felt like a situation where Marcy shouldn't known what she was getting into marrying and Indian man and having a brown son.
It didn't really make me feel much of anything; I didn't care a lot about the characters except Omar, but I also don't think it was bad? So I'm split down the middle.
I really wanted to like this book, but it kinda dragged on for a while and so I stopped halfway through. I didn't rate it lower because usually 1s and 2s actually make me upset to read. I think there were just too many superfluous details. For example, all of the details of Amina's scientific research that doesn't really add to the central plot of her and Omar's relationship. Omar, a 12-year-old boy who has an interest in finding out the Indian side of his family tree, is dealing with bullying at his schools in a post-9/11 world.
I just think most of the characters fell flat and weren't very likable except Omar. And it didn't talk about their Muslim experiences much. I also just took a particularly disliking to Omar's white mom, Marcy. Both of Omar's parents are not great, but it just felt like a situation where Marcy shouldn't known what she was getting into marrying and Indian man and having a brown son.
It didn't really make me feel much of anything; I didn't care a lot about the characters except Omar, but I also don't think it was bad? So I'm split down the middle.
readingsari's review against another edition
1.0
[Thank you, NetGalley for providing a copy of the ARC]
This whole book was just completely incoherent. I am so disappointed because I really was quite excited for this story.
What I expected due to the Blurb:
A story about a muslim-indian family suffering under the anti-muslim sentiment which came up strongly in the US after 9/11.
What i received:
An incoherent and strange story about a family who identifies as atheist, has nothing at all to do with their roots or their ancestors religion, and doesn't even want to talk about it.
This was the biggest problem for me, the fact that the author planned to create a story about second generation immigrants and how they experience the situation in the US after 9/11 - BUT THEN created a family that doesn't identify with their background, doesn't want to talk about their background and is just in complete denial about their heritage. What exactly were they supposed to show the reader? Reading this felt like trying desperately to make someone talk who just doesn't want to talk about it.
THE POSITIVE
Omar. He was such a cute child, and the way the chapters from his viewpoint were written illustrated perfectly the struggles he is faced with due to is name and the color of his skin.
Yea, thats it.
THE NEGATIVE
Amina
... was absolutely pathetic and maybe this was intentional but the author missed the point in which she could change the narrative into something that illustrated a point for the reader. We were just left confused the whole time, everything Amina "said" in her thoughts just contradicted her actions. N O T H I N G changed. She just kept acting like it.
... first she started to hate this girl because she thought she was sleeping with her Boss - 1) why is that her business and 2) why is this a reason to be so mean to the girl ???
... then her endless talks about her biology project - what was the point in including this in this book? I mean it was interesting enough at times but it really had no point other than using it as a metaphor, in the last few pages, for species mixing with each other and forming new species.
... her constant inner shaming of everyone who is religious? What sense does this make in a book that was supposed to support people suffering under anti-muslim discrimination? She didn't want to date a man because he had a long dark beard, she didn't want to date someone who was religious, and on and on. At times I just felt like she was the one with anti-muslim sentiment. But then out of nothing, the next second she is complaining about the struggles she faces to due the anti-muslim sentiment, and a few pages later she is talking about being a proud atheist. And then she is crying out of happiness because Barack Obama became president and he is muslim - is this a fiction or did I really miss the point where he was muslim? Not once did we get the impression that she had a problem with how her people were treated in America and now she is so glad that finally, after all their struggles, things can change??
Omars Story
I felt like this was the part where the author actually tried to show the reader how a child with a different ethnic background feels in todays USA. And she did a great job of showing it
.. but? Then .. just nothing. Not a single soul in his family realized or even cared about the struggles he was facing. His white mother was constantly being angry at hime if just as much as said "India" or "Islam", his father completely ignored him and is aunt made some strange tries but honestly was glad when he stopped reminding her of her heritage.
This boy was actually bullied by teachers and other children, by his own damn white family, he was thinking about changing his name into something more "white", etc. etc. this list is ENDLESS. He was confused about what being Indian means (actually thinking that everyone who is of a darker skintown is from India), he did not know one single bit about what Islam is, he was scared of women with headscarves. MAN. This would have been just such a great way for the author to use this and make him talk to his parents and let them explain all he is confused about. It would have been a lesson. But no, she just left him AND US without explanation. It was so frustrating to see him suffer without anybody trying to explain a thing.
ISLAM REPRESENTATION
This whole book had not one single person (beside a woman in a store of whom Omar was afraid) who represented Islam. There was not a single soul identifying as muslim, not a single soul practicing Islam. The only religious person in this book was a Sikh - which is fine with me, but why then put something about Muslims in the Blurb?
This whole family was supposedly having Muslim Roots but didn't want to talk about it and also didn't believe in god. Wow. The author additionally made such a point of showing that this family didn't act muslim - alcohol EVERYWHERE, such strange talk about sex between random people, loving to eat pork. It just became ridiculous when everyone in this book was drinking gin, whiskey, wine and beer on I KID YOU NOT every single occasion AND DRIVING afterwards. It felt like she was so focused on showing how much alcohol is consumed that she forget to check if this has any logic left in it.
I'm sorry but it felt like this book was about a family, looking muslim but not being muslim, that was wrongly accused of being muslim and treated accordingly. Making them the poor people who had to suffer because of Islamic Fundamentalism.
I could go on and on but I will leave you at this.
This whole book was just completely incoherent. I am so disappointed because I really was quite excited for this story.
What I expected due to the Blurb:
A story about a muslim-indian family suffering under the anti-muslim sentiment which came up strongly in the US after 9/11.
What i received:
An incoherent and strange story about a family who identifies as atheist, has nothing at all to do with their roots or their ancestors religion, and doesn't even want to talk about it.
This was the biggest problem for me, the fact that the author planned to create a story about second generation immigrants and how they experience the situation in the US after 9/11 - BUT THEN created a family that doesn't identify with their background, doesn't want to talk about their background and is just in complete denial about their heritage. What exactly were they supposed to show the reader? Reading this felt like trying desperately to make someone talk who just doesn't want to talk about it.
THE POSITIVE
Omar. He was such a cute child, and the way the chapters from his viewpoint were written illustrated perfectly the struggles he is faced with due to is name and the color of his skin.
Yea, thats it.
THE NEGATIVE
Amina
... was absolutely pathetic and maybe this was intentional but the author missed the point in which she could change the narrative into something that illustrated a point for the reader. We were just left confused the whole time, everything Amina "said" in her thoughts just contradicted her actions. N O T H I N G changed. She just kept acting like it.
... first she started to hate this girl because she thought she was sleeping with her Boss - 1) why is that her business and 2) why is this a reason to be so mean to the girl ???
... then her endless talks about her biology project - what was the point in including this in this book? I mean it was interesting enough at times but it really had no point other than using it as a metaphor, in the last few pages, for species mixing with each other and forming new species.
... her constant inner shaming of everyone who is religious? What sense does this make in a book that was supposed to support people suffering under anti-muslim discrimination? She didn't want to date a man because he had a long dark beard, she didn't want to date someone who was religious, and on and on. At times I just felt like she was the one with anti-muslim sentiment. But then out of nothing, the next second she is complaining about the struggles she faces to due the anti-muslim sentiment, and a few pages later she is talking about being a proud atheist. And then she is crying out of happiness because Barack Obama became president and he is muslim - is this a fiction or did I really miss the point where he was muslim? Not once did we get the impression that she had a problem with how her people were treated in America and now she is so glad that finally, after all their struggles, things can change??
Omars Story
I felt like this was the part where the author actually tried to show the reader how a child with a different ethnic background feels in todays USA. And she did a great job of showing it
.. but? Then .. just nothing. Not a single soul in his family realized or even cared about the struggles he was facing. His white mother was constantly being angry at hime if just as much as said "India" or "Islam", his father completely ignored him and is aunt made some strange tries but honestly was glad when he stopped reminding her of her heritage.
This boy was actually bullied by teachers and other children, by his own damn white family, he was thinking about changing his name into something more "white", etc. etc. this list is ENDLESS. He was confused about what being Indian means (actually thinking that everyone who is of a darker skintown is from India), he did not know one single bit about what Islam is, he was scared of women with headscarves. MAN. This would have been just such a great way for the author to use this and make him talk to his parents and let them explain all he is confused about. It would have been a lesson. But no, she just left him AND US without explanation. It was so frustrating to see him suffer without anybody trying to explain a thing.
ISLAM REPRESENTATION
This whole book had not one single person (beside a woman in a store of whom Omar was afraid) who represented Islam. There was not a single soul identifying as muslim, not a single soul practicing Islam. The only religious person in this book was a Sikh - which is fine with me, but why then put something about Muslims in the Blurb?
This whole family was supposedly having Muslim Roots but didn't want to talk about it and also didn't believe in god. Wow. The author additionally made such a point of showing that this family didn't act muslim - alcohol EVERYWHERE, such strange talk about sex between random people, loving to eat pork. It just became ridiculous when everyone in this book was drinking gin, whiskey, wine and beer on I KID YOU NOT every single occasion AND DRIVING afterwards. It felt like she was so focused on showing how much alcohol is consumed that she forget to check if this has any logic left in it.
I'm sorry but it felt like this book was about a family, looking muslim but not being muslim, that was wrongly accused of being muslim and treated accordingly. Making them the poor people who had to suffer because of Islamic Fundamentalism.
I could go on and on but I will leave you at this.
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