A review by cakt1991
Jasmine Zumideh Needs a Win by Susan Azim Boyer

emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own. 

Jasmine Zumideh Needs a Win is such a unique book, because I feel like I rarely see books set in the 1980s, even if it is in the realm of historical fiction for today’s teens. Heck, it’s still a struggle for people to see things set post-1950, a la Taylor Jenkins Reid’s books as “historical.” But this book highlights the dichotomy of being recent enough that the young audience can draw connections to it (especially in context of the broad social issues discussed), but also set long enough ago that there’s some objective distance. 

And that’s very much what you get in seeing the story through Jasmine’s eyes. While she lived in a different era, she’s similar in her drive to do well in school, even if it means telling a teeny white lie (or putting the cart before the horse), as well as her love for the popular music of the day. She’s very much in her own head, and that can sometimes make her a bit hard to like, especially when there are bigger things going on in the world than one little class election, but ultimately, she has her heart in the right place and she does grow over the course of the book. 

The racial tensions amid the Iran hostage crisis are deeply moving, and I appreciated seeing the ways it impacted Jasmine and her family, even in the more subtle ways they were treated and Othered. The way no one could get their surname right made me want to slap every single one of those people. And while Jasmine is more single-minded in her goal, to the point of distancing herself from her culture, Ali embraces it, advocating for Iranian culture and Iran itself. 

This book perfectly walks the line between being an “issue” book and a “messy teen coming-of-age” book. If you’re interested in a book that is a bit of both, with the addition of a 1980s setting, I recommend checking this book out!