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A review by _zahra_
Salaam, with Love by Sara Sharaf Beg
5.0
Real rating: 4.5 ⭐️
There is a certain amount of trust that goes into reading a book with Muslim representation becuase while it is always exciting and gives you a thrill it is also scary as you don’t want to be misrepresented.
It is slightly inaccurate for this book to be called a love story because more than that it is a spiritual love story. The main character starts with little Imaan (faith) and so at first I was a little worried about this book but as I continued it I understood that it was there to gain a really heartwarming character arc. This is the first YA book (or maybe even any book) that I’m reading that’s set in Ramadan and it was really nice to see that. The MC, Dua, is going to her cousin's place this Ramadan where her cousins practice their faith more than her and so she is nervous as they haven’t met for years. But when she reaches she realises she wants this Ramadan to be different and makes a checklist of things she wants to achieve. She struggles a lot with balancing her faith while also wanting to seek a stronger relationship with Allah which many Muslim teens can find very relatable.
Even though this book seems very light, it tackles intense islamophobia with extreme gun violence being part of it and we see Dua struggling to accept the fact of how Muslims can be viewed. I absolutely did not expect to cry when I picked up this book but some parts were really heart wrenching and scary to read about.
Nevertheless, the family dynamic that we get to see and the friendship as well as the halal romance as the side plot was very enjoyable to read about.
The book really illustrates what Islam is about and I’m really happy that it exists to show and convey the struggles.
The only thing that deterred me from the book is the mention of music that came up quite often during Ramadan that I was unsure about but the other aspects of the book overtook that portion and I still really enjoyed and would recommend it!
There is a certain amount of trust that goes into reading a book with Muslim representation becuase while it is always exciting and gives you a thrill it is also scary as you don’t want to be misrepresented.
It is slightly inaccurate for this book to be called a love story because more than that it is a spiritual love story. The main character starts with little Imaan (faith) and so at first I was a little worried about this book but as I continued it I understood that it was there to gain a really heartwarming character arc. This is the first YA book (or maybe even any book) that I’m reading that’s set in Ramadan and it was really nice to see that. The MC, Dua, is going to her cousin's place this Ramadan where her cousins practice their faith more than her and so she is nervous as they haven’t met for years. But when she reaches she realises she wants this Ramadan to be different and makes a checklist of things she wants to achieve. She struggles a lot with balancing her faith while also wanting to seek a stronger relationship with Allah which many Muslim teens can find very relatable.
Even though this book seems very light, it tackles intense islamophobia with extreme gun violence being part of it and we see Dua struggling to accept the fact of how Muslims can be viewed. I absolutely did not expect to cry when I picked up this book but some parts were really heart wrenching and scary to read about.
Nevertheless, the family dynamic that we get to see and the friendship as well as the halal romance as the side plot was very enjoyable to read about.
The book really illustrates what Islam is about and I’m really happy that it exists to show and convey the struggles.
The only thing that deterred me from the book is the mention of music that came up quite often during Ramadan that I was unsure about but the other aspects of the book overtook that portion and I still really enjoyed and would recommend it!