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solly 's review for:
Love from A to Z
by S.K. Ali
I really loved this!
It was a beautiful love story, and I loved the characters, especially Zayneb. Her anger and the struggle of feeling like you're the only one feeling this angry all the time resonated with me, even though our experiences are so so different. I loved loved loved all of her part of the story, taking down her Islamophobic teacher and her jealousy at her friends having fun without her. Such a good character, I loved her a lot. Adam was awesome too, especially loved his relationship with his little sister: she was extremely cute!
I really loved the Marvel and Oddities journal that they both had. It was a nice little touch, and I love how it was both a way to format the story, how it was also plot-relevant at several points, and the parallels between both of their entries sometimes! It was just a really nice touch.
The romance was really sweet and well-developed and I rooted for Adam and Zayneb all along. They balanced each other so well and admired each other a lot and yeah the romance was mostly just wholesomeness against the background of the shitty world.
There's a few minor things that made me take down a star, though. First, I listened to the audiobook, and sometimes I felt like it was hard recognizing who was speaking during dialogues part, especially when Zayneb was texting her friends, for example. It's really minor but it had me frowning a few times because I had to focus so hard!!
Another thing is multiple sclerosis. Honestly, I was so happy to read about a character with multiple sclerosis! Only the second time in my life where a book has a main character with MS. My experience with MS is indirect so I'm not an expert at all, but I do have two family members who have it, one close, one not so close. So, for one thing, it was just emotionally difficult to read about a character with MS whose mom died from MS because, well, my mom has MS. Other thing that just seemed *weird* to me is how MS seemed to be framed as something lethal? You don't technically die from MS, though meds and the disease itself can make you vulnerable to other stuff. I mean I guess it's kind of the same with AIDS, you don't technically die from it but it's the cause all the same. But yeah even that is very rare with MS? So I didn't completely get why I felt like MS was framed as something lethal when it mostly isn't. Then again, MS is SUPER variable from one person to another and I don't even have a direct experience with it, and honestly Adam's MS seemed super on point. I just didn't totally get how some of the background stuff about it was handled, but AGAIN, very minor, very personal, not a super huge flaw. Mostly my being uncomfortable was due to personal stuff, so not about the rep itself.
I guess very minor thing, but you know, I have to point it out, there's a comment from Adam's friend about how "sex is such an important part of life!!!!" and honestly, peak allosexual teenage boy, but I still Rolled My Eyes In Asexual. It's honestly one tiny comment and the rest of the story didn't reflect that at all, especially since there's longing for physical touch but they basically barely touch because of how they want their relationship to begin/develop so it's just a tiny tiny thing.
Mostly though I enjoyed this book a lot and it was full of good feelings and I had a great time.
It was a beautiful love story, and I loved the characters, especially Zayneb. Her anger and the struggle of feeling like you're the only one feeling this angry all the time resonated with me, even though our experiences are so so different. I loved loved loved all of her part of the story, taking down her Islamophobic teacher and her jealousy at her friends having fun without her. Such a good character, I loved her a lot. Adam was awesome too, especially loved his relationship with his little sister: she was extremely cute!
I really loved the Marvel and Oddities journal that they both had. It was a nice little touch, and I love how it was both a way to format the story, how it was also plot-relevant at several points, and the parallels between both of their entries sometimes! It was just a really nice touch.
The romance was really sweet and well-developed and I rooted for Adam and Zayneb all along. They balanced each other so well and admired each other a lot and yeah the romance was mostly just wholesomeness against the background of the shitty world.
There's a few minor things that made me take down a star, though. First, I listened to the audiobook, and sometimes I felt like it was hard recognizing who was speaking during dialogues part, especially when Zayneb was texting her friends, for example. It's really minor but it had me frowning a few times because I had to focus so hard!!
Another thing is multiple sclerosis. Honestly, I was so happy to read about a character with multiple sclerosis! Only the second time in my life where a book has a main character with MS. My experience with MS is indirect so I'm not an expert at all, but I do have two family members who have it, one close, one not so close. So, for one thing, it was just emotionally difficult to read about a character with MS whose mom died from MS because, well, my mom has MS. Other thing that just seemed *weird* to me is how MS seemed to be framed as something lethal? You don't technically die from MS, though meds and the disease itself can make you vulnerable to other stuff. I mean I guess it's kind of the same with AIDS, you don't technically die from it but it's the cause all the same. But yeah even that is very rare with MS? So I didn't completely get why I felt like MS was framed as something lethal when it mostly isn't. Then again, MS is SUPER variable from one person to another and I don't even have a direct experience with it, and honestly Adam's MS seemed super on point. I just didn't totally get how some of the background stuff about it was handled, but AGAIN, very minor, very personal, not a super huge flaw. Mostly my being uncomfortable was due to personal stuff, so not about the rep itself.
I guess very minor thing, but you know, I have to point it out, there's a comment from Adam's friend about how "sex is such an important part of life!!!!" and honestly, peak allosexual teenage boy, but I still Rolled My Eyes In Asexual. It's honestly one tiny comment and the rest of the story didn't reflect that at all, especially since there's longing for physical touch but they basically barely touch because of how they want their relationship to begin/develop so it's just a tiny tiny thing.
Mostly though I enjoyed this book a lot and it was full of good feelings and I had a great time.