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A review by bookph1le
Love, Hate & Other Filters by Samira Ahmed
2.0
Writing this review is going to be tough, because my issues with this book are personal. Simply put, the book didn't click with me, but as a matter of preference, not because I thought there was anything technically wrong with it. I also want to be clear that I am 100% behind Own Voices books. I think it's critically important for diverse voices to be included in an industry that has a long, long history of underrepresenting and underserving minority voices. I'm glad to see the YA book industry taking the lead on this, and I hope publishers of adult novels will follow suit. I firmly believe that more diverse books means a better, richer reading experience that all readers benefit from.
I'll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum in this review, but I want to drill down into one specific element of the plot and cannot do so without giving a big plot point away, so continue reading at your own risk.
I'll kick this review off by saying what didn't work for me: the romance. Now, as I said, my problems with this book are personal. I do not personally like romances, YA or otherwise. I'm fine with romance being an element in a book, but I don't tend to like books where the romance is center stage, and this book is very much a romance. That doesn't mean it doesn't have value; it certainly does, especially because romances featuring a person of color protagonist are in short supply in the literary world. There is a lot of value to this book for that reason alone. I absolutely believe in the necessity of giving teens characters who look like they do.
Disclaimer aside, the romance just didn't spark with me. Phil is fine as a character (although I did not like the crack he made about Maya's chest when they were swimming), and I felt for Maya when she was struggling with what her heart wanted and what conventions dictated she should go for, but I just was not invested in her relationship with Phil. It didn't speak to me in any real way, and on the whole I found it more of a run-of-the-mill romance.
To be honest, I thought her potential relationship with Kareem was more interesting. I was happy to read a portrayal of a supportive and nice Muslim young man, something that's in far too short supply, because, let's face it, representations of Muslim males in American media aren't usually positive. I respected what the author did with Maya making the mature decision that her relationship with Kareem was easier and more tempting than any potential relationship with Phil because of the ease, but I would have liked the romance element more had Maya gone for Kareem rather than Phil.
I was also very much invested in the cultural tensions Maya's choices caused for her. One thing I think is pretty universal is how difficult it is for children to clash with their parents' expectations for them. Maya's struggle felt very real and very painful, and I truly empathized with her. She was not in an easy position, caught between pursuing the life she wanted at the possible expense of her family connections and preserving family ties at the expense of her own professional happiness. That is no small thing to deal with, and I found this aspect of the novel engrossing.
Equally engrossing to me was the community reaction to the crime implicating a Muslim. Going into this book, I was hoping for an in-depth portrayal of a teen dealing with Islamophobia, and while those elements are there, I wish the novel had explored them in more detail. I found it at its visceral best when it showed specific instances of racial aggression against Maya and her family in the aftermath of the attack, despite that she and her family have nothing whatsoever to do with the crime that's committed. I strongly feel the U.S. has a history of painting the entire religion of Islam with a single brush, something that doesn't happen to Christians. That is appalling, and more than worthy of discussion, and to me that was the most important part of this book. I felt for Maya and her family, and as a parent myself, I could understand her mother's seemingly extreme reaction. How could you ever feel safe sending your child out into a world that's hostile to her simply because of the color of her skin and her religious beliefs?
Sadly, though, I don't think the book gets into this topic in enough depth. I don't want it to sound like I was looking for a lurid depiction, because I wasn't, but I was hoping to see more that would really give the reader a sense of what it was like to be in Maya's shoes, to suffer the kinds of microaggressions Muslims in the U.S. (and, sadly, in many other parts of the world) suffer. Instead, this book offers up only Brian. While I know it's an unfortunate truth that people like Brian exist, he's so repugnant that I don't see how any person with a modicum of decency can be okay with his actions. Far more nuanced, to me, was the way his buddies reacted at the theme park. That was the kind of thing I wanted to see in this book, because identifying and condemning blatant racism is a lot easier than dissecting the kind of cowardice Brian's friends exhibit is. I didn't want Maya to be under constant assault, but the only person in the book who seems to take issue with her because of her ethnic and religious background is Brian, and while that's certainly a bad thing, I feel like it waters down the book's message a bit because he's made out to be such an obvious villain.
Writing all this is uncomfortable for me, because I am not a person of color, and it's hard for me to critique how someone who is chooses to write about a character's experiences of her world. However, I wish I'd seen more of the subtle behavior highlighted because I want people like me to stop and feel discomfort over that, wondering what we're doing that's contributing to the problem. That's also uncomfortable for me to say, because I don't think it's up to people of color to educate white people. That's something we need to struggle with ourselves, to be certain.
All I can really say in conclusion is that this book was a letdown for me because I wasn't getting out of it what I hoped to get. That's on me, and I have no doubt a lot of readers will get plenty out of it. To me, that's the great thing about literature becoming more diverse: readers have a much better chance of finding books that personally click with them now than they have in the past, and that's a very good thing.
I'll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum in this review, but I want to drill down into one specific element of the plot and cannot do so without giving a big plot point away, so continue reading at your own risk.
I'll kick this review off by saying what didn't work for me: the romance. Now, as I said, my problems with this book are personal. I do not personally like romances, YA or otherwise. I'm fine with romance being an element in a book, but I don't tend to like books where the romance is center stage, and this book is very much a romance. That doesn't mean it doesn't have value; it certainly does, especially because romances featuring a person of color protagonist are in short supply in the literary world. There is a lot of value to this book for that reason alone. I absolutely believe in the necessity of giving teens characters who look like they do.
Disclaimer aside, the romance just didn't spark with me. Phil is fine as a character (although I did not like the crack he made about Maya's chest when they were swimming), and I felt for Maya when she was struggling with what her heart wanted and what conventions dictated she should go for, but I just was not invested in her relationship with Phil. It didn't speak to me in any real way, and on the whole I found it more of a run-of-the-mill romance.
To be honest, I thought her potential relationship with Kareem was more interesting. I was happy to read a portrayal of a supportive and nice Muslim young man, something that's in far too short supply, because, let's face it, representations of Muslim males in American media aren't usually positive. I respected what the author did with Maya making the mature decision that her relationship with Kareem was easier and more tempting than any potential relationship with Phil because of the ease, but I would have liked the romance element more had Maya gone for Kareem rather than Phil.
I was also very much invested in the cultural tensions Maya's choices caused for her. One thing I think is pretty universal is how difficult it is for children to clash with their parents' expectations for them. Maya's struggle felt very real and very painful, and I truly empathized with her. She was not in an easy position, caught between pursuing the life she wanted at the possible expense of her family connections and preserving family ties at the expense of her own professional happiness. That is no small thing to deal with, and I found this aspect of the novel engrossing.
Equally engrossing to me was the community reaction to the crime implicating a Muslim. Going into this book, I was hoping for an in-depth portrayal of a teen dealing with Islamophobia, and while those elements are there, I wish the novel had explored them in more detail. I found it at its visceral best when it showed specific instances of racial aggression against Maya and her family in the aftermath of the attack, despite that she and her family have nothing whatsoever to do with the crime that's committed. I strongly feel the U.S. has a history of painting the entire religion of Islam with a single brush, something that doesn't happen to Christians. That is appalling, and more than worthy of discussion, and to me that was the most important part of this book. I felt for Maya and her family, and as a parent myself, I could understand her mother's seemingly extreme reaction. How could you ever feel safe sending your child out into a world that's hostile to her simply because of the color of her skin and her religious beliefs?
Sadly, though, I don't think the book gets into this topic in enough depth. I don't want it to sound like I was looking for a lurid depiction, because I wasn't, but I was hoping to see more that would really give the reader a sense of what it was like to be in Maya's shoes, to suffer the kinds of microaggressions Muslims in the U.S. (and, sadly, in many other parts of the world) suffer. Instead, this book offers up only Brian. While I know it's an unfortunate truth that people like Brian exist, he's so repugnant that I don't see how any person with a modicum of decency can be okay with his actions. Far more nuanced, to me, was the way his buddies reacted at the theme park. That was the kind of thing I wanted to see in this book, because identifying and condemning blatant racism is a lot easier than dissecting the kind of cowardice Brian's friends exhibit is. I didn't want Maya to be under constant assault, but the only person in the book who seems to take issue with her because of her ethnic and religious background is Brian, and while that's certainly a bad thing, I feel like it waters down the book's message a bit because he's made out to be such an obvious villain.
Writing all this is uncomfortable for me, because I am not a person of color, and it's hard for me to critique how someone who is chooses to write about a character's experiences of her world. However, I wish I'd seen more of the subtle behavior highlighted because I want people like me to stop and feel discomfort over that, wondering what we're doing that's contributing to the problem. That's also uncomfortable for me to say, because I don't think it's up to people of color to educate white people. That's something we need to struggle with ourselves, to be certain.
All I can really say in conclusion is that this book was a letdown for me because I wasn't getting out of it what I hoped to get. That's on me, and I have no doubt a lot of readers will get plenty out of it. To me, that's the great thing about literature becoming more diverse: readers have a much better chance of finding books that personally click with them now than they have in the past, and that's a very good thing.