A review by keepcalmblogon
Hope Ablaze by Sarah Mughal Rana

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I don’t actually know where to start with talking about Hope Ablaze. Wow… I guess I can start at the beginning: I’ve not read any Muslim immigrant in America stories before. I have read a few books from South Asian/South Asian immigrant in America lenses, but as with most places in the world, South Asia isn’t only one race/ethnicity/language group, so Nida’s Pakistani Muslim immigrant point of view was wholly new to me. I think this book should be required reading. Period. Having a background in literature, this book would be wildly beneficial to anyone studying postcolonial criticism; I read it as an allegory of colonizers taking indigenous art–without spoiling too much, Nida’s poetry is entered into a contest without her consent.  But outside of literary critique, this story is so important for its representation of Muslim American life, especially post 9/11–& yes, while that was over twenty years ago now, its impact is still lasting in everyday American life.

Moving away from the above themes, on a writing level & surface of the story level, Sarah had me hooked from the start–I lately have had a hard time getting into text-based books as I become more addicted to audiobooks & the versatility they provide to my reading schedule. But Hope Ablaze set the stakes so high, the pace so consistent, & the writing so fluid that I had a hard time putting it down & only did when I absolutely had to do something else! Furthermore, the poems interspersed that gave us further insight into Nida’s mind & emotions could stand on their own in a book of poetry, or even as a novel in verse because there are times in the story when the poem before or after a scene actually gave us the plot of a preceding or following event.

I think one of my favorite aspects of this book were the various grey areas & moral ambiguities & the fact that the end doesn’t give us a “clean” solution, as life is truly messy & this story portrays LIFE. Yet, there was also this lovely magical realism subplot that I was not expecting & added a bit of je ne sais quoi that peppered the plot with literal color (iykyk).  

This book is the kind of book I want to scream about from rooftops & make everyone read, so yes, 5 stars, easily. Sarah has definitely become a new favorite author of mine, especially when considering her addition to the anthology My Big, Fat Desi Wedding that I also loved!