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A review by oddduck
Huda F Are You? by Huda Fahmy
funny
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
This book was fantastic! Huda Fahmy did a great job balancing the humor with more serious emotions and situations. She also pulled off one of my favorite tricks, which is where a line or scene is recontexualized at a later point in the story. The opening scene, where Mom confronts Huda about her grade and then Huda freeze-frames and takes us back to how she got here, is quite humorous. We think, oh it's no big deal, everyone gets a bad grade every now and then. Mom's just being a little overdramatic, even if Huda has always consistently gotten good grades. But then we go through all the events leading up to that moment, and we're shown, actually, Huda's struggling because her teacher is being extremely bigoted to her. And suddenly we feel completely different. It was extremely well done, and served as the tipping point for the rest of the story. Smart, efficient storytelling my beloved.
The characters are also super fun. Since one of the central themes is identity, it was vital that the supporting characters have defining characteristics and a sense of identity. This really helped highlight Huda's struggles with finding her own identity. Speaking of, boy did Huda remind me of myself at that age. I was not dealing with any sort of religion or race based bigotry, but the rest of it? The struggle of being "the smart one" and getting a grade lower than an A for the first time? Bad teachers that don't get you? Trying to figure out how to make friends and where you fit in? Dealing with your parents' expectations for you? Just high school in general? Oooh yeah. This was that.
[Note on the "drug use" cw: there is no on-screen drug use. There are references to a character likely smoking pot (with no confirmation) and there are a couple moments where a character is assumed to be doing drugs with zero evidence to back up the claim, other than out-of-character behavior. These accusations are played off as humorous.]
The characters are also super fun. Since one of the central themes is identity, it was vital that the supporting characters have defining characteristics and a sense of identity. This really helped highlight Huda's struggles with finding her own identity. Speaking of, boy did Huda remind me of myself at that age. I was not dealing with any sort of religion or race based bigotry, but the rest of it? The struggle of being "the smart one" and getting a grade lower than an A for the first time? Bad teachers that don't get you? Trying to figure out how to make friends and where you fit in? Dealing with your parents' expectations for you? Just high school in general? Oooh yeah. This was that.
[Note on the "drug use" cw: there is no on-screen drug use. There are references to a character likely smoking pot (with no confirmation) and there are a couple moments where a character is assumed to be doing drugs with zero evidence to back up the claim, other than out-of-character behavior. These accusations are played off as humorous.]
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, and Islamophobia
Minor: Drug use