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A review by pucksandpaperbacks
Rana Joon and the One and Only Now by Shideh Etaat
CW: grief, cheating, car accident (graphic, on-page, in detail), death, homophobia, Islamophobia, underage drinking, alcohol, drug use - characters smoke weed (on-page), fatphobia and fatphobic comments from Rana's mother; absent father, Tupac's death mentioned (on-page); mention of antidepressants in a negative connotation as a character doesn't talk them and it leads to a bad situation; panic attack on page.
What a hidden gem!!! Set in 1996, Rana Joon is a lesbian Iranian-American teenage girl living in SoCal. She loves Tupac and writing poetry. When her best friend Louie unexpectedly passes away in a car accident, she starts her grief journey where she learns there were many things she didn't know about Louie. To honor him, she decides to enter a rap battle he would've participated in. She learns to enjoy writing her own poems and gains confidence as she is petrified of public speaking. This is a messy, fierce girl who finds herself learning about family secret's and stepping up to her strict father who lives in Iran while defying gender norms.
This book is MESSY but so is grief! I really enjoyed this and highly recommend it, but please be advised of the content warnings because this is not a light book by any means.
One critique I have is I didn't like the scene of her love interest telling her to "live her truth" and come out to her family while knowing it might not have been safe for her to do so. The coming out scene is not horrible, but her mother does gets upset and shuts her out for about a week. Luckily, she eventually comes around.
What a hidden gem!!! Set in 1996, Rana Joon is a lesbian Iranian-American teenage girl living in SoCal. She loves Tupac and writing poetry. When her best friend Louie unexpectedly passes away in a car accident, she starts her grief journey where she learns there were many things she didn't know about Louie. To honor him, she decides to enter a rap battle he would've participated in. She learns to enjoy writing her own poems and gains confidence as she is petrified of public speaking. This is a messy, fierce girl who finds herself learning about family secret's and stepping up to her strict father who lives in Iran while defying gender norms.
This book is MESSY but so is grief! I really enjoyed this and highly recommend it, but please be advised of the content warnings because this is not a light book by any means.
One critique I have is I didn't like the scene of her love interest telling her to "live her truth" and come out to her family while knowing it might not have been safe for her to do so. The coming out scene is not horrible, but her mother does gets upset and shuts her out for about a week. Luckily, she eventually comes around.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Grief, and Car accident
Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Islamophobia, and Alcohol
Minor: Mental illness
CW: grief, cheating, car accident (graphic, on-page, in detail), death, homophobia, Islamophobia, underage drinking, alcohol, drug use - characters smoke weed (on-page), fatphobia and fatphobic comments from Rana's mother; absent father, Tupac's death mentioned (on-page); mention of antidepressants in a negative connotation as a character doesn't talk them and it leads to a bad situation; panic attack (on-page)