A review by blessing_aj
Home Is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

When I first started reading this, I had to quickly double check that it was actually written for a YA audience because it began by interrogating some really tough issues on culture, migration and identity with an audacity that I dare say is unusual in the first few chapters of YA books that I have read in the past. It wasn’t the anger or frustration over her othered experiences in foreign soil and many other related matters. It was how precociously accurate she was in her understanding of it, that held my attention.

Each verse in HINAC, carries a lot of weight and pain, but towards the end, it balances it out by adding some hope. I thought that the time travel situation with Yasmeen was brilliantly conceived even if it was slightly flawed in its execution.  I’m also not quite sure how I felt about the ending but I will always think of Home is not A Country as a beautifully written and narrated book.