Book Review: A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi

I mean, I wasn’t fine. I would be fine. But I wasn’t there yet

I was very surprised by A Very Large Expanse of Sea because I really disliked the Shatter Me series and so was very hesitant to read this novel. But I was surprisingly surprised.

Book Review: A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi

Rating:


Title & Author: A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Release date: October 16 2018
Series: Standalone
Publisher: HarperCollins

Synopsis

It’s 2002, a year after 9/11. It’s an extremely turbulent time politically, but especially so for someone like Shirin, a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl who’s tired of being stereotyped.

Shirin is never surprised by how horrible people can be. She’s tired of the rude stares, the degrading comments—even the physical violence—she endures as a result of her race, her religion, and the hijab she wears every day. So she’s built up protective walls and refuses to let anyone close enough to hurt her. Instead, she drowns her frustrations in music and spends her afternoons break-dancing with her brother.

But then she meets Ocean James. He’s the first person in forever who really seems to want to get to know Shirin. It terrifies her—they seem to come from two irreconcilable worlds—and Shirin has had her guard up for so long that she’s not sure she’ll ever be able to let it down.

I give A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi five out of five hearts because it was beautifully written and had great storylines.

This story isn’t a dystopia by Tahereh Mafi for once and I enjoyed it very much. The main character Sharin is a Muslim girl and wears a hijab (headscarf), so everyone can see what she believes in. Due to 9/11 everyone judges her before see who she actually is. But she is really interested in break-dance, together with her brother.

Due to everything going on in her life she has built up walls around herself, but when she meets someone who is actually interested in her, she initially pushes him away. And she slowly has to learn to let people closer to her.

Overall I loved Tahereh’s writing and I would really like to ask her to stay with these kinds of books because it works much better for me. But of course, she should just write whatever she likes.

Let me know what you thought of this book!
If you have any requests for which book I should talk about next, please let me know in the comments down below.

For now, let books enrich your life!

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