A very large exspanse of sea by Tahereh Mafi (book review)


Dear Reader, 

Non-spoilery:

I ordered this book when the world brought it to my attention that I was completely uneducated on the amount of Racism that Muslim's face on a day to day basis. We currently still live in a world that through the media and other peoples pre-set views women in the Islamic faith are represented as people to fear or sometimes not people at all.  I had previously heard amazing things about the romance element of this book and when I looked into it through Goodreads and learned that it also represented a teenage Muslim girl facing horrible racism in the states, I knew I should pick it up.
 I really recommend this book to anyone looking for a taste of Islamic culture, an amazing, strong female protagonist and a beautiful romance. I learned a lot about breakdancing in the States and more about the author's history when reading this book. I urge you to read it, it has stunning writing, great flow and an amazing message along with its beautiful story. This has become one of my favourite books and it will be yours too. 

You can get a copy here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Very-Large-Expanse-Sea/dp/1405292601/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=a+very+large+expanse+of+sea&qid=1591978566&s=books&sr=1-1

Short 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. 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.

Spoilery Section:
Oh my God, did you know that Tahereh Mafi is married to Ransom Riggs? Now that my friends is couple goals. As I've said, I loved this book. It was so gorgeous, everything about it. It made me cry, it made me laugh. This book reminded me of that first feeling of falling in love, it captured it so well. 
I have read my fair (fat) share of Romance YA and I have never swooned over a love interest more than Ocean James. I am so pissed that this book didn't end with these two, ten years later, getting married. It genuinely makes me so sad that she had to move away. 

I had the expectation of this book being centred around that Shirin was a Muslim and how that would play into her life and the plot. But obviously, she was just a teenage girl who loved Alexander McQueen, was a sick breakdancer, loved her family and fell in love with a cute guy. In other words, she was so much more than just her religion and the world did not expect that from her and refused to see her beyond her Hijab and what they thought that systematically made her. 
Throughout the book, Shirin doesn't speak much of practising her religion other than in the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, and the thing that sets her aside from other Muslim girls in her school was she wore a Hijab and that was a reason she faced such high and horrific levels of racism from her surrounding society. Being white and pretty much agnostic, I will never understand what it is to be discriminated against for my Race or Religion. And although I have never been actively racist towards anyone in any way and am completely against and would speak out against anyone or anything that condones or practises racism, I am still not educated enough to learn how to be part of the solution. I tried to use reading this book as a baby step towards understanding what happens in the world currently (yes currently) to POC*. By understanding this I thought I could then understand how to correctly (with an educated response) speak out against it whenever I can. 
Shirin's parents where such strong people and I enjoyed learning more about their Persian culture and history. I loved Shirin's family mealtimes description and one of my favourite scenes of the whole book was when Ocean came other to their house for dinner and met her parents. 
Oh my, I just can't stop thinking about that scene in the book where Ocean calls her baby for the first time. I literally m.e.l.t.e.d into a pile of awwwe screechy noises that probably broke my dog's ears. I loved their slow burn so much. His mum makes my blood boil honestly. And the coach? Grrrrrrrrrr. 
I think what truly broke my heart with all of this was obviously when everyone was telling them to break up but when we saw Ocean kind of just falling apart like after the breakup. I couldn't take it, I was just in tears. Rivers and rivers of tears. I want a second book. I never say that about these kinds of books but I really want a second one. 
There are so many parts of this book I was mad at, really mad at. The photo was just a pure violation of human rights through and through. That guy throwing a pastry at her face. I am so glad Navid (love that guy) got him back for that. You wouldn't even do that to an animal let alone a human being. Agh, it's just the whole thing made me mad. And that's why I understood how Shirin didn't let herself see the good because she only received the bad from the people around her. But she still managed to see the good in them too. Which is one of the reasons Shirin is such an amazing character and why I admire her. 
She also taught me not to rely on other people who have experienced racial prejudice or any discrimination towards religion to educate me. It is not their job to educate the ignorant. It is my job. And It is your job too. I will be releasing a lot more content for the black lives matter movement and it won't go away when the news cycle ends. I will make it my job to reach as many people as I can with the information and education I have acquired and will continue to learn in my life. 
Until next time, 
Issy
x


*I am not 100% sure describing non-whites as people of colour is acceptable. I did base it off a few articles I found in researching whether the description was correct, my best find being this one linked below:
https://www.sapiens.org/column/race/people-of-color/
By all means please email me and I will change it accordingly if it is not appropriate and I'm very sorry if it offends anyone. 


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