I feel like I look like a mean girl
with my hair straightened like this.
Today's video review is a little late, and I apologize for that. (airplane flies by)
Airplane! Can we not? Today's video is a review of A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi.
Spoiler alert, I read this as an ARC,
so I have the book on my phone, and on my
phone all the text is highlighted, but I
don't have a physical copy all marked up.
So I reread chapter one, and I intend to do
a full reread of this soon. But this is
Tahereh Mafi's newest book that just came
out on October 16th. If you're not
familiar with Tahereh Mafi, she has written
my favorite series in the entire world,
which is called the Shatter Me series. She
also has a duology that's middle grade
called Furthermore. When I heard she was
delving into contemporary--or is this
contemporary? It said 2002 and I've
gotten comments about whether or not it's
historical fiction, which oh my god.
No--but regardless, when I found out she
was going to write something in this
genre, I was very interested, especially
because this is an autobiographical
novel. I guess that leads us into the
synopsis, which is this book follows a
young girl named Shirin. Her family
moves around a lot and so the beginning
of this book, she's settling into a new
school and the main drive of this book is
the fact that Shirin is Persian, so she
wears a headscarf and the book takes
place post 9/11 so it talks all about
how she's having to deal with bigotry
and racism from people around her at her
school, having to learn to combat those
stereotypes and find people who
appreciate her. The root of this book is
just that Shirin is a very angry young
woman who just doesn't think the world
around her is fair and she's not treated
as she should be treated, which is
obvious, and so the narration of this
really reflects that and it's driven by
her not being able to trust people and
her just constantly feeling abandoned
and betrayed by the world. So other small
facets of this plot include the fact
that Shirin likes breakdancing! So
she and her older brother really get
into breakdancing and competitions and
watching that and practicing it. And also,
while at this school, Shirin has a
classmate named Ocean who she's really
infatuated with. Once again, there's the
struggle between wanting to trust people
but still not quite having that. And so
it's very much a relationship of having
to overcome a lot of boundaries between
race and having to unpack some discussions about how we
treat people of races that we're not
familiar with, and especially how
politics and religion go into wearing a
headscarf and the symbolism behind that.
That was the longest synopsis ever. Now
let's get into my thoughts! I gave this
book four and a half stars. First and
foremost, I wanna disclose that this
might not even be a good time for me to
be filming a review of this because I
really want to reread this because I
think the first time that I read it I
was going into it with the mindset of
"This is Tahereh Mafi. I love her so much.
She does this one thing and I love what she
does and I can't wait to see that" and
this book is so different than what
she's done before.
There's certainly parts of it that I'm
not a fan of in general, but I think
originally I was too critical of it
because it wasn't what I was used to. So
I think that this book being able to
push those boundaries inside me sparked
a lot of great reflection. So in Shatter
Me and Furthermore, we are very much used
to the flowery writing, the metaphorical
writing. Every page is just inundated
with imagery, and this book really just
cuts that crap. If you're someone who
hated Shatter Me or Furthermore just
because it was so image heavy, this is so
opposite of that. This one really adheres
to the mindset of someone that is angry
and just venting. It's a very authentic
voice. I would say that Shatter Me is
stream of consciousness, and this also is
sort of stream of consciousness, but in
the opposite tone. If Juliette would have
been like closed off to the world and
hated everyone, this is what she would
have sounded like narrating her book. It
was a much more blunt writing style
where she would be like, "This is what
this is, this is what this is, this is how
I feel about this," literally to the point
of just throwing expletives in on page
two. It was so different and Shirin's
personality is just atomic. I love how it
reflects with her writing style. So
although I was really shocked at first
how the writing seemed to take on this
different style, it wasn't that much
showing anymore rather than telling.
Originally that made me kind of
disturbed because I was like, "Oh, it's
weaker," but it's really not. It really
fits the story once I think about it. So
I've grown to love the writing style and
even though every other line
I'm not highlighting all the beautiful
metaphors, it's still just as impactful.
However, there were still small phrases
and parts of the writing that I just
wasn't a personal fan of. I don't know if
this needed more editing or if it just
was stylistic choices that I'm not fond
of, but a lot of times she would use vague
references to words, and this is like the
editor in me jumping out at this
one specificity. But she would always
say--if she saw her phone across the room,
she would say "that thing." She used the
word "thing" so much. It's such a tiny
detail, but the narrator said it a lot
and she would always say the word
"whatever." Just tiny little phrases that
took me out of the story because it just
sounded like--not like she was trying too
hard to sound like a teenager, but it wasn't
that flowy. This book takes on a much
more conversational tone with the reader,
but I felt like sometimes that
interfered with the ability to be able
to flesh out the world. So although it
was nice to hear the narrator's voice
come through so strongly, at times I felt
like it really limited our perspective
in the book because we were only ever
getting that vague reference to whatever
it was that she was dealing with. So
sometimes the tone felt more flippant
when we're dealing with really important
subject matter, but maybe that was just
my interpretation of it. I'm trying to
stay as objective as possible because I
know despite all of my issues with this
book, it's still magnificent. And the
issues that I take with the writing are
so minor that they don't all interfere
with the story occurring, and that's the
next thing I want to talk about is the
actual plot of this one. I absolutely
adore the progression of the story,
getting to know all the characters. So
Oceana's introduced as one of Shirin's
classmates. The first time they ever meet
each other on page, he taps her on the
shoulder on accident and she turns
around and her description of him is, I
quote, "Some dude." So that just goes into
the whole idea that sometimes the
descriptions are just so vague, and they
fit within the writing style, but they
don't really offer us any context of the
situation. So for a lot of the book, we
don't really have specific descriptions
of characters, which I really crave in
storytelling. But beyond that, talking
about the relationship with Ocean and
Shirin, I thought they were so beautiful. I
love the way this developed. I love the
Ihop scene. (Airplane flies by) I'm gonna smack that airplane out of the sky if it doesn't
stop flying. You all know I'm such a sucker for soft boys in
books. I think guys who are just
soft-spoken and sweet and kind are the
best boys, so the fact that Ocean was so
understanding and wanting to learn about
her and just curious in the most
well-meaning way was so pure. Obviously, I
can't relate to being a Muslim girl. I
don't know what it's like to have to
open up to someone from the opposite
gender who doesn't understand your
culture. (Airplane flies by) I swear to God this airplane. They were like "Whittynovels is filming?
Time to fly, boys!" but somehow I feel like
this was a faithful rendition of what
that would be like. I guess while we're here, a minor tangent. That's also a
really big part of the story that I
enjoyed is that even though I haven't
experienced anything like this, I've
never experienced subjugation to the
magnitude that Shirin has, but the way
this is written just made me completely
sympathize with her. I understood her
anger. I understood the reasons why she
was so resentful to the people around
her. (Airplane flies by) What the heck come after six?
This book just evoked so much understanding within me and knowing that it's
semi-autobiographical just broke my
heart. I was like ready with my two fists
to start like standing up for Muslim
girls and Tahereh when she was littler. It
just makes you so much more aware of
ways that you could fight back against
prejudice and stop feeding into
stereotypes. That was my tangent. Back to
our original topic!
Navid and Shirin's relationship--or
friendship? Siblinghood? Navid is
probably my favorite side character. He
is such a personality. He is the brother
who gets her interested in break dancing
and so they're always together
breakdancing after school, and all of his
friend group is there as well. I think he
was the perfect supporting role in this
book. I thought their interactions were
so cozy and sweet. All together, the
family vibes in this book, again, just put
you into that world of a culture that
I've never experienced, and I still felt
so heart warmed by all of it--is that a
verb? Heart warmed? I felt like I was
sitting at the dinner table with them
whenever we would read scenes like that
and it was so funny all the time seeing
her interactions with her mom. And her
brother was just the best supporting
role. That's all I can say. I loved him so
much.
I just was not a fan of the climax of
this book. This book has so much
priceless commentary on what it's like
to be a Muslim teen, what it's like to
face racism every day,
and yet the conflict of this feels below
that. The fact that Shirin is dealing
with all of this
whereas Ocean is just concerned about
the sports team he's on? I just think the
ending was so unoriginal. Don't get me
wrong, interracial relationships and
broken family life are really important
topics to unpack, and I'm not saying that
those aren't important or those are
unrealistic, but the idea that this
massive conflict was just born from the
fact that this one kid needed to win a
basketball game? It was so High School
Musical. I'm not saying that it's a bad
plot point, but it's definitely not an
original one. So maybe the stakes could
have been raised in the end. I obviously
don't mean I want for Shirin to go
through any heartbreak or like get hurt
or anything. The angst level was a
little more than I could do. And that
might make me sound like a hypocrite
because Shatter Me is angst every single
page, but maybe when I reread it,
I'll find less of a problem with it and
I'll delete this review and be mad at
my past self for thinking that. But just
know that if you're not a fan of, I guess
teenage melodrama, even though I fear labeling it that because I don't want to
minimize that trauma. (airplane flies by) And if you don't mind that, you'll give this five stars.
It's amazing. If you know me, I'm not a
big fan of YA contemporary, so this is
already kind of a stretch for me. That's
why I'm justifying every criticism I
have of it because a lot of this is just
my interpretation of it and my opinion
of it is just driven by the fact that
it's not a genre I delve into that often
and it's not a genre that I typically
find immersive. I think it could have had
a bigger conflict in the end than just
that. That's what I'm trying to say. But
as I've said a thousand times and I will
continue to say three thousand more
times, this book. Just this book! Not even
the fact that it's from my favorite
author and getting to know more about
her experiences in high school translated
into a fictional account, but also just
I've never read anything like this
before.
This unpacks so much discussion about
intersectional feminism and
interracial relationships. It's
cute at the same time that it's
meaningful. It doesn't get on a soapbox
and preach at you, but it's not so subtle
that you miss the message. It's just in
that sweet spot. It has that iconic Tahereh
Mafi characterization, so all the
characters just slowly bleed out their
personalities--that was a very dismal
way to phrase that. But you get this very slow progression of relationships and
character dynamics and family, and even
though some plot elements in the end
we're kind of lackluster, like the climax
of it felt really melodramatic and the
break dancing ended up being really
secondary to the actual plot, which was
surprising to me. I'm gonna stop finding
more flaws to point out in it and just
say you have to pick this up. And I'm totally
biased because it's Tahereh Mafi and I
want her to do so well and I support her
so much and her writing style is so
beautiful and I love her so much but
also, you're never gonna read anything
like this ever again.
Even if you don't like YA
contemporary, make an exception. But that
is everything I have to talk about! My
back hurts like a mother trucker right
now. Thank you everyone so much for
watching! Let me know if you read the
book. Bye everyone!
