All My Rage

Don't be like me and start this before bedtime; you'll stay up to finish it and not even notice. (Also don't be scared of the title; it isn't what you think, in all the best possible ways. It's dark, but not as dark as you think; it's heavy, but not as heavy as you think, and utterly engrossingly human.)

3.5 stars. Perhaps I was just not in the right mindset to enjoy this book, or it could be because I listened to the audiobook instead of the reading the book. I would have liked to know more about Misbah, her husband and even Noor's uncle. There were a lot of perspectives that could have been shared to make this a more well-rounded book.

A masterpiece. Sabaa Tahir is amazing.

This book follows three POVs: Misbah, Salahudin, and Nor. Misbah's story line is happening in the past, while Salahudin and Nor's is happening in the present. Salahudin and Nor were best friends, but when Nor professed feelings for Salahudin, but Salahudin didn't reciprocate, things were awkward between them. All three of these characters are Muslim living in a small town and America, and we get to see them face the challenges that come with that. We also get to see Salahudin and Nor just try to live their lives. Nor is doing everything she can to leave this small town and go to college against her uncle's wishes, while Salahudin just wants to keep the family business alive. The ending was bittersweet, and this book was tough to read at times. Tahir's ability to effortlessly weave this story along really shows why it took her 10 years to write this book. You can feel the pain and the rage she must have also felt while writing this. I was so angry almost the entire time I was reading this book. The rage truly comes off the page.

Go into this book cautiously. It deals with some very heavy topics. But it is an incredible book.

TW: alcoholism, bullying, death, drug addiction, Islamophobia, physical abuse, racism

I bought this book a little less than 2 years ago after finishing The Ember Quartet by the same author. I found a signed copy in a small book shop in Texas, and when I got home I tucked it on my shelf with a plan to read it “soon”. We all know how this goes. Life happened and other books happened, and now I'm mad I didn't read it sooner! This book is absolutely heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time. It's about the importance of friendship, the prejudices that exist, life after loss, and so so much more. We get to experience the story with multi-POV which I enjoyed. Despite having a physical copy, I listened to the audio of this and it was very well done with dual narration. All My Rage is one of the first traditionally published books that I've read that had a trigger warning page and also a page of resources after the story was done. I will be thinking about Noor, Salahudin, and Misbah for a while. Their was so impactful! All My Rage is a Young Adult novel, 16+ for themes.

If I could give this book more than 5 stars I would.

I knew immediately upon starting reading it that it would destroy me emotionally and I was right. I am destroyed but I didn't know how beautiful the journey to that destruction would be. Everything about the book is so well crafted: the Elizabeth Bishop poem, the music, and Misbah's chapters and that they are written by Sal! . I found that the drug plot was so well done with the way it was introduced and then kept showing up like Chekov's gun. It just worked!

If this doesn't win the Printz I'll be so incredibly sad!!

“All my rage seethes inside me and there's no place for it to go. I thrash. I scream. I snarl and bite. I let it course through me. I let it take me.”

This book is a heartbreaking yet important story about human suffering, different types of pain, and two Pakistani teenagers trying to survive the cards they've been dealt. The love between Noor and Salahudin was a beautiful respite amongst all the awfulness.

What a masterfully written book! So many beautiful thoughts, expressed in beautiful sentences, to tell an honest, and by turns heart-breaking and heart-mending story. This is my first reading of a book by [a:Sabaa Tahir 7770873 Sabaa Tahir https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1637102794p2/7770873.jpg] and what a work of art. I can't wait to read something else by her. I saw that she was raised in a motel in the desert which explains the depth of her knowledge on the topic. I was right there with her.The book is so chocked full of rich, full characters that I struggled to identify whose was the protagonist. I went back and forth between Misbah, the mother, Salahudin her son, and Noor, a fellow Palestinian immigrant and Salahudin's best friend. In the end, I guess I would have to say the main character is Misbah because she begins and ends the story, the benchmark my writing teacher told me to use. However, Salahudin's story seemed almost more compelling because we see his struggles immediately throughout the book while Noor hides hers—for good reason. However, I think the author's voice sounded most grounded in Noor. The book wouldn't let me put it down. It gave great insight into the discrimination faced by immigrants in high school, and really in general, who live in a backwater towns—and front-water towns too. I learned much about the Muslim faith and really enjoyed the sayings and wisdom of Misbah.The beautiful language in general, filtered through a foreigners' ear, was captivating:- “The sky over Lahore was purple as a gossip's tongue the day my mother told me I would wed. . .”- “If we are lost, God is like water, finding the unknowable path when we cannot.”- “She is jealous. She wishes to be the biggest fish in a small pond. It bothers her that you wish to find a bigger pond.”It's a book I'd love to read again for the first time.

This one is another hard book to read. It has muslim representation that is not the perfect muslim model (because who is?), but not reject Islam either. Instead it taught us to hold on to our faith. In life bad things happen, and we, human always struggle. The message this book want to deliver is there is light at the end of the tunnel.

“If we are lost, God is like water, finding the unknowable path when we cannot.”

The faith in this book is Islam, but I think it could apply to faith generally.