Love, Hate & Other Filters

The story felt a little disjointed, but overall a good slice-of-life senior year YA book with deep themes. Ahmed drew from her own life in Batavia, IL (my central IL heart was REALLY here for this!) and how overwhelmingly and suffocatingly white the small Chicago suburbs are. I like that many readers will have a first-hand windows experience into being on the receiving end of Islamaphobia and have their empathy and understanding muscles worked. Some of the secondary characters feel a little stock, but the film references were legit.