Laila Sabreen

In a Nutshell: A YA story where three young Black Muslim American girls become part of an online journal that aims to shatter Islamophobia after a terrorist attack. YA readers will enjoy this work more than adults.

Story:

Sabriya is an Abington, Virginia resident, loves ballet, and is only of only two Black dancers at her advanced ballet class. She dreams of clearing an audition for a spot at the summer intensive in a ballet theatre.
Zakat is from Lullwood, Georgia. She is a senior at a local Islamic school and loves sketching. Her parents, both of whom are engineers, want her to opt for more traditional, secure career choices.
Farah is from Inglethorne, California and is interested in programming. Her boyfriend is leaving for college in the summer and she is wondering if their relationship will work long-distance. Plus, her mom wishes her to re-establish relations with her birth father, which Farah doesn’t want to as he had abandoned them and has his own family now.
When there is a bombing at a metro station in Washington, the plans of these three teenagers are throw haywire. And when the suspect is assumed to be Muslim, things become even worse. Sabriya turns to online journaling for comfort. How this journal becomes a whole new movement, and how Zakat and Farah join her on this journey forms the rest of the story.
The story comes to us in the first person perspectives of the three teenagers.

There are YA books that speak perfectly only to their _target age group, and there are YA books that transcend age barriers and speak to every reader. This book falls firmly in the first category. While it does its job remarkably well for a debut novel, it doesn’t go much beyond tropes. As an adult reader, I found the content generating a sense of déjà vu. But maybe the YA reader segment won’t feel the same.

The usual YA teen tropes that appear in this novel are romantic relationship issues, family issues, friendship problems, educational pressure and expectations, underdogs becoming self-confident, and over-the-top and perfect outcomes at the end. The inclusivity-related topics that appear in this novel are racism against Blacks, Islamophobia, gender discrimination, white supremacist attitudes, online harassment of minorities, and problems of inter-faith families. As the three main characters come from a variety of familial and social backgrounds, all these issues get distributed across the three of them pretty fairly.

The three characters have a distinct and equal role to play in the proceedings. I liked how the girls aren’t portrayed as weak or naïve, rather as using their skills and intelligence to make a change. The writing balances between their personal struggles and their combined efforts at making the online blog a success. At the same time, their success does seem sudden and exaggerated. We get to hear of numbers and responses but we get a limited view of the actual blog content. Perhaps a little more attention to the feelings expressed in the blog rather than only dwelling on its hashtag #YouTrulyAssumed would have created a greater connect. I am not a Muslim so I have no idea about the accuracy of the depiction of the Islamic faith and its followers, but it felt comprehensive and precise.

All in all, I found the book pretty decent and it would be a 3 star read for me – I liked it enough without its creating a long-term impact on me. But as the _target reader would be a much younger person who is bound to find the characters more relatable than I did, I will rate it a bit higher. It’s a story that makes its way through hate and shows the power of love and unity. Definitely recommended to YA readers.

The audiobook, clocking at almost 10 hours, is narrated by Channie Waites, Tamika Katon-Donegal, and Lynette R. Freeman, each voicing one of the girls. They are pretty good and I found no flaws in their performance. Their voices sounded age-appropriate for the characters. The book is not character-intensive or with too complicated twists. As such, the audiobook is definitely a good option to try.

3.5 stars, rounding up to 4 because the narration was fabulous.


My thanks to RB Media, Recorded Books, and NetGalley for the ALC of “You Truly Assumed”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook.



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!WARNING: INCLUDES SPOILERS!

Laila Sabreen, congrats on writing a book like this! It was so fantastic and I felt so sad when the story ended. I loved the characters and I bonded with them. I'm a black American Christian girl, but I still loved and enjoyed this book because it highlights Islamophobia, online bullying, harassment, and struggles with identity that the teenagers face. Despite being far apart from each other, they are all connected through a blog titled You Truly Assumed, which is the title of the book as well.

I've seen many reviews complaining about characters and their development, but I'm not going to do that. Instead, I'll just list my take on the characters and their development.

Sabriya: A ballet dancer who is so very organized, living in Abbott, Virginia. She's a very busy yet ambitious teenager. She's clean, neat, likes to write, and plans everything. She's calm and timid, but she's a worrier. Bri is always pressuring herself to do better and is way too hard on herself, which is revealed in the first chapter. Throughout the book, she is anxious and keeps on losing hope because of the terrorist attack and seems to think that starting the blog is a stupid idea. With the website "Free the Right" attacking her blog with hateful comments and hacking it, and with Mr. Smith, head of volunteering, making microaggressive comments and even being part of the hateful "Free the Right" website. Eventually, she simply decides to take a break and returns, strong and determined. The terrorist attack does make Bri change slightly. She starts to accept that she isn't in control of every situation and that not everything can be planned, like her ballet classes and attending volunteer operations (sorry, that's what I call it). And in the end, she gets a "boyfriend", Hayat, someone she was opposed to in the beginning. Bri learns that unexpected events happen and that things change with time. She also learns to stop coming to conclusions and wait to see what certain events lead to.

Zakat: A more conservative hijabi Muslim who lives in a quiet and peaceful neighborhood that is accepting of all people. This place is rightly named "Lullwood", a fictional town in Georgia, a haven for black Muslims... until the terrorist attack. The masjid (or mosque), a place of prayer and gathering of Muslims, needs to be secured by a fence because of Islamophobic attacks _targeting Muslim-owned spaces. Zakat is an artist, and even though her parents want her to follow in their footsteps and pick a "profitable" major, she can't suppress her love for art. Zakat is anxious, quiet, and timid, like Sabriya. She's easily intimidated by Islamophobic people and is nervous about writing for the blog. When she first joins, she prefers to present her art on the blog to inspire other Muslim black teens and young Muslim women, and she secretly does this because her parents don't approve. Throughout the book, Zakat changes a lot because of the terrorist attack and other Islamophobic acts such as the spray-paint incident at the Islamic boys' school and the stealing of the "Book of Secrets" from Aafreen's house. She becomes more confident in decision-making and learns that places can't always be the same as they were before and that Islamophobia can even enter the most peaceful communities, like Lullwood. She learns how to be more confident in herself and stops being so worried. She starts to feel more comfortable and confident by the end.

Farah: A diehard, tech-savvy basketball fan and coding student who's more liberal and has a boyfriend (who I assume is non-Muslim). Farah lives in Iglethorne, California, with her single mom and isn't exactly on great terms with her not-so-present father who's in Kirby, and it's time for her to go on a three-week trip to see him and his new family. As you can already tell, she's not so enthusiastic about it. When she first arrives, she's treated with affection by her new siblings, his two older stepkids, Ally and Samson, who take a liking to her. Her youngest sibling, Emma, is so adorable and the two do bond pretty well. But Farah doesn't get along with Jess, Tommy's new wife. (They've been married for a while and Tommy is Farah's biological father's name.) Unlike Sabriya and Zakat, Farah is more vocal and straightforward, and she speaks up and talks right away when Jess is opposed to Ally accompanying Farah to the vigil. Things are tense between Farah and Jess and Farah is equally as stubborn as Jess is. Opposed to Sabriya and Zakat, Farah prefers not to let people step over her toes and hurt her feelings, and she seems to be more vocal, not afraid of being stereotyped as an angry black girl or an aggressive Muslim. I love this about her. Her role in the You Truly Assumed blog is very crucial. By the end of the book though, Farah is much more friendly with her family in Kirby. She and Jess come to terms with each other, she loves her three siblings, and she's getting along with Tommy too, although she doesn't call him "Dad."

Overall, I like how this book didn't have a dramatic plot but still managed to keep me engaged. I loved the character development and seeing the characters change. Seeing Sabriya accept that not everything can be planned and controlled was a relief. Seeing Zakat gain more confidence in herself and become more bold was another relief. And seeing Farah willing to accept the challenge of long-distance dating and establish a relationship with her father and his new family was a relief as well.

Some people are complaining about the representation of Islam in this book. They're saying that the Muslim representation is "problematic" because it's Westernized and too liberal. Some think it's watered down and that there isn't enough proof that these three girls are actually Muslim except for their necklaces, charms, and calendars. I grew up in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, and the way Muslims act in this book isn't very much Islamic. I'll explain.

I think the author is a liberal Muslim or either Westernized/modernized Islam so it wouldn't offend the audience. There were some things that didn't sit well with me, but I'm not going to take off stars because of that. (I grew up in Saudi Arabia but am not Muslim, so I may be wrong about some of these. Please let me know if I am.)

1. There is a non-labeled prayer room to make the mosque that Zakat goes to be more gender inclusive.

In most Muslim-majority nations, Saudi Arabia included, there is no such thing as gender inclusivity. People are either male or female and mosques have divisions for men and women only. In a majority of Islamic communities, being transgender, non-binary, or any other gender or than male or female can lead to arrest and jail sentencing too. From what I know from hearing Muslim scholars explain their religion to non-Muslims like me, Islam is not pro-LGBTQ, meaning there is no such thing as non-labeled prayer rooms for non-binaries, transgenders, and other genders. This leads me to my second concern.

2. A character has a physically intimate relationship with her (most likely non-Muslim) boyfriend.

From what I've heard from studious Muslim scholars, dating is mostly prohibited in Islam and a lot of Muslims practice "halal dating" which means dating with many rules and boundaries to avoid fornication or what is called "zina" in Islam. Farah and her boyfriend, Riley, are rather physically intimate, despite her being a Muslim. In addition to that, I'd like to add that I learned that Muslim men can marry non-Muslim women as long as they're practicing either Judaism or Christianity and that Muslim women must marry Muslim men, meaning Farah and Riley should break up and not take their relationship any further if Riley doesn't plan to convert to Islam. My next concern is related to relationships as well.

3. A character is in a lesbian relationship.

In Kirby, Farah meets a black Muslim girl by the name of Jamilah, who has a girlfriend. Same-sex relationships and all forms of homosexuality are haram (forbidden) in Islam, or that's what I have seen in Saudi Arabia and many Muslim-majority nations. I've read articles on people getting executed in Muslim-majority countries after being caught getting intimate with a person of the same gender.

4. A character is a female imam.

In the story, Zakat goes into the masjid and is met by Imam Farhad, who is a female imam who's about ten years older than Zakat, making her twenty-seven years old. She's a very kind, calm, collected, and wise woman. I like the advice Imam Farhad gives and how she treats Zakat like a daughter and listens to her worries. However, women aren't permitted to become imams in many traditional Islamic communities, which makes this kind of confusing for me. I've never heard of a female imam in Saudi Arabia or any surrounding countries, and many of the studious Islamic educators on YouTube and Islamic websites have explained that a woman can't lead prayers in mixed-gender settings but can teach other women. (Maybe Imam Frahad specifically leads prayers in the women's section?)

If any of the points I made above are incorrect, please let me know. The least of my intentions is to spread misinformation about a religion I do not practice. I loved this book and appreciate the author who wrote this, and I congratulate and applaud Sabreen for taking a stand and spreading awareness about Islamophobia and what Muslims face in Western countries, especially in the USA, a country with a lot of Islamophobia and anti-Middle Eastern sentiment after 9/11. I would recommend You Truly Assumed to young black Muslim teens looking for novels they can relate to.

✨Thank you for reading this review!✨… (more)

TW: racism, anti-Muslim hate, online harassment

teen fiction - three Black Muslim teen girls (high school seniors--a writer/dancer, an artist, and a computer programmer) from different parts of the US collaborate on a blog that starts as one girl's self expression (not meant to be published publicly) but becomes a place for others to feel seen and heard, only to become the _targets of alt-right hate and harassment (both on and offline).

Nice to see a couple of the trolls get unmasked, though there might not turn out to be any consequences for the vandalism realistically. It was also nice to see the victims of the online hate band together--the different communities working together and becoming stronger in the process. The ending may have been simpler and happier than what might typically happen IRL, but it still made me happy to see.… (more)

If I were to teach a high school course called "History Through YA Fiction," this book would be among those I'd use. It blends friendship, family, courage, and identity extremely well while also giving readers a gutsy and jarring trip through what many in America face on a regular basis-Ugly racism and bigotry. In this book, three Black Muslim girls from different parts of the U.S. come together online following a terrorist bombing of a Washington, DC Metro station. When Sabriya's sister reads what she's written out of frustration, fear, and anger following the attack, she convinces her to post it online. Neither sister realizes it has gone viral. When Zakat in a small city near Atlanta reads it, she immediately identifies with the words. So does Farah, a computer geek in California. As they work to make the blog better, all three face pushback, first from an online hate group that _targets their blog, then from a storm of hateful blog comments. How they handle their collective and individual fear and anger makes for a terrific read.… (more)