Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali

Wildcard ~ August

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

My opinion in three sentences:

This has been one of those books that I’ve been so eager to read for a while, but nervous to start in case it disappointed. From the very beginning (literally!), however, I was very much taken with Ali’s handling of the themes, which proved much darker than I was expecting, and the way in which she represented the Muslim community. That being said, the exploration of the hijab was much weaker and not in correspondence with the established characters, but as a whole, the book was an engaging read and strongly-placed among its contemporaries.

(Without spoiling anything) the best bit:

Ali offers a great, well-informed and diverse insight into the Muslim community. I was hesitant going in, knowing the poor generalisations, stereotypes and clichés that typically saturate the media and society at wide, but from the very beginning my trepidation was eased. Seriously, the first scene is really powerful and, whilst not necessarily proving a plotline to helplessly hook the read ad infinitum, I knew I’d made a good decision in choosing to read the book.

A warning for the book:

It’s not one of those that’s going to wrap everything up in pretty paper with a bow, where everything is somehow all OK in the end. That’s not a complaint, either! Ali doesn’t rush things or accelerate the timeline just to tidy up a relationship and give it a pretty conclusion. Sure, I’d have loved to know what happened next with Janna and Fizz, but at the pace established in the book and the timeline we were set upon, it would have served to weaken the ending and detracted from the great realism of the book.

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