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A review by onthesamepage
Jameela Green Ruins Everything by Zarqa Nawaz
Did not finish book. Stopped at 33%.
ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
DNF'd for the following reasons:
* The way the main character talks about Islam and God isn't something I'm interested in reading because I find it borderline offensive. I don't care if a character isn't religious/practicing, but I do expect Islam to be treated with a certain level of care, respect, and sanctity, especially when the author herself is Muslim.
* I picked this up with the expectation that I would be doing plenty of laughing. I enjoyed the author's memoir (I even reread it last month in preparation for this), and had a lot of fun with it. But there's nothing even remotely amusing about the first 33%. The humor is very slapstick/juvenile, like the acronym of the terrorist organization in the book being D.I.C.K.
* I don't care about Jameela, and the plot wasn't interesting me. I read the last two chapters to see if they would motivate me to continue, but they didn't.
I was hoping that the ARC would include an author's note, because I was interested in the authorial intent, but unfortunately it wasn't in the copy I was sent. In Laughing All the Way to the Mosque, there is a chapter called "BBQ Muslims", where Nawaz describes a short film she made, featuring two Muslim brothers who are accused of being terrorists and thrown in jail. This features an organization called the Barbeque Anti-Resistance Front (acronym: BARF). Nawaz calls this short film "a satire on terrorism", and I wonder if that was the initial inspiration to write this book.
DNF'd for the following reasons:
* The way the main character talks about Islam and God isn't something I'm interested in reading because I find it borderline offensive. I don't care if a character isn't religious/practicing, but I do expect Islam to be treated with a certain level of care, respect, and sanctity, especially when the author herself is Muslim.
* I picked this up with the expectation that I would be doing plenty of laughing. I enjoyed the author's memoir (I even reread it last month in preparation for this), and had a lot of fun with it. But there's nothing even remotely amusing about the first 33%. The humor is very slapstick/juvenile, like the acronym of the terrorist organization in the book being D.I.C.K.
* I don't care about Jameela, and the plot wasn't interesting me. I read the last two chapters to see if they would motivate me to continue, but they didn't.
I was hoping that the ARC would include an author's note, because I was interested in the authorial intent, but unfortunately it wasn't in the copy I was sent. In Laughing All the Way to the Mosque, there is a chapter called "BBQ Muslims", where Nawaz describes a short film she made, featuring two Muslim brothers who are accused of being terrorists and thrown in jail. This features an organization called the Barbeque Anti-Resistance Front (acronym: BARF). Nawaz calls this short film "a satire on terrorism", and I wonder if that was the initial inspiration to write this book.