Rating: 5 / 5
I received ALL MY RAGE by Sabaa Tahir in my YA Once Upon a Book Club box. I loved the author’s AN EMBER IN THE ASHES series so I was very eager to pick up her new novel!
AN EMBER IN THE ASHES follows two timelines. In the past we follow Misbah, a young woman in Pakistan starting off life in an arranged marriage. They come to America to start a new life, opening the Cloud’s Rest hotel to live the American dream.
In the present day we follow Salahudin, Misbah’s son, and his best friend Noor. Noor is a young woman who lost nearly everything, taken in by an uncle who was less than an ideal replacement parent. Misbah is her defacto mother. When Misbah’s health fails, both Sal and Noor are at a loss for how to cope and live in a way that honors her.
I went into this book with high hopes and I was thankfully not at all disappointed. I really love this author’s writing and she did a fantastic job bringing the characters to life. Salahudin and Noor are both young, but both have a lot of struggles and loss in their lives. They are attempting to better themselves while also respecting the families they come from.
This isn’t always a comfortable read (trigger warnings for physical and emotional abuse, substance abuse, grief and loss) but the content was handled well. The teens are young and make some bad decisions that put their friendship, their lives, and their futures in jeopardy. As a reader I definitely wanted to tell them to make better choices, but I understood why they made the choices they did in the moment.
This wound up being one of my favorite reads last month and it is one that I highly recommend!
I really am glad to have received this in one of my Once Upon A Book Club boxes. If you’re interested in trying out this subscription, remember that DGREADS10 will give you 10% off your first order!
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