Tahereh Mafi is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Shatter Me series, Futhermore, and Whichwood. She caan usually be found overcaffeinated and stuck in a book. You can find her online just about anywhere @TaherehMafi or at www.taherehbooks.com. You can find more of my reviews of her work here.
It's 2002, a year after 9/11, and Shirin has just started at yet another school. It's an extremely turbulent time for the world, but also for someone like Shirin, a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl who's tired of being stereotyped. Shirin is never surprised by how horrible some people can be. But she's tired of the rude stares, the degrading comments—even the physical violence—she endures as a result of her race, her religion, and the hijab she wears every day. She decided long ago not to trust anyoen anymore, and she's expect, or even try, to fit in anywhere or let anyone close enough to hurt her. Instead, she drowns her frustrations in music and spends her afternoons breakdancing with her brother. But then she meets Ocean James. He's the first person in forever who really seems to want to get to know Shirin. It terrifies her—they seem to come from two irreconcilable worlds—and Shirin has had her guard up for so long that she's not sure she'll ever be able to let it down. Tahereh Mafi, bestselling author of the Shatter Me series, returns with this gorgeous and heartrending new novel inspired by her own experiences with first love, breakdancing, and the devastating impact of prejudice.
When I read the first page of this novel, I was immediately sucked in—what Mafi does fantastically here is using voice to her advantage. Shirin's story and her experiences are wildly personal, and we are able to get really inside her head because of how strong her voice is. The novel itself is also written almost like Shirin is talking to readers. Several times she mentions the reader as "you" which makes readers feel very invested in what's going on in Shirin's life. We find out a bit later that Shirin has a diary, where she catalogues her deepest, most intense thoughts—the novel itself resembles that diary, which is such a fantastic craft decision, it makes for such a strong novel.
Shirin's journey is a lot about discovery that people aren't such a faceless, awful conglomerate—rather, there are some standout individuals, such as Ocean, who remind us to have faith in humanity as a whole. I'm not entirely sure how to articulate why I loved this so much. I think because I related to Shirin a lot in this way. Shirin is angry, and mistrusting of everyone around her, and for good reasons. Watching Ocean sort of wear her down, and watching her learn what people are truly capable of was heartwarming and heartbreaking all at once. The way Mafi is able to tackle the challenges and triumphs of Ocean's and Shirin's relationship in tandem with Shirin's personal journey of growth was inspiring and thought-provoking, heartbreaking and uplifting, all at once.
Young adult books are a genre I've been diving back into, because I'm hoping to read a good amount of books on TIME's Top 100 YA Books of all Time. That is part of the reason I picked up A Very Large Expanse of Sea, and I'm so glad that I did, it definitely deserves that spot on the list. What I was not expecting was to be so surprised by how these books surprised me. A Very Large Expanse of Sea surprised me with its breakdancing plot lines. I loved learning so much about an art form I knew really nothing about, but also how this plot line worked to develop Shirin's and Navid's relationship, and was another element of the story where she started to let her guard down. It wasn't just Ocean, and it wasn't just a romantic storyline, that allowed Shirin to learn more about people. With this new hobby and venture, she's forced to meet new people and realize new things about the world around her. I thought this was brilliant, and added much-needed levity in some parts of the book.
Lastly, the title is absolutely brilliant. I am a sucker for when I can finally realize what the title means all along, and so getting to that point in the novel was incredibly rewarding. And as I've been writing, I've really been reflecting on what the very large expanse of sea is. The lovely thing is that it can be so many things; there are so many interpretations. And yet, the ending is super hopeful and there's pretty much only one interpretation for it. The way Mafi can balance these seemingly contradictory things throughout the entire novel is what makes it so brilliant, and it all starts with the title and learning exactly what the very large expanse of sea can be and can mean.
I've always wanted to read Tahereh Mafi's Shatter Me series, and after this book and having read her writing, I think I'm going to have a hard time convincing myself not to bulk purchase the whole series. You can find Tahereh online just about anywhere @TaherehMafi or at www.taherehbooks.com.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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