Review: All-American Muslim Girl

With its pretty pink cover and intriguing title, what is this book about? Check out my review of All-American Muslim Girl below!

All-American Muslim Girl by Nadine Jolie Courtney. To be published on November 11, 2019 by Farrar Straus and Giroux. Thanks to the publisher for sending a review copy! Links are Affiliate Links and I may earn from qualifying purchases.

Synopsis adapted from Goodreads: Allie Abraham has it all going for her, plus she’s dating cute, popular, and sweet Wells Henderson. One problem: Wells’s father is Jack Henderson, America’s most famous conservative shock jock. Allie hasn’t told Wells that her family is Muslim. It’s not like Allie’s religion is a secret, exactly. It’s just that her parents don’t practice and raised her to keep her Islamic heritage to herself. But as Allie witnesses ever-growing Islamophobia in her small town and across the nation, she begins to embrace her faith—studying it, practicing it, and facing hatred and misunderstanding for it. Who is Allie, if she sheds the façade of the “perfect” all-American girl? What does it mean to be a “Good Muslim?” And can a Muslim girl in America ever truly fit in?

Review of All-American Muslim Girl

First off, I’m a big fan of YA books that tackle religious themes. (I know from prior reviews of books like this that some readers are NOT fans of this kind of story.) Second, I am not Muslim and am not reviewing from that viewpoint.

Allie’s dad is a non-practicing Muslim. Her mom is a Catholic who converted to Islam. Thus, Allie doesn’t know a lot about either faith. Her father’s side of the family are Circassian Muslims, who are ethnically Caucasian, so Allie doesn’t look like the “typical” Muslim.

But when Allie begins to witness Islamophobia in her community and at her school – even among her friends – she decides she has to take action. She starts openly identifying as Muslim and exploring what it means to be a Muslim-American woman. She joins a female Qur’an study group, starts learning Arabic, tries wearing hijab, and finds a new group of female friends, including lesbian and feminist Muslims. This comes as a big surprise to her family, her friends and classmates. It’s also a shock to the boy she’s dating, the son of a super conservative TV personality who isn’t all that pro-Muslim.

The romance was sweet, but not as big a part of the plot or as much of a source of tension as the synopsis suggests. But I liked the fact that it took a back seat to Allie’s journey.

This was more of a discovery-driven book than a plot or character driven one, but still a lovely story about family and the exploration of faith. I liked that Allie really questioned and explored some common conceptions of Muslim women.

Stay tuned later this week for my list of YA Books That Explore Religious Faith!

Have you read this one? If so, tell me what you thought? Do you like books with religious themes?