A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction
Blurb (on back of book):
It’s 2002, a year after 9/11. It’s an extremely turbulent time politically, but especially so for someone like Shirin, a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl who’s tired of being stereotyped.
Shirin is never surprised by how horrible people can be. 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. So she’s built up protective walls and refuses to let anyone close enough to hurt her. Instead, she drowns her frustrations in music and spends her afternoons break-dancing 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.
MY OPINION: ******
It has been SO long since I've read a truly amazing book. I've been going through one of the worst reading slumps of my life (if not THE worst) and this book was honestly SO refreshing.
As a fan of the Shatter Me series (and yes, I know I haven't finished the series yet; I'm going to reread it), I was really excited to hear that Mafi had come out with a contemporary romance novel. That's my cup of tea and wow, I really loved this book.
It was truly eye-opening, heartbreaking, and outstanding.
I was not expecting it to like it as much as I did at all. It seemed like a generic romance novel that I was going to find cliche and boring. But no, it really wasn't.
Our protagonist is Shirin (pronounced SHEE-REEN). She's Persian. The book is set right after 9/11. Keep in mind that Shirin has always lived in America and she's a US citizen. However, after this awful devastating event, many people look down upon her and severely discriminate against her. They call her a "terrorist" and tell her to "go back to her old country" and it's really completely awful. Shirin's dad moves them around a lot (I think because of his job?) and she's been through tons of high schools. She's used to the generic atmosphere of bullying and discrimination wherever she goes.
No boy has ever looked at her with anything other than "disgust" to Shirin (I personally don't think that was true but that's what she sees). I feel as if Shirin is very cynical and pessimistic and I can completely understand why. If I had to deal with what she goes through every day of her life, I would probably be suffering from severe depression and anxiety.
Her brother, Navid, is handsome and popular wherever he goes with both the guys and girls. Shirin has never experienced this (again, more discrimination), mainly because she CHOOSES to wear hijab (which is a headscarf, for those of you who don't know). She isn't forced to do it but explains that she likes the way it makes her feel. People should respect that, like geez.
But at her newest school, she meets this incredibly amazing boy named Ocean James. That's literally the cutest name ever. He's popular, he's nice, he's cute-hot, and he's white.
He immediately takes an interest in Shirin. I NEED AN OCEAN. He's the first boy literally ever in a YA novel who just COMES OUT AND SAYS WHAT HE THINKS ABOUT HER. Instead of being like, "Oh, yah, you're hot, whatever" he goes "You look like you walk out of a magazine" and literally makes readers DIE. MY HEART LITERALLY EVERYTIME HE SAID ANYTHING WAS JILSJGIOHIELJDLHGIFBLEML
THE THINGS HE SAID made me DIE every single time. WE NEED AN OCEAN IN OUR LIVES. And every time he said things like "GOD YOU'RE PRETTY" or "YOU'RE SO BEAUTIFUL AND YOU DON'T KNOW IT" and anytime he said "GOD" or "JESUS CHRIST" I felt like crying.
I'm not weird.
Anyways, Shirin finds herself falling in love with Ocean (me too, girl, same). However, she tries to push away her feelings because of who she is and what people think about her. Despite her being so negative all of the time, I loved her lack of selfishness. She wanted him but she chose not to pursue her own desires to protect him. Wow.
But he claims he doesn't care, he claims that he wants to be with her, he wants to hang out with her, and he calls her "BABY". That jarred me because I was NOT expecting that but I really loved it (which is surprising because I don't generally like pet names).
And then they become friends and then they start texting and calling (LUCKY LOL) and messaging and keep in mind it's 2001 so they're like AOL-ing or whatever it's called. He tells her that he wants to start a relationship with her and despite her internal conflicts, she agrees.
After a couple of chapters or so, they decide to start dating. <spoiler>after he kisses her and they casually make out in his car</spoiler> And it's so CUTE. But nobody really knows about it because she doesn't want to hear what people are going to say about them, despite him telling her over and over that he doesn't care what people think.
But people see her in Ocean's car and cue the rumors. People start telling her she's disgusting and that she should stay away from Ocean.
And IDK if this is a spoiler but Ocean turns out to be a YEAR older than her and a STAR VARSITY BASKETBALL PLAYER and Shirin had NOO IDEA.
AHH
She confronts him and he tells her that he doesn't want to play basketball and that his home situation is awful and we really get to know a lot more about Ocean and who he is.
I won't say any more even though I REALLY want to but all I'm going to tell you is: READ THIS BOOK. It's one of my favorite books of all time, not just for the romance but also because I learned a lot about the discrimination that many Middle Eastern people must have faced (and still do, sadly) after 9/11.
I could also relate with the generic moodiness and cynical views of Shirin because I tend to be a little negative like her as well.
I'm also going to put this out there: I cried. AND YES, I DO CRY A LOT BUT THIS TIME I GENUINELY WAS JUST SO DEPRESSED BY EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED AND THE ENDING OF THIS BOOK WAS JFISHIUGFIUJDLHFGIHLNKUEIRJ
The things that people said to her and Ocean after they publicly started dating made me disgusted with humanity and who people are today. It makes me revolted to think about the types of people out there who can say this to two teenagers who are obviously so in love with each other.
EVEN THE ADULTS. LIKE BE MORE MATURE PEOPLE. YOU'RE EXPECTED TO BE RESPECTFUL OF OTHERS AND I HOPE THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE TEACHING YOUR KIDS BUT STOP BEING SO HYPOCRITICAL AND DISGUSTING
I was so proud of Shirin during the breakdancing scene and the fact that she got popular afterwards made me so sick because people are such hypocrites and are disgusting
AWW Yusef
And when Ocean punched the CIJIFJ (deliberately spelled wrong -- no spoilers!)
All I have to say is:
the WRITING is on point
the CHARACTERS are on point
the SETTING is on point
the ROMANCE is on point
EVERYTHING IS PERFECT
I would recommend this book to everybody
Main Character: Shirin
Sidekick(s): Ocean, Navid, Yusef, etc
Villain(s): Discrimination, bullies, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book is very real to life.
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