Saints and Misfits
2017 • 336 pages
Ratings3
Average rating4
15
Ratings3
Average rating4
Saints and Misfits—a William C. Morris Award finalist and an Entertainment Weekly Best YA Book of the Year—is a “timely and authentic” (School Library Journal, starred review) debut novel that feels like a modern day My So-Called Life…starring a Muslim teen. There are three kinds of people in my world: 1. Saints, those special people moving the world forward. Sometimes you glaze over them. Or, at least, I do. They’re in your face so much, you can’t see them, like how you can’t see your nose. 2. Misfits, people who don’t belong. Like me—the way I don’t fit into Dad’s brand-new family or in the leftover one composed of Mom and my older brother, Mama’s-Boy-Muhammad. Also, there’s Jeremy and me. Misfits. Because although, alliteratively speaking, Janna and Jeremy sound good together, we don’t go together. Same planet, different worlds. But sometimes worlds collide and beautiful things happen, right? 3. Monsters. Well, monsters wearing saint masks, like in Flannery O’Connor’s stories. Like the monster at my mosque. People think he’s holy, untouchable, but nobody has seen under the mask. Except me.
Series
2 primary booksSaints and Misfits is a 2-book series with 2 primary works first released in 2017 with contributions by S. K. Ali and S.K. Ali.
Reviews with the most likes.
Yet another debut novel that I loved! Saints and Misfits covers a few months in the life of Janna, a Muslim high school student. It opens with her assault by “the monster” as she names him, a well-respected Muslim boy at her mosque. The book covers some normal high school events - finding out her crush likes her back, sneaking up to the roof of the school to talk to her best friend, struggling with her parents not understanding her - but also involves things unique to her experience. She has to exist in the same spaces as her assailant, and she's better at it some times than others. She has to find a way to deal with leaked photos of her in gym class without her hijab. (Her gym classes aren't co-ed, so it's okay to be without her hijab - it's not okay for men to see her that way.) Meanwhile, she's playing chaperone for her brother's courtship, and being forced to share a room with her mother because her brother is moving back in with them.
It's an interesting, fairly light read about a culture Americans like to demonize, and a topic that doesn't get enough attention. I enjoyed Janna's personality and determination, and her relationship with the senior citizen she helps take care of down the hall.
I liked the ending. It showed her slowly building up the courage to confront her assailant, and then doing so. While we didn't get a concrete resolution, it was strongly implied, and I'm okay with that.
You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.
