The Weight of Our Sky

Refreshing to read a particularly dark episode in our nation's past without feeling like you're being lectured to or pushed to adopt certain views. Appreciate that she did not whitewash the incident. A well written YA novel that's uniquely Malaysian.

Very brave of the author to choose this particular setting for her debut and to layer on an OCD compulsion dressed up in djinn form but it was well executed. Maybe the final confrontation was a tad too - Hollywood-y - but it was mercifully brief. Characters are immediately recognisable to Malaysians.

Despite the serious setting (I won't use sensitive), the author didn't use a heavy hand and the narrative was allowed to breathe.

Hope there will be more novels like this, especially for younger readers.

Well done, Hanna Alkaf!