Review: All My Rage

All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's Sabaa Tahir.

Auto.

BUY.

And I'm very glad I did, but as you and I and any other Sabaa Tahir fan can imagine, this one isn't for the faint of heart, not least of all because of Tahir's shift from fantasy to contemporary. Tons of trigger warnings preface this book - Islamophobia, racism, alcohol and drug abuse, domestic and sexual and child abuse, PTSD - and they're all to be taken seriously as Tahir explores the trials and tribulations faced by two Pakistani-American teens in a town loosely based on the very one where she grew up. Sure, they call it Juniper instead of Ridgefield, in Yona County instead of Inyo County, and the nearest large town is Friarsfield instead of Bakersfield. But it's still pretty closely paralleling our world, close as Juniper is to Death Valley, with a lot of recognizable alt-rock and fantasy pop culture (I'm pretty sure Tahir name-dropped as many bands and songs from the 90s as she did to stick it to the subset of YA fans who utterly loathe when authors have their teen characters listen to music older than themselves, and as someone who does the same in his own books, I fully endorse.) And, of course, academic struggles, religious struggles (both Sal and Noor have very complicated relationships with Islam, especially Noor, whose uncle is aggressively atheist and wants religion out of her life too), and the struggles of being among the very few non-white students in their high school. And especially the Fight that tore them apart and threatens to keep them apart forever, if they can't rise above their past differences to save each other. Make no mistake, Tahir isn't about to pull punches with this book - but also, it has a very bittersweet ending that gives the reader some hope after all, and absolutely validates every page that comes before it.

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