This is a great story that will be added to my classroom library. Books should be windows, mirrors and sliding doors and this one would be just that for my kids.

An interesting premise but the book itself fell short. I felt it gave it's audience very little credit (nearly talking down to readers) while the actual characters and plot seemed incredibly far-fetched. Not a book for me.

I honestly did not enjoy this at all. I DNFed it about 40% through the book.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review the book.

I liked the concept of this book, but it just came off as flat and naive. There were too many unlikely elements. The writing was quite repetitious and it often felt like the reader's intelligence was being underestimated. The messages about cultural differences and empowerment were very clear cut--there was no room for various points of view. The issues were oversimplified even though most readers both young and old are aware that life is messy, nothing is simple. I wanted to like this novel, appreciate what it was trying to do but was disappointed.

The idea is a good one, but the book is not well written. The "kingdom" is odd, a burka being called a tent is odd and the voices of the characters were off. I will not post a negative review online.

Dnf at 7% just because I feel this is too young for me and not on par with what I want to be reading.

I was very excited to read this book based on the synopsis and the great cover design. The concept sounded interesting, but the writing was what made me dislike it most. The dialogue in this book sounds very forced and does not flow like natural conversation does. Although the premise sounds interesting, it is represented in a way that makes it seem as if it is not an aspect of the book that the author had originally wanted or intended to include, rather that they forced it in to make it interesting. The characters in this book are also not very well introduced. Their story is implanted the moment they are introduced, and don't develop much throughout the story. In my opinion, this book reads as if it was written for middle grade and should definitely not be classified as Y.A.

Goodreads link: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2039201540?book_show_action=true&from_review_page=1

Oh boy.

Ok, so I hate it when I read a review book and I don’t like it and I swear I really try to be diplomatic with my reviews; I’m going to try and do the same with Maddie & Sayara but I think it is going to be hard.

Maddie & Sayara is the story of a friendship formed by the two eponymous characters. Both come from very different worlds. Maddie has the western freedom that she naturally takes for granted. Sayara on the other hand is from a country that forces girls to be covered from head to toe with ‘tents’ – we can assume writer Dunung means a burka. Girls can’t drive cars, they have to follow the rules put forth by men and basically they have no rights.

So far, so interesting. Having a story that looks at the disparity between these two worlds and the unfairness of one seems pretty interesting. I comment Dunung for approaching an interesting topic.

However, the story becomes too farfetched. Maddie – a thirteen year old travels across the world by herself without her parents noticing, the uplifting ending and the crazy adventure she gets herself in. It was all too implausible.

Maddie & Sayara is meant to be YA Fiction and I think that Dunung hasn’t given her audience enough credit to be able to see through a plot that just wouldn’t happen.

A very disappointing read.

Maddie & Sayara by Sanjyot P. Dunung is available now.

cute book, felt more middle grade than ya, but overall cute. would still buy for a niece

I really enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. I was a little hesitate at first because the main character, Maddie was only 13 years old, however, the author Sanjyot was able to masterfully describe the perils of the world through her voice. I guess, being a feminist isn't classified to just adulthood. Although, the verisimilitude of the situations Maddie found herself in and getting out of, where unrealistic; it still raised the question of how to overcome these issues that continue to plague society today. I, for one, am looking forward to Maddie and Sayara next great adventure and how they can change the world.

While this book had an incredibly interesting concept, the execution just did not work for me. The book had underdeveloped characters and a plot that felt too unrealistic.

This book addresses a very serious topic, the inexcusable and arbitrary denial of the basic right of women to choose in certain countries. The main right discussed at length is the right to drive but the text discusses many other basic rights. The author is careful not to decry the wearing of the hijab (or the 'tent' as it is called in the book), but to only call out the fact that the women in this unnamed 'kingdom' do not have the right to choose whether to wear it or not.
In spite of the importance of the central theme, I found the book repetitive and didactic with a main character whose voice was necessarily young and a bit tiresome as the book wore on.

Rating: 2/5
Plot: 3/5
Characters: 1/5
Writing: 2/5

Maddie and Sayara are two regular 13-year-olds who meet at a spring break vacation in the Bahamas. They become fast friends and slowly, Maddie comes to understand the differences between her own country's laws regarding women and the "kingdom" where Sayara lives. When Sayara's cousin is arrested for daring to drive while female, Maddie makes a whirlwind decision: she is going to the kingdom to talk some sense into that stupid government.

I feel like I say this a lot, but I really wanted to like this story. It seemed like it had real potential for expanding the genre of politically-motivated stories in the tween/teen area. What I found was a painfully frustrating account of a "normal family" which is obviously very much not the normalcy of American middle class that I know, as her mother can afford to not work and hires a nanny for the three children so she can spent weeks on end in the spa and thinly veiled (no pun intended) references to a Middle Eastern country which requires all women to wear a "tent."

I was also appalled at Maddie's characterization. She steals her mother's login and frequent flyer miles to book a plane to a foreign country, so she can "find someone who can fix the driving ban." I have known a lot of naive teens and tweens, but none of them would even think about trying to go to a foreign country alone. None of them would assume that changing nation-wide laws can be done by one individual, especially a girl in a country that marginalizes women to the degree that the kingdom does. Naivety is one thing; reckless self-endangerment is something entirely different.

Also disturbing was the characterization of Maddie's mother: a supposedly middle class mother who neglects her children, spends lavish amounts of money to pamper herself and to make sure someone else raises her kids, and seems to emotionally abuse her daughter through unreasonable demands and silent treatment tactics. She also has intensely old-fashioned views about what women's roles in society should be, without a corresponding religious or social class basis for her opinions. It is stated that "that's how she was brought up to be" but the abusive effects of her behavior with Maddie are never addressed.

The writing also frustrated me. It seems that the author didn't expect that her readers would retain key plot points between chapters, so insisted on repeating--often in exactly the same words--those plot points throughout their relevant chapters. And while I appreciate Maddie's stream-of-consciousness approach to narrating, sometimes it is distracting from the story that is actually happening.

As a whole, I was disappointed by this tween/teen novel. Perhaps there are parents who care more about preaching the evils of overbearing faith institutions than a believable and relatable story. As an informational parable, it works relatively well and the pacing of information does keep you wanting to turn the page to find out what happens next. The information dumping is heavy-handed though, especially when it comes from a tween who doesn't seem particularly bright or able to make logical jumps on her own. The inconsistencies in writing and character development put this book very low on my recommended reads list.

Personally not a fan of the writing style, but overall a good story about two girlfriends, which we definitely need more of in YA.

This book is aimed squarely at the children/early YA reader, and tells the story of Maddie an Sayara, two thirteen year old girls from quite different backgrounds who turn out to have a lot in common. While on holiday Maddie, a young western girl is befriended by Sayara, a young girl from what appears to be a middle eastern background ( To be clear, her home is referred to only as The Kingdom throughout the book, but is clearly based in that region). As the girls become closer Maddie is shocked to discover the restrictions in Sayara's home country especially when Sayara is whisked home because of a family scandal. Once back home, while struggling to deal with her own family dynamics, Maddie finds out that Sayara is under house arrest and hatches a crazy and dangerous plan to come to her rescue.
The two characters are generally believable, though it seems hard to believe in this day and age that any 13 year old in the West would not know at least a little about life in the Middle East, but I understand that the author is exaggerating the naivety of her characters to better explain the complex political and religious issues to a younger reader. One thing that really grated on me throughout the book was the repeated use of the word "tent" to describe a burqa, not just by Maddie, but also by Sayara and other characters from the "Kingdom", which felt quite disingenuous and unnecessarily condescending to the intended reader.
For the young reader, there is certainly lots of drama and tension to keep them entertained, but also discussion of a lot of thought provoking issues on gender and religion, in an age appropriate manner,which impressed me as the book educates without too much preaching ( though there is a tendency to veer into that tone from time to time)

Such a cute debut novel! It explored extremely challenging issues of oppression, with an anchor of family and friendship. As a reader, I was drawn in, rooting for their unrealistic success!