I went into this with expectations, I haven't read a book with a Muslim lead character and especially in dealing with Islamophobia, especially in todays society where it is becoming more present. On top of that it is an own voices story which I thought would be very interesting to see from this POV.

What I enjoyed was the aspect of culture, we got to see Mayas family life and how that affected her life while dealing with other things.

However an aspect I didn't enjoy, was that for me personally was the Romance, it just seemed that Maya was dependent on a boy at all times, and even in the epilogue she was with another guy, I dunno, For me it wasn't what I wanted (but that's just a persona preference)

Although saying that, I did enjoy Maya as a character. She didn't want to give up on something that she was passionate about and for me that was a real Girl Power Moment.

I'd recommend others to read this.

I got an EARC on Netgalley. I must say, I really enjoyed the plot of this one. It’s very topical and a very important read. Maya’s life is turned upside down when a suspected terrorist attack happens, and the alleged perpetrator shares her last name. It highlights key issues like Islamaphobia, culture and the importance of strong, female protagonists! I loved the style of having small windows into other storylines, it really enhanced the reading experience.

Rating: ★★★★

This was a really profound read. Whilst I am not able to comment on the representation in this book, I found it really interesting to read Maya's story. Her battles against her parents, the ups and downs of first love, the way in which a terrorist attack turns her life upside down. This is a book I know I will be putting into the hands of as many people as possible! Also, it has plenty of super cute romance and I loved the way in which Maya's passion for film was sprinkled throughout both the narrative and dialogue.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I really wanted to like it, just based on its completely original premise and diverse representation of Muslim teens living in this permanently fearful environment in their own homes. Yet, the whole premise the impact a suicide bomber has on her life wasn't as big a plot-point as I expected. It was done really well, I think, just in the way it explored how these big global political actions can affect individual families, but I kind of wanted more.


Maya was interesting - I adored her ambition to be a film maker, it's completely original and adorable, and her independent attitude was spot-on for most teenagers. But she was super rude to her parents. I get that they came from different places, not only the generational gap but also the literal place of America versus India in terms of teenage rebellion, independence and dating expectations, but Maya was pretty flippant with them, didn't even really attempt to understand where they were coming from or try to converse and compromise. She mostly came across as very superficial, in her taste in boys and her apparent disregard for her religion and disrespect for her parents. I wanted to like her, and I definitely felt for her when the bullying got bad, but she was mostly kinda annoying.


There wasn't as much on the Muslim part of her life as I'd expected - there was one joke about eating pork, and maybe a couple of mentions of praying with her parents but apart from that - diddly squat! There was a lot on the Indian part of her upbringing, which I adored learning about.


I also didn't entirely believe in the romance - Maya was obviously infatuated but based on nothing other than his pretty face and we learn very little about Phil, well some stuff about his family and it was all so typically Mid-west/small town that... meh. Phil also made a pretty big whoopsie just after the bomber attack, not really sure whether he was supposed to support or ignore Maya - I mean, really?


Wow, turns out I had way more to say than I thought! All in all, definitely a book to try for yourself - there was parts I loved and felt so happy they were included, especially in a YA novel, but there were parts I didn't understand the point of, or even wanted more from. An author to watch and definitely a topic more books could do with tackling.

Love, Hate & Other Filters had my attention ever since it was announced and I have been super excited to read it! The blurb, the cover, the concept all of it was very appealing and I was glad that somebody's finally talking about the topic of bigotry especially after all the hate against poc's in recent times.
However this book turned out to be an utter disappointment. All my excitement about it vanished within the first 10 minutes of me reading it and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't read past the first 75 pages or so. The main character was too annoying and whiny for me to handle and I felt that the author was also dissing her culture at every turn. I understand being annoyed by a few traditions and cultural aspects but taking a dig at each of them got super annoying for me.
So, this was a DNF for me. I might pick it up later in the year and give it another go, emphasis on the word "maybe".

Many thanks for my copy of Love,Hate and other filters

Sometimes you stumble across a book that takes you by surprise and this one did just that. I think Samira Ahmed tackled so many weighty subjects in a way that I think young adults can relate to. I enjoyed reading the story of Maya, how she had to fight to keep her own identity as well as be a 'good daughter' and respect her parents wishes. I liked how her character grew in confidence to make the choices she ultimately wanted.
This was a diverse read and it was definitely a good way to start a discussion addressing contemporary issues such as prejudice, racism and Islamophobia

I spoke about this book on Radio Tamworth in my Youth Author section of the show. .

2.5 stars

Maya Aziz loves making films and dreams of studying film in New York.
She struggles to be the daughter her parents want her to be - they want her to be a lawyer or a doctor, and to marry a nice Muslim boy.
Maya has a crush on Phil, a guy at her school, but nothing can happen between them. Can it?
Then a suicide bomber with the same surname as Maya attacks a city, and Maya finds herself and her family in danger.
Can Maya have the future she wants?

I had heard lots of good things about Love, Hate & Other Filters, so I was excited to read it. However, apart from having a Muslim protagonist, this felt just like every other book to me.
What I liked -
The cultural representation, and the fact that there was a Muslim main character and that Islamophobia is shown.
What I didn't like -
Maya was very rude to her parents at times. While I could understand her frustrations, she didn't have to act the way she did.
Her mum was the stereotypical Indian mum who wants her daughter to marry a Muslim boy, and for her to be a lawyer or a doctor. It would have been refreshing if Maya's mum hadn't been like that.
I didn't like the romance. I just couldn't feel the connection between Maya and Phil.
While there was cultural representation, Maya didn't really discuss her faith that much.
The plot was okay but I lost interest a couple of times.
The writing style could have flowed better in places.
I was expecting more from this after all the hype.

Overall this was a disappointing read.

There has been a lot of love for this book on social media both before and after its release, and in my opinion it is all justly deserved!

This topical story kept me engaged and guessing until the end.  Maya is an incredibly likeable protagonist who is not only trying to survive high school, being a teenager, liking two boys and work out how to achieve her dream, but she is also trying to navigate  life as a Muslim in a society that is not always welcoming.

I loved the portrayal of Maya's relationship with her friend and two love interests, but I really liked the way the family dynamics were detailed.  Maya's parents have very traditional views, whilst her aunt, who she is very close to, is much more modern.  Maya struggles to do as her parents wish but also be true to herself and familial responses to her actions were crucial to how the story developed.

This is both an important and truly enjoyable debut YA novel and I can't wait for more from Samira.

I loved this book. It started as a normal teen read about first love and forging your own path while dealing with parents who want something totally different for you. With characters that I could identify with and who were just normal kids - not up themselves or annoying at all. And then a terrorist attack happened in the town where the book is set, and Mia, who happens to be Muslim and have the same surname as the attacker, is suddenly viewed as someone other than just a normal teen. She becomes a target for prejudice and her parents become even stricter and harder on her. Will she be have the strength to decide her own future or will fear of disappointing her family stop her from doing what she wants? I really enjoyed how the book morphed into a different book, one that looked at wider issues and prejudices and asked important questions. I think that's important. Definitely a good read and one I'd recommend to others.

This was a really good book. I found it fascinating to see something written from the point of view of a Muslim character. I found the author’s note at the beginning quite moving as well. Sometimes author’s notes can be annoying or preachy, but this didn’t feel like that at all. The harsh reality of it is an eye opener and something to make a reader more aware.

I can’t judge how accurate the representation is (I am a white lady) but I found it very interesting. Maya’s family is the only Muslim family in her small Ohio town. She is the only black student in her high school. Maya is bright and bubbly. She has dreams of being a film director. She makes her own movies, mostly family stuff, mainly weddings and big events.

The novel opens with Maya filming a big Indian wedding. Which seems fun and very colourful. Her parents are quite strict and have a set idea of what they want for her future - go to college, become a lawyer, marry a nice boy from a good Indian family. Maya wants to go to film school in New York. She doesn’t quite know how to tell her parents. She has an ally in her aunt, her mother’s sister who never married and lives her own life quite comfortably. She’s more of a role model for Maya than her mother. Mother can be very overbearing and doesn’t seem to get the fact that her teenage daughter likes her privacy.

Maya actually meets a nice Indian boy at the wedding, a young man named Kareem, a college student, their parents are thrilled. One thing this novel had in abundance – descriptions of Indian food that makes your mouth water. I love Indian food. So these descriptions always made me smile and want to gobble whatever was being described. Maya also finds her long term school crush, popular boy Phil finally starts paying attention to her.

Phil’s nice and friendly, though he has a popular ex-girlfriend and her cronies who don’t seem to know that the relationship’s over which creates angst for Maya. She and Phil have great rapport and develop a believable friendship. At the same time she’s spending time with Kareem as well. Chatting with her best friend as well.

The dialogue is believable, the characters fleshed out well. Maya is likeable main character, and her struggles are easy to understand and identify with. While there’s some cultural differences as she has difficulty getting to grips with her parents expectations and her own desires. At one point it all seems like everything’s going to work out.

Then there is a terrorist attack. And Maya and her family have the same surname as the prime suspect. And is subjected to shocking treatment. Her parents’ business is vandalized, she is bullied at school. Her parents start tightening the leash again. Her dreams are defeated. It’s just heart-breaking to see the treatment she gets and it’s awful. She’s done nothing wrong. Her family have done nothing wrong.

At least the authorities in the town seem to be on the side of Maya and her parents. They don’t treat them as suspects and vow to protect the family from the violence they find themselves confronted with. Maya finds herself in a very dangerous situation during a school field trip, cornered by a bully intent on causing her harm simply because of her religion. Which is disgusting. Thankfully there’s a witness and she’s saved before something really bad can happen.

A wake up call for Maya as she finally decides it’s her future, and it’s up to her – not her parents. Her parents reaction is a little over the top (at least in this reader’s opinion) given their own history and how they came to be in the United States. It’s sad as well, but at least Maya has her aunt there to support her and help.

Gut-wrenching at times, sweet at others, funny in some moments, this was a really enjoyable book. Believable concluded as well. Definitely worth reading and an author I would like to read more from.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bonnier Zaffre /Hot Key Books for approving my request to view the title.

I could not finish this book; I didn’t like the main character, I felt it was very insta-love and not interesting

Thank you to Hot Key Books and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Content warnings: terrorism, islamophobia

This was one of my most hyped books of the year, I can't tell you how many emails I sent to the publisher asking for an arc (I think I have the wrong email for them so clearly it never mattered).

Maya is an American born Indian Muslim growing up in the suburbs of Chicago. She doesn't know how to tell her parents she wants to go to school for film and she doesn't know how to tell them she likes a white boy. But then her life changes when there is a terrorist with the same name as her and her community turn against her.

Now I'm not Muslim or Indian so I cannot talk about the rep for this book but I have found reviews for this conflicting for representation. From Fadwa absolutely adoring the book, to Ilsa not being convince by the representation, so just be aware.

I absolutely adored this book. I liked that it wasn't completely centred on the terrorism and Islamophobia, though it plays a huge part, but just about the life of a Muslim Indian girl growing up in America. It's part of it, because hey terrorism is so part of all our lives now and it's so important to show that from the perspective of someone who is POC in America. But we also see her life as your average teenage girl and I think Ahmed balances both part of the novel perfectly.

I read this book super quickly and could not put it down. At times I wish it had been just a little bit longer but that's just me.

This book is, cute, poignant and heartbreaking and along with books like THUG should be core reading for anyone growing up in today's world, and adults too.

I loved this book. It was a real eye opener for me personally, as I had never known that Indian people were also Muslim – I had long associated Hinduism with the country. If anything, I'm glad of this book teaching me this.

This is, of course, a hugely timely book. By now, very few of us have heard of the events in America last month. This is a book we need now more than ever.

I can't really put my finger on why, but I wasn't always a fan of Maya and Phil's relationship. Nor was I a fan of Maya with Kareem. I think I felt this was a book where there didn't need to be a romance sub plot, as the main story was more than strong enough to carry itself solo.

Maya can also be a bit rude to her parents for some of the book. As someone with a pretty rock solid relationship with her parents, this was slightly difficult reading.

This is a strong contender for one of my best books of the year.

Or…the YA novel that made me realise I AM TOO OLD FOR THIS SHIT.

Maya Aziz is a typical teenager. She hangs out with her friends, goes to school and dreams of moving to New York to study film making at college. The only problem is her Indian Muslim super conservative parents are more interested in Maya meeting A Suitable Boy and getting married. Maya, however, is too busy giggling, blushing and hair twiddling at boys (Suitable and Unsuitable) to pay much attention to what anyone else wants for her and blindly follows her own path, regardless of the consequences.

You see, this book is all about the cute. It is a magical sparkle pony of adorable rainbow puppies on a candy floss cloud of glitter. It is super cute boys meeting a super cute girl and falling in love with blushes and nose scrunches and flippy shiny flip hair. It is so saccharine it could give you diabetes. Luckily, the sugar coated lipgloss gloop is tempered with a storyline about – you guessed it – terrorism.

Yeah, no – really.

And actually – it kind of worked. Had the book continued in the “he’s so cute! I want to stroke his hair!” vein, then it would have been a definite DNF. I hate fluffy romances and the main character Maya seemed to fall in insta love at the drop of a hat. However, because she’s Muslim (ish – more on that later) she’s subjected to horrible abuse. It’s awful to say, but it was the violence and borderline psychopathic hatred from some of her fellow students that kept me reading. This is an #ownvoices novel and I really got the impression that the Islamophobia represented in the book came from previous experience. Some of the scenes where Maya is targeted were upsetting but brilliantly written and gave the novel some depth.

As a character, Maya seemed quite two dimensional when it came to her emotions. She really fancied someone – then she didn’t. Then she decided it was because she liked another boy that the first one had to go. Then she became insta-friends with the first boy. Urgh. Who can turn their emotions on and off like that? Maya’s relationship with her parents was basically pretty uncaring – she spent an awful lot of time sneaking around behind their backs with absolutely NO GUILT whatsoever. Now, I can remember what it was like to be seventeen (just) and “staying with friends” when I was actually going to parties with boys and getting drunk but I always felt guilty about it, especially if I had to lie to their faces (in fact, there was no point because my mum would know instantly that I was up to something). Maya, however, gives no fucks. Bikini on, off to secluded swimming ponds with a boy from school, staying out overnight regardless of her parents getting crazy worried. Surely even the most self-centered teen would feel some kind of remorse? Even to my liberal western values she was way out of line.

This leads me to the cultural and religious representation depicted in the novel. Now, I am neither Indian nor Muslim so I can’t really say if the representation was realistic or not but as someone looking in the depiction of many of the characters, including Maya’s parents felt somewhat stereotypical. They literally only seemed to care about her getting married – I get that that’s still a big cultural issue but it’s not the only thing that Indian parents are about. Oh, and they liked to eat samosa and pakora and roti and why were these foods italicised like they were some exotic new thing that no-one has ever heard of? Is it because I’m British and Indian food is so widely available here, but not in the US? Answers on a postcard…

The other thing I found weird about the MayaBot is that if she hadn’t explicitly mentioned being a Muslim, you’d never know. Religion just isn’t part of her life – but then she’s shocked when a fellow Muslim drinks wine. It felt utterly incongruous to be so judgemental towards others but also completely guilt free about some of the things she’d been up to. It would have been nice to see a little bit more about religion within the book, especially to see how second generation immigrants blend their beliefs and cultural heritage with a more western lifestyle.

Overall, I thought that Love, Hate and Other Filters was a pretty trashy quick read saved by the more hard hitting elements about Islamophobia and terrorism. Parts of the book were terrible, whole swathes of text were average-forgettable with just a few bits that were brilliant.

Love, Hate and Other Filters - Samira Ahmed

I have heard so much about this book and after hearing it appear in the Rainbow Book Box, a subscription box for diverse reads (check them out!) it moved several spaces up my TBR, so thank you to netgalley for sending me a digital copy so I too can jump on this train.

First love, first heartbreak, first brush with prejudice . . . 
A romantic, searing and relevant debut about Islamophobia and how it affects the normal life of a teenage girl. 
"I don't want something . . . expected. I want to go to film school and be the first Indian American to win an Oscar, and then I can meet the One and fall in big, heart-bursting love, and we'll travel the world, my camera ready to capture our adventures." My cheeks flush; I know I'm blushing, but I can't bring myself to shut up. "Oh, my God. I want my future life to be a cheesy romantic comedy."
He shakes his head. "No," he says. "You want it to be an epic."
Maya Aziz dreams of being a film maker in New York. Her family have other ideas. They want her to be a dutiful daughter who wears gold jewellery and high heels and trains to be a doctor. But jewellery and heels are so uncomfortable...
She's also caught between the guy she SHOULD like and the guy she DOES like. But she doesn't want to let Kareem down and things with Phil would never work out anyway. Would they?
Then a suicide bomber who shares her last name strikes in a city hundreds of miles away and everything changes . . .

Ok, so honestly, I wanted to read this because I was like 0000 cute YA romance with some sort of camera reference I'm digging this already, but this book is so much more than that. I mean yeah, there is a cute romance and cameras do play a large part with Maya being a film maker, but there is so much going on in this book! It was a joy to read!
This is a book about growing up, its a book about reconcilling what you want for your life alongside what your parents want for you, its abut the culture shock between parents from India, living in America and a daughter who has spent her into life in America with India being nothing more than her parents birthplace. Its an exploration of tradition vs making your own way. It deals with terrorism, inter racial relationships, bullying, family drama and of course recognising your dreams and going for them.

I was expecting a standard YA love story so I feel like I really hit the jackpot with this rich tapestry of a book.

The relationship between Maya and her parents is so fascinating as are her interactions with Kareem and Hina and the romance is super cute and slow building. Guys I was invested.

This book is great. I want more like this please!

This book was brilliant. It gave me so many feelings, it made m happy, hopeful, sad, angry.
There was so much cuteness, but it was also so heartbreaking at the same time, and it makes me really sad because things that happen in this book, some people actually go through everyday.

This book is just really important, and I'm so glad I read it.

P.s I love Maya, she was so strong, and wonderful and inspiring

This is beautiful and poignant, everybody should read it. The story is light (with fluffy romance and lots of delicious Indian food), but also taps into important issues, including terrorism and racism.

Read as said that would be great for fans of When Dimple met Rishi which I loved.

I didn't relate to this book and struggled to get into it

Representation
I will preface this by saying that I cannot speak on the representation here, because I am neither Muslim nor Indian nor American for that matter. There are a lot of own voices reviews that can provide far better insight than I ever could.

Structure and Characterization
I think this book suffers from poor pacing and structure. I felt like the book had a very clear separation between the part before the terrorist attack and the part after it. And not in the good way. To me the first part was so vapid and superficial, with romance plots I could not stand and did not feel a single thing for. I also felt that we were pushed into Maya's romantic troubles, without really ever focusing on her character. That's why I felt she, and every other character in this novel were incredibly underdeveloped. For me personally, a character cannot be defined by two characteristics - that they love making movies and that they blush a lot. Those are the two things I know about Maya. And when the main character is underdeveloped, you can imagine what the side characters look like. I think my main grievance here is that I just could not root for these characters because they were two dimensional. Mostly because the first 60 percent of the book is Maya's romantic troubles with two guys. Let's dive into that.

Romance
You know that I don't mind romance. I love it. I am a huge fan. But this was so insta lovey and superficial. On one hand, we had Kareem, which Maya was sort infatuated with. Their relationship developed so quickly and died so quickly that I could not even blink and it was already done. Which was fine, because I did not really like him with her or on his own, but I fail to see the point of that. I really don't think that that whole plot line brought anything to the story.

On the other hand, there's Phil. I think he is also a character that was so cliche and just not well developed. He seemed like the prototype of a jock with bigger plans and a bigger heart hidden behind his golden boy status and I was just rolling my eyes. It's a trope you see in a ton of books. I can get on board with that sometimes. When the characterization was done right. It wasn't done right here. I could not feel for their romance because:
a) it was so cliche
b) I just don't feel for them as individuals so how can I root for the romance.

Since the romance was a huge part of the book (HUGE, like that's the book) and I did not like it, the whole book just fell flat for me.

Culture vs. Religion
I think we got a really good sense of Maya's culture. There's a lot of mention of Indian food and customs and I think we really got a good sense of how the culture looks like and what it entails. I don't think that was the same with religion. Of course, Maya's parents and her family aren't that religious, but still. I feel like this is marketed as something with Muslim rep, and I don't think there's a lot of that, which is why people might be let down if they come to the book expecting that.

Islamophobia
I think that the other part of the book where the attack happens and Maya goes through some awful stuff because of that was a lot better. Like I said, I felt like the book was really vapid and superficial in the first part, and the second part offered a lot more depth. I think the way the author discussed islamophobia was spot on. I think it was very reflective of America and how they handle these issues there and I really appreciated this part of the book. I think it's really important and I am so glad that someone decided to deal with it in a book, especially a book that is for younger audiences.

I personally did not enjoy this. The characters and the romance just did not work for me. I am however really glad that the author handled some really important issues, but in the end that wasn't enough for me to enjoy the book.

This was a contemporary read, that tackles issues relevant today. I didn’t know what to expect going into this book, but I was pleasantly surprised. Love, Hate & Other Filters was both heartwarming and heartbreaking.