Syed M. Masood's 'The Bad Muslim Discount' is like a really good expensive, single-origin piece of chocolate. Brightly layered notes of sweetness are tempered with deep, melancholy tones that are just the right balance of bitter and delightfully surprising. It left me with a pleasantly nuanced, lingering aftertaste and it's easily the best book I have read all year, if not this decade! This brilliant #ownvoices book follows two Muslim immigrant families, whose lives intersect in California and are forever changed by this encounter.

As a Pakistani-American Muslim myself, I love seeing the variety of character representation TBMD is bringing to Muslim #ownvoices. Within the same story, Masood portrays a vibrant array of characters, from "bad" Muslims, to devout Muslims and several who fall in-between. It's the story of love, and loss, and learning to find one's place in the world and honestly, the author's artfully crafted prose and hilarious, and heart-wrenching, dialogue makes me wish I could give this book 10 stars! It's a win for diverse books, but it's also just a REALLY good contemporary fiction that delivers a fierce, unapologetic mirror to all of humanity, Muslim or not.

Cancel your plans this weekend (not that you had any plans, because quarantine, right?), and read this book now. Netgalley has it, or you can (impatiently) wait till it's out in November this year (which I obviously couldn't do).

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3458966273?book_show_action=false

"I wasn't attacked because I was Muslim, I was attacked because I wasn't Muslim enough."
With The Bad Muslim Discount, Masood brings up the pressures Muslim-Americans face within their own community when they don't live up to arbitrarily enforced standards. Although a similar theme to his genius YA rom-com More Than Just a Pretty Face, The Bad Muslim Discount reflects a more serious and stark Muslim society.
I continued to read the novel because of the female protagonist AZZA and I hope to read more unique and essential voices like hers in future stories.

Thank you for the ARC.

This book follows the stories of Anvar and Safwa, both immigrants to the United States but in very different ways. How these two stories intertwine is the basis of the book.
I can't say much more without giving away anything, I will say though, from the synopsis of the book, I was expecting a fairly light-hearted, fun read. This was definitely not that. There were some light-hearted parts, but overall, it dealt with serious issues.
I loved all the characters, I felt they were well developed had such depth. There were times when I felt bad for them, and times when I wanted to scream at them for their behavior and choices.
After several slow paced books, it was nice to have something I couldn't put down. The story kept me wanting more and the end, I feel, was nicely done. There were several quotes from the book that I highlighted, but this was probably my favorite, especially considering the current times:
" America is still the most powerful nation in the world. So why are it's people so terrified all the time?"....
" We live on stolen land," I finally said, "in a country built on slavery and reliant on the continued economic exploitation of other people. The oppressor always lives in fear of the oppressed. Americans have always been afraid, first of people native to this continent, then of black men, and of the innocent Japanese citizens they interned and now of Muslims and immigrants. So the real question, I think, is who is next?"

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC of this book!

I think I loved the story. It was hilarious and relatable. I happened to read during the Eid festival and totally made sense. I haven’t read many Muslim culture related books and therefore have only vague idea about what it is to belong to a Muslim family in a non- Muslim country. This is the first time am reading something written by this author and am looking forward to reading more from him.

I was surprised to have enjoyed this book as much as I did. It seemed like it would be fairly straightforward, yet it actually revealed a lot of depth and exploration of difficult issues around faith, belonging, justice, and more. The characters were endearing without being caricatures, with the exception of Safwa, who seemed unreachable in a purposeful way. The Bad Muslim Discount contained all the elements of a damn good story and delivered them in a highly readable way.

I loved this book!

I always have enjoyed reading books about other cultures. I feel like it broadens my perspective as a reader and opens my mind up to other parts of the world.

In Bad Muslim Discount, Masood details the experience of Muslim immigrants in America. The Bad Muslim Discount is keenly funny,astute, and observant.

Highly recommended!

I’m judging a 2020 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book from the perspective pile into the read further pile.
In this case, what drew me to the novel at first was the title. I don’t think I’ve read a novel before that dealt with the idea of being a “Bad Muslim” reminiscent of Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist. I think the opening scene conveys the tenderness of Halaal without being heavy-handed. Our narrator tells us the story of killing his goat Mikey.
“I ran. I showered. I wept.”
Then his father explained that the real sacrifice people made when they ate animals wasn’t the money they paid for them, or the life of the animal, but the way they felt after killing something.
I felt like this scene conveyed an idea I hadn’t thought of before, and that to me, is what is most exciting about fiction.