The Beauty of Your Face is a story of resilience, faith and identity. It follows Afaf, the headmistress of a Muslim school for girls that is targeted by a white supremacist shooter. However, the majority of the book recounts Afaf's life through her childhood and beyond.
I loved following Afaf over a large chunk of her life, especially as she finds religion and tries to navigate her fractured family relationships. The characters are complex and Afaf herself is interesting and never static - I quickly became invested in her story and future. You get to see heart-breaking, pivotal moments of her childhood and adulthood, her struggle to belong anywhere including her own home, and her treatment in an intolerant society. But you also see heart-warming moments of friendship and community and the life Afaf builds for herself.
While I loved these flashbacks and Afaf's story, the structure was a little jarring for me. The scenes with the school shooter were at the start and end of the book, with some appearances in the middle. They were emotional but it didn't feel natural with the rest of the story. The shooter's perspective wasn't very strong and I wish it had either been left out or explored deeper. Some other events were unsatisfying too, like the way the part about Afaf's missing sister was concluded.
Overall though, The Beauty of Your Face is a beautiful and moving debut novel about Muslim identity and the Palestinian-American experience.

A beautiful story which created complex emotions for me. As soon as I read the blurb about the shooting it grabbed my attention but this book was not at all what I expected. I was disheartened by the fact it seem to say that the only way the main character could find herself is through religion. The main character story was amazing but those thoughts and feelings about the school shooting brought the book down to a two star for me

>>The story opens with a shooting scene that is taking place at all-girl Muslim high school in Chicago, when Afaf hears the shooting she goes back to her childhood memories. Afaf takes us to a journey of her childhood days.She was an American born child of Palestinian immigrants along with an elder sister, Nada (seventeen-year- old) and a younger brother Majeed (seven-year-old). She used to live in a small house with her parents and siblings in Chicago.
>>But the whole family falls apart when Afaf’s elder sister, Nada, suddenly disappears from the house. The whole family struggled a lot after the disappearance of Nada. This incidence laid an impact on the lives of each character which was associated with Nada. Her mother started suffering from depression, Afaf’s life turned upside down and started losing her identity, her father became an alcoholic. Without revealing much about the story I would suggest you to read this book.

What I liked about the book
The story of the book was both plot and character driven. Although the story travels back and forth, still I was enjoying every bit of the story. It was complex and beautifully written. For me, It started off a little slowly, but the more I read the more I felt connected to the characters. I was drawn to this book because of the interesting blurb and I loved the story. I wish I could give all the stars to this book.

Sahar Mustafah's The Beauty of Your Face is a moving tale of faith and the lack of it and how it seemingly drives a wedge in a marriage and unites a family at the same time. It's also a tale of race and islamaphobia, rampant in the American society. Mustafah's heroine Afaf is a seemingly normal girl who gets constantly singled out and bullied in school for standing out with her dark hair and olive skin. While she never had a sense of belonging in white America, the islamic community embraces her when she decides to embrace her religion. Ironically, now with a head covering, she stands out even more in the predominantly white society and her alienation is no less different than it was before. Mustafah's deceptively simple characters are so realistic and her writing is so powerful, it's hard not to feel for them and think about them long after the book is finished. An important book, as has been established by its success.

Do you ever read a book that rips your very heart out of your chest? Because I read the last hour of this book with my hand continuously grasped to my chest to prevent that from happening!

I have to admit that I started this book thinking it was a true story, I blame Covid brain 🙃 but upon realising it was a work of fiction I didn’t feel any less emotion upon reading it.

This tells the story of Araf Rahman, daughter of Palestinian immigrants who is the Principal of a Muslim school for girls in Chicago. One day a radicalised shooter attacks the school.

As the events of that day unfold we are transported back in Araf’s life from her troubled childhood and the bigotry she faced, a mentally unwell mother who struggled to adapt to life in America to discovering Islam, adopting the faith and the experience of living as a Muslim woman in America after the 9/11 attack. It is a beautifully crafted emotional story that challenges stereotypes head on.

At points the author also writes from the point of view of the school shooter and those sections were truly harrowing.

This book was outstanding!

Thank you for the copy @legend_times and @netgalley. This book is available now and I urge you to read it. ❤️

This is a beautifully written book that starts with a school shooting but is about so much more than that. I liked Afaf's unusual perspective, coming from a not-very-religious family living in the US, but finding religion and how this changed her as a person.

Sahar Mustafah is an amazing story teller, and her debut novel is the perfect reflection of her talent. The story’ structure hovered between the past and present and it was touching to see how Afaf matures from a young lost girl to a loving married woman.

The Beauty of your face has become quite easily my favourite read, the topics covered are pertinent, extensive and important - with xenophobia, complexity of familiar relationships and immigrant experience at the forefront.
We read about Afaf Rahman’s journey, navigating her way through life, trying to find her place not only in a family which is crumbling under the weight of loss, longing for the homeland, addiction and mental-health struggles, but in a society where she is considered as “different”.
Sahar has succeeded in writing about the Muslim identity in its simplistic and truest form.

This is a book which everyone should read, so that we can all educate ourselves!

Thank you NetGalley and Legend Press for providing me with a free copy of the book.

Afaf Rahmeen, a Palestinian-American woman, is principal of the Nurrideen School for Girls in the Chicago suburbs. The novel opens with the school under attack by a shooter, with alt/right views. As the story unfolds we learn of Afafs life and what has brought her to where she is today. ⁣
⁣
As a teenager in a Palestinian immigrant family, Afaf finds it difficult to be accepted by her peers. Following the disappearance of her older sister, the family disintegrates under the weight of their grief as they struggle to deal with the aftermath. Afafs mother in particular is unable to deal with life without her daughter, spending time in mental institutions, and yearns to return to her homeland. Afaf ultimately finds solace and Community in religion & the local mosque, where she finds freedom in donning the hijab. ⁣
⁣
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘍𝘢𝘤𝘦 is about identity, belonging and living in a divided post 9-11 America. I loved this book. I really wanted Afaf to succeed in life and to find her tribe, which she ultimately does. A thoroughly enjoyable and engaging read, I’m happy to give this 4 stars. ⭐️

Many thanks to the author @saharmustafah, @netgalley and @harperfictionpr for the ebook in return for my honest review.

The Beauty of Your Face by Sahar Mustafa is a novel focusing on a Palestinian- American woman, Afaf Rahman, as she navigates a world that is torn apart by hate, misunderstanding, and cruelty. She is the principal of a Muslim all-girls’ school in a Chicago suburb. The story focuses on two timelines: the present where Afaf is facing a school shooter, who has been radicalized by the online alt-right, and the other is a flashback of her life.

Like any novel focusing on the immigrant experience in the US, this story grapples with wider questions of identity, the idea of home, cultural assimilation, xenophobia, and loss. Afaf and her brother, Majeed, are American citizens. Their elder sister, Nada, ran away from their home in the US, and this disappearance casts a shadow over the family. Their mother yearns to return to her home in Palestine and is mentally ill. Their father tries to cope with everything while working at a plastic factory. Afaf does not have a stable and loving home and family; her problems are not glorified and she is lost. It is heartbreaking to see her life and her relationships with her parents and her brother.

Afaf turns her life around when she encounters Islam; her family was never religious. Yet, her transformation, her sense of community and kinship with others in the mosque, and her decision to wear the hijab are presented very matter-of-factly. Afaf’s search for identity is a major theme of the story. The novel has quite a few Arabic words which may be a problem but can be understood, based on the context. It is a difficult read especially, with the systemic racism and prejudices that Afaf faces as a daughter of immigrants, her religion, her gender, and her decision to wear a hijab. The story also displays the power of female friendships, the importance of having a belief/moral system, and how much social justice work needs to be done.

If you are interested to know how Islam works, how casual racism is a lifestyle, how easy it is to radicalize an ordinary White person into a terrorist and understand a perspective vastly different from your own, then this novel is a good starting point.

This is a wonderful book!

I really enjoyed this book for its mostly positive Muslim representation whilst taking into account the cultural factors which seem to colour the world's views of Islam.

Afaf's story is fascinating and I think if the whole story had been about her and her journey, this would have been a much better book.

The shooter's story and his chapters took me out of the experience and really took me out of the narrative, I felt this would have been a better story without those points.

I did find it hard to believe some of the later aspects of the book but I suppose these things do happen in real life.

Afaf and her family growing up were mired with sadness and regret but through the years we see her become a person who is a leader in the community.

The only reason I gave it 4 stars was because I had zero interest in the Shooter and I didn’t feel giving him any time in the story added to it.

The ending seemed right and I enjoyed this book and would recommend it.

I was really disappointed with this book. Firstly I think it should be marketed to the YA audience. Whilst there was depth to the main character, I felt it was rather cold and not endearing at all. I hoped that the author could have developed the story of the school shooter a lot more.
In return for an honest review I'm not sure what more I can say except that I really wanted to like this book esp from the synopsis and I watched an Instagram interview about it, maybe my expectations were set abit to high. So while it was a pleasant read it's not really one I would recommend. Sorry.

I went into this book without knowing a huge amount about it other than that there was a school shooting. This book throughout the novel has two POV, the main characters who is a headteacher at a school, and the perspective of the man who opens fire on that school. ⠀
⠀
Afaf, the headteacher of Nurrideen school is hiding from the man who is firing on her student. Whilst waiting for the shooter to find her, she reflects on her childhood and life growing up, it’s here that we witness the beauty of this book. When Afaf is just a young girl, her sister disappears one night and doesn’t return. Her mother is stricken with grief, unable to care for her other two children and overtime Afaf feels the isolation of her mothers inability to care for them and becomes more and more lonely and struggling to cope with her life. But as she grows older she discovers Islam, within this religion she finds love, acceptance, a family, something she had been missing since her sister disappeared. ⠀
⠀
This is such a beautiful novel about family dynamics and the struggle to grow up with a mother who is emotionally inept from grief. The way the novel kept flipping from past to present created a tension and a desperation for Afaf to survive the school shooting. I also loved the portrayal of Islam in this novel and the struggle that lots of Muslims went through after 9/11. The human nature to love and at the same time hurt people cuts through this novel, showing the flaws of humankind and how it’s impossible to never hurt the ones. I highly recommend this novel, it was such a beautiful read!

I was so invested in this beautiful and heartbreaking story. I loved the dual perspective and the development of the characters, particularly the relationship that Afaf had with members of her family.

"She can still hear the lamentation in their voices, an aching for a stolen homeland - their bilad- a country she's only seen in old photographs and heard about in stories Mama and Khalti Nesreen recollect over qahwa." Sahar Mustafah

Afaf Rahman, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, is the principal of Nurrideen School for Girls, a Muslim school in the Chicago suburbs 🇺🇸 . One morning, a radicalised right wing shooter attacks the school. The story then flashes back to Afaf's life growing up and finding her identity as a Muslim American woman navigating her way through life, trying to find her place not only in a world that singles her out because of her 'otherness', but also in her family crumbling under the weight of loss, addiction, mental-health struggles, and the pain of longing for the homeland.

Sahar is a magnificent storyteller, and has effectively managed to capture the true essence of what it means to find Islam and be unapologetically Muslim. She has steered clear of the use of the usual stereotypical portrayals of Islam and has beautifully illustrated how the path leading to faith is different for everyone. Highly recommend 5/5 ⭐️

We meet Afaf under intense circumstances when the Islamic girls school she is the head teacher of is under attack by a gunman. We are then transported to her childhood and we learn about her extremely strained relationship with her mother which is only exacerbated after her older sister disappears. As the story progresses we see how Afaf struggles to belong, all the more because of her home life. Ever looming is also the gaping hole left by her sister and the tragic ways it irreversibly changed the family.

When she is older, Afaf finally finds a sense of belonging through and in Islam. This spiritual journey was portrayed so beautifully and the fact that it was a shared journey with her Baba added another layer of meaning to it. Yet their newfound faith causes existing rifts in the family to deepen, meanwhile her mother’s yearning for Palestine intensifies.

Throughout the book we intermittently get a brief insight into the present day at the girls school – chillingly told through the perspective of the gunman. The way this was woven into the story of Afaf’s life leading up to that point only added to the emotional intensity. The more I knew about Afaf and her life, the more I cared about her, the more I dreaded those chapters set in the school.

One of the things that stood out to me in this story was the heartfelt exploration of the difficulties of motherhood after trauma and ongoing mental health difficulties. Along with that it delved into the complexities of the child later as an adult trying to find a way to forgive a mother they felt emotionally neglected by.

A beautiful and layered story of belonging, family, loss and underneath it all, hope.

This tragic but beautiful book was so delicately but impeccably written.
I learnt a lot and will be recommend it to all as it was such an important and at times difficult read but I really enjoyed it. It was so poignant and really drew out a lot of emotion from me when I was reading it.

This is a fascinating book about religion and community, telling the story of how one young woman finds comfort in religion and meaning in her life as she becomes a steadfast believer. Young Afaf sees her father become pious and her mother become cynical and depressed after the disappearance of Afaf's older sister. And loose ends, Afaf first attends prayer services with her father and finds that the local religious community offers a version of the family support she craves. Years later, though, Afaf's religion is exactly what causes a white man to target the girls' school she runs, where he kills 14 students before encountering Afaf. The characters and their beliefs and struggles and actions feel very real, and I think this book could help teach tolerance and understanding between people of different faiths. I hope it gets picked up by book clubs and school reads.

“Afaf wants to know if prayer and fasting and charity could magically change her mother and make them a family, though really Afaf has always known they’ve never been a close-knit family, even before Nada’s disappearance. Had religion been the missing force, the thing that could weld them to each other so that when something terrible befell Afaf’s family they would be unbreakable?”


What a wonderful novel. This is the kind of story you cannot let go of. Beautiful and realistic representation of Islam.
The chapters about the shooting incident were superfluous to me, I found Afaf's story interesting enough.

The Beauty of Your Face is a tragic and compelling look at what it is like to be the child of immigrants and a Muslim in the United States. The book spans the life of Afaf, whose older sister's disappears tears her family apart. Afaf struggles with her alcoholic father, her distant and grieving mother, and her own inability to fit-in. Eventually Afaf joins her now sober father and becomes a devout Muslim only to end up facing even more prejudice for her freely made religious decisions. Afaf continues to stand up for herself and her choices even in the face of unspeakable hatred and violence.

#𝚚𝚘𝚝𝚍 Does religion have a face? If so, how does it look like? Does religion modify a person’s character? Does it also give them an identity?

𝐈 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐈’𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐠𝐨 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤📖

#𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚛𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚎𝚠👇

🧕🏽 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞 is about a Palestinian American Woman named Afaf Rahman. She is working as the principal of Nurrideen School for Girls in the suburbs of Chicago. While everything was going fine then suddenly a misfortunate event takes place, her school is attacked by an alt-right shooter. The book opens up with this event and throughout the book, we are taken back to her childhood and adulthood before this terrible day arrives. Throughout her journey we learn how painful her life was- her older sister disappeared without any evidence, her mother’s ignorance towards her and her brother, her mother’s desire to leave them and return to her home country, Palestine and her father’s alcoholism. And if this is not enough then her struggle to fit in as a Muslim woman in America.

🧕🏽 This book is carefully written and a well researched work done by the author. It sheds light on some major struggles and a community of people with a beautiful culture that is often victimized in our society.

🧕🏽 I can totally relate with the main character, Afaf. Sahar Mustafah has done a splendid job in showing Afaf’s strength throughout the story and the way she described the muslim culture and religion. The way characters got devoted towards god and made their lives better and worth living. 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐈𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐟 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐧𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 & 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐚 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞☻

Thanks @netgallery and @saharmustafahwriter for the ebook🖤