Thanks to @netgalley and @harpercollins for the advance Kindle copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5 for this messy, sad story of identity, mental illness, and family struggle. In 2003, Muslim American Shadi wears her hijab but keeps her head down. She has enough to worry about- her brother was killed by a drunk driver, her father is in the hospital following two heart attacks, her mother is mentally ill, and her best friend has cut her out of her life. One day it all comes to a head, leaving Shadi feeling utterly alone. Readers looking for a beautifully written, crushingly sad story - pick this up. Recommended for grades 7+. #yalit #weneeddiversebooks #librarian #librariansofinstagram #middleschoollibrarian

3.5/5 stars

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for an advanced copy of this to review! I loved Tahereh Mafi's last foray into contemporary, and I was super excited for this one. As expected, it was a very emotional journey with a lot to unpack.

Every time I read a book by Mafi, I'm always in awe of her prose. It feels so poetic, and that shines in this book. Her prose lends itself to the emotions in this book, bringing them to life. Shadi is hurting, and you can feel it through the pages of this book. She misses her brother, she misses her friends, and she's angry with her father. An Emotion of Great Delight is such a fitting title for this book, and definitely the strength of the story.

This book is also a great study in character. We learn a lot about Shadi throughout the book, as it flips between before and after her brother's death. The landscape for Muslim people right after 9/11 is so realistic in this book. Mafi's books definitely stand out in this regard, as I don't think I can think of any other books that deal specifically with that time period. You feel Shadi's desire to hide, to blend in. This is definitely an emotional, character driven book.

The only complaint I really have is the ending. Overall, the book is on the shorter side for YA, and the ending comes kind of abruptly. At least, it felt abrupt for me. There's a little resolution in Shadi's situation, but I never really felt like Shadi herself had a resolution. While I normally don't mind open endings, I just wanted a little more from the ending in this book that was so incredibly emotional.

All in all, if you're looking for an emotion driven book with poetic prose, this is the book for you! Plus, that cover is just gorgeous.

Wow, this book was heavy. I knew it was going to be sad but I felt like it had a very different energy from AVLEOS. I did feel that the narrator had a very authentic voice, but sometimes I felt that she was SO guarded that even we, as the reader, weren’t being given the full view of her emotions.

Excellent book! I read it to assess assigning it to one of our reviewers for feature close to publication. So I will not be reviewing it myself but I have every expectation that it will be reviewed. When the review is available it will be sent to the publicist and available at https://www.bookbrowse.com

This book is beautifully written based on the actual language used however, I found the characters and plot undeveloped. I would have like to know more about Shadi and her relationship, especially with Ali. Also, I felt like the whole book was a build-up to something that never happened. Mafi is an incredible writer, but this book didn't live up to her other work for me.

3.5 stars. I think that Mafi writes emotions so beautifully, and the emotions of our main character Shadi are palpable. My heart was breaking for Shadi throughout the novel, and the development of her character was excellent. Although Shadi's relationship with Ali was well developed, I do wish that Shadi's relationships with Shayda as well as Zahra were developed more.....I just felt like I didn't have as strong of a sense of Zahra and Shayda and what has happened between them. I also wished that the ending was a little more fleshed out. I feel like the book ended suddenly, and there was so much more I wanted to know. I liked this one, but A Very Large Expanse of the Sea is still my favorite Mafi book!

Once I started this book, I couldn't put it down. I think I read it in less than 24 hours. A great YA novel with a tense romantic storyline, though the romance wasn't the central storyline. I definitely want to go back and read Mafi's earlier works now.

Shadi’s life is consumed by grief. Struggling with her brother’s death, her mother’s fragile mental health, her father’s illness, her sister’s bitterness, her best friend’s rejection, and her former boyfriend’s re-entry into her life, Shadi can barely hang on. Her family members are too broken to help. Her grief and isolation are intensified by personally experienced hostility toward American Muslims, shifts within her Muslim community, and loneliness. “There was no refuge for my brand of loneliness,” she says. “I was neither Iranian enough to be accepted by Iranians, nor American enough to be accepted by my peers. I was neither religious enough for people at the mosque, nor secular enough for the rest of the world. I lived, always, on the uncertain plane of a hyphen.”


This powerful novel will appeal to its target YA audience. Its now/then narrative structure, which some reviewers found problematic, heightens the dramatic tension and is easy to follow when you note chapter headings. I like the novel’s brevity. It makes Shadi’s depression and narrative intensity manageable. And there's hope at the end, which I found very satisfying. I’m putting An Emotion of Great Delight on my high school library’s “to buy” list and will recommend it to students and teachers.


My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.

I started this book because it was Ramadan and I figured I could read another book with muslim rep... and I hated it.

I’ve felt weird about Mafi’s muslim (hijabi??) rep in the past with Nazeera from Shatter Me and how she regarded the hijab as an accessory without actually speaking about the religious significance of it properly. I was hoping to see her representation the religion better in this book but I was just really disappointed.

The setting of this book is after 9/11 but honestly this book could just be me living my life in 2021 so there’s nothing “historical” about it.

The conversation that the main character has with Nate about the burqa was just overall really unnecessary. I still don’t know why it was written like that because the things Shadi said are consistent with what I have heard from islamophobes and those uneducated about the burqa.

I feel like this book tried to talk about a lot of important issues... but it didn’t really address any of them. So many things happened and this book deals with so many important themes but it doesn’t really talk about them well or at all.

As a Muslim American myself, I wanted to see myself and my religion well represented and I just didn’t get that from this book.

This 256 page YA OWN voice book is a real and raw look at a character and the many layers of life weighing down on her.  At the center of it all is a strong Muslim teen dealing with post 9/11 bigotry, the shattering of her family, toxic friendships, and a broken heart.  It is a love story, but it is so much more, as the protagonist's voice draws you in to her crumbling world from the very first page and has you begging for more when the last page is read.  So often in Muslim-lead-mainstream-romance-themed novels, I want there to be introspection at the choices that the character is making and the internal processing of navigating their wants with their beliefs, and this book surprisingly does it.  There are some kissing scenes, cigarette smoking, cosmo magazine headlines, and waiting for her father to die, but not without introspection. Shadi reflects on her smoking quite often, she questions the repercussions of her actions, and she analyzes her father's faith and approach to Islam as she forges her own relationship with the deen.  There is mention of a Muslim character drinking, doing drugs, hooking up, and it mentions he had condoms in his car, just those exact phrases, nothing is detailed or glorified, just stated.  There are also threads of mental health, self harm, death, and grief.  The characters are genuinely Muslim and some of their experiences are universal, and some specific to the faith, culture, and time.  Muslims and non Muslims will enjoy the book, and I would imagine relate to different things, but find it overall memorable and lingering.  For my Islamic school teens, I'd suggest this book for 17/18 year olds to early twenties.  It isn't that they haven't read more graphic books, but to be honest, Shadi has a lot going on, and if being close to Ali can lighten her load and help her find hope and joy, I'm all for it.  I know it is "haram," but it is fiction, and it will have readers rooting for them to be together, not a message you may want to pass on to your younger teens.  As the author says in her forward, "we, too, contain multitudes."

SYNOPSIS:

The layout of the book bounces between December 2003 and the year before.  In a previous time, Shadi's life was easier, her brother was alive, she had a best friend, her Iranian immigrant Muslim family may have had stresses and issues, but they were a family. In 2003, Shadi is largely forgotten by her parents, her brother is dead, her father is close to death, her mother is self harming, her older sister preoccupied, and as a high school student Shadi is both falling and being crushed by her heavy backpack both metaphorically and literally.

The story opens with Shadi being approached by a police officer wondering why she is laying in the sun, he thinks she is praying, and she doesn't have the energy to be angry by this assumption, she is exhausted, and doesn't want to cause any waves that might get back to her fragile mother and cause any more stress than necessary.  So she drags herself up, and begins the walk to her college level math class miles away.  The sun is short lived and the rain begins to pour, she knows no one will come to pick her up.  Her parents have long ago stop being present in her life.  She once had a best friend, but that relationship, as toxic as it was, also has ceased to exist.  So she walks, and she is drenched, and she falls, so she is now soaking wet and bloody.  A car slows down to presumably offer her a ride, but then he speeds off drenching her in a tidal-wave.  The scene is set for the tone of the book. Shadi is drowning, we don't know all the reasons why, they unfold slowly, but we know that it is going to get worse, her phone is nearly dead and her sister has just called to let Shadi know her mother is in the hospital.

I don't want to detail my summary as I often do, because the way the story unfolds, would really make any additional information given act as a spoiler.  The book is short and a fast read, but along the way the introspection to the chaos that is Shadi's life, makes it impossible to put the book down.  Shadi will have to confront her crumbling life and find away to reach toward hope.  She will have to keep walking to avoid drowning and along the way cling to the few precious things that give her joy: an emotion of great delight.

WHY I LIKE IT:

I really enjoyed this book.  I loved the Islam and real approach to her volunteering at the mosque and calling out racism within the community and diving deep in to understanding is Islam more than just rules and toeing the line.  It was a great mirror for so many nuances in real life, that I will probably re-read the book again in the near future, to enjoy it all.  I absolutely love the unpacking of the toxic friendship.  When women tear each other down under the guise of caring it is brutal, and the acceptance and growth that Shadi is struggling with in regards to her best friend of six years, Zahra. who is also Ali's sister, is a reminder that sometimes walking away is the only choice.  

The two criticisms I have of the book are: one-that the book is too short, I wanted, no, I needed more.  And two I didn't understand why Ali's family and Shadi's family were no longer close.  I get that Shadi cut Ali out of her life and Zahra and Shadi had a break, but Ali/Zahra's family still care for Shadi and she for them, so what happened between the parents? It seems that the death of a child would draw the friends out and make them protective, not push them to being aloof.  It seemed off to me and major plot hole.

FLAGS:

As I mentioned above: kissing, smoking, drugs, hooking up, referencing condoms, cosmo headlines, self harming, grief, death, alcohol.

TOOLS FOR LEADING THE DISCUSSION:

I don't think even high school could do this as a book club selection, because you really want to ship Shadi and Ali.  If you had like an MSA book club then I think this would be a great choice.  I would love to hear teens'/young adults' thoughts about Shadi's view of religion, her fathers approach, and how they view passing the deen on to their children.  I think it offer great role-play scenarios in empathy and how you'd react in real life to finding your mother struggling, your best friend taking off her hijab and being so jealous of you, the bullying, the assumptions, understanding your father and where to assign the blame for such a traumatic event that claimed your brother's life.  There is so much to discuss, and I hope at some point I find the right forum to chat about this book and listen to other's perspectives about it.

I have been waiting for a new Tahereh Mafi book and I was not disappointed with this one! Mafi’s writing in this book feels fuller than AVLEOS and it is beautifully written. She captures Shadi’s emotions perfectly throughout the differing timelines. Also the relationship between Shadi and Ali is a swoon worthy passionate romance that Mafi is so good at writing. My only complaint is that it wasn’t long enough and I wanted to keep reading!

I enjoyed this look into the world of a Muslim teen post 9/11 who is trying to navigate her personal life as well as the chaos in the world at large. Mafi's writing is lyrical and a joy to read. I will recommend this novel to those readers looking for "drama" as this novel provides plenty in the family as well as between friends and wanna-be boyfriends.

Shadi is dealing with so much, her brother’s death, her mother’s fragile state, her father’s sickness and the death of a friendship. How can she possibly survive all of this? How can she release the weight on her chest? This is a beautifully written truly lyrical book. The aspect I loved most of all both as an adult and thinking back on my high school years is about the loss of a friendship. Some friends we have for years, for no other reason than we have always been friends, and when those relationship ends it can feel like a death. The author’s depiction resonated with me and I am sure it will with my students.

4/5 - would buy this for my junior high library!
I think Mafi writes beautifully and this book did not disappoint. Students that enjoyed A Very Large Expanse of Sea are going to like this one as well. It's a well paced story with lots of tragedy and of course a bit of a romantic plot too. I particularly enjoyed the family dynamics Shadi experienced with parents and siblings . The flashbacks were a little confusing - sometimes I would have to backtrack to figure out if I was reading from the past or present. Overall a great read!

ARC provided by Netgalley and the publisher.

I’ve read some of the other early reviews that downplay this and scored it at a 2/3 ... but I’m going to have to disagree on this one.

Mafi gave us an rightfully angry protagonist in A Very Large Expanse of Sea. And in An Emotion of Great Delight we get a very rightfully sad one. All written in her delicious lyrical prose that makes you just want to inhale her stories.

Shadi is drowning. She’s drowning in grief that’s hitting her from all directions. She’s trying to reevaluate friendships and relationships on the basis of their health and the cost/benefit to her. She’s trying to figure out where blame should be cast and where her loyalties should lie. And she’s moving through her life like a zombie because things are constantly happening to and around her while she is struggling to just survive the each day, one at a time.

While all of what Shadi is experiencing is amplified by anti-Muslim sentiment that was heavy and palatable in a post 9/11 2003, the emotions and depression and the feeling of detachment that Shadi is experiencing is a fairly universal teenage experience (albeit not necessarily to the extreme that Shadi is experiencing). And as a reader, the detachment that Shadi has can be frustrating to read but is oftentimes the way that teenagers attack their lives and problems. “If the problem happens around me instead of to me then I can’t hurt as badly when things go wrong.” Or “if I don’t pay attention to this and I don’t give it any of my time, is it really even happening?”

I think this slice of life novel packs a huge punch for its size. I think the overwhelming emotions throughout are relatable to all types of teen readers experiencing all types of things. I think the tone is spot on for someone handling depression and grief and transition issues.

As a librarian, stories like this one bring kids in to have a “can I talk to you” moment. Whether it’s to ask for help or advise or a hug ... stories like these being kids in to talk. And so I feel like these types of stories and stories like Shadi’s deserve places on our shelves and deserve to be put into the hands of our teen readers.

An Emotion of Great Delight worked as a great blend of Mafi's previous work. It was poetic and believable. I was distraught reading about the main character's family. Such a heartwrenching story. There were certain parts that brought in some of the writing style Mafi uses for the Shatter Me serious that wasn't present in A Large Expanse of Sea that I personally don't enjoy, but it was overall a beautiful story and I can't wait to recommend it to students.

I really liked this book. I think Taherah Mafi has this way of writing books that create such a beautiful message and is also really enjoyable. I really loved Shadi who is the main character in this book. I definitely learned some things that I didn’t know before from this book so it was educational. Now something I kind of had a hard time with was the timeline. I think when reading, I was majorly kind of confused if the events in the book were in the present or past. The chapter headings for the present/past timelines were hard to understand for me. This book was still nice though and I would recommend this YA contemporary to anyone!

An Emotion of Great... Sadness

The story is told in Shadi's voice so the reader experiences the deep turmoil and exhausting emotions first hand. It was so hard to see her struggle so and in the end I was left wanting just a little bit more.

It’s 2003 and the United States has declared war on Iraq following the September 11th attacks two years earlier on the World Trade Center in New York City. Shadi, who is already navigating strained friendships, family tragedies and existing as a Muslim in a post-9/11 society, now has to deal with raids at her Mosque, racism at her school and worries about becoming the victim of a hate crime.

Even though she’s American, people don’t treat her that way because of her traditional dress and practicing faith. And her closest friends seems to be falling away from the faith too and distancing themselves from her, leaving her feeling pretty alone in the world.

“There was no refuge for my brand of loneliness. I was neither Iranian enough to be accepted by Iranians, nor American enough to be accepted by my peers. I was neither religious enough for people at the mosque, nor secular enough for the rest of the world. I lived, always on the uncertain plane of a hyphen.”

Shadi’s name means joy, but she certainly doesn’t seem to find much to be joyful about. That is until Ali begins to work his way back into her life – a relationship that seemed too difficult to navigate just a year ago. She can’t forget him; he can’t forget her and fate seems to be thrusting them together amid the family breakdown Shadi is experiencing. Through it all, she begins to find herself and hope when she needs it the most.

An Emotion of Great Delight is the second realistic fiction title from National Book Award nominee Tahereh Mafi. While not purely biographical, Mafi is also Iranian-American and notes in the book’s forward that there are pieces of her life told in all her books. She was a freshman in high school when 9/11 happened, so it’s likely much of her perspective of the events told in the book are pretty true to life.

This is the third book I’ve read by Mafi and her storytelling gets better with each one. Even though the fantasy Shatter Me series is her most well-known, I actually prefer her realistic fiction titles to those. This was one that I read in the span of a day; the story draws you in and you genuinely feel for Shadi. I wanted a little more of post-9/11 woven into the story, but that aspect of the timeline is more a background player for the bigger plot: Shadi, Ali and finding herself.

My biggest criticism is just how much is happening. It’s fairly short for a YA novel – not quite 200 pages, but there is A LOT going on. Her dad is in the hospital, her brother recently died, her mother has some hidden issues, plus fallout with friends at school and growing up Muslim right after a terrorist attack. It’s pretty packed, which makes it a heavy read.

It’s still very worthwhile and offers a unique perspective on the post 9/11 world that readers may not have encountered before. Mafi’s writing is beautiful, propelling you toward the quick and satisfying conclusion. This one will probably make my best books of 2021 list at the end of the year!

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy. Perhaps I wasn't paying close enough attention to the chapter titles, but I was confused while reading this book, since the story does not happen in chronological order. This is a very depressing book, and young adults going through tough times would connect. There are some triggers and flags for some readers, like depression, panic attacks, self-harm, Islamaphobia, intimacy, and drugs/alcohol. I did not appreciate the profanity, which prevents me from recommending this to the school library. The young Muslimas struggles to do the right thing stem from friendship and not religious reasons, and this is not a story with religious discussion. The abrupt ending is not satisfying and leaves many unanswered questions. I thoroughly enjoyed Mafi's other novels, but this one, not as much, even though I had been looking forward to reading it for some time.