All My Rage is the story of two Pakistani-American teens in the midst of family traumas and senior year. The characters are wonderfully layered, and the book alternates between their perspectives as well as Sal’s mother. It is always clear who is telling the story, so there is little opportunity for confusion. The characters endure the usual teenage tribulations with the added obstacles of discrimination, poverty, abuse and neglect. The pacing is perfect and the dialogue entirely realistic.

I see this story as one useful to discussing any number of topics from immigration to family struggles to literary topics such as coming of age to alternating narrators.

Honestly there are no words that would fully explain all the emotions I felt reading this. Sabaa did such a phenomenal job with this book and I am so grateful to have read it. It was beautiful and heart wrenching and infuriating and just had so much emotion in the best possible way. All I can say is you need to read it.

Reviews Posted
Goodreads: September 4, 2021
Storygraph: September 4, 2021
TikTok @meghanlew_: September 4, 2021

This book blew me away every step of the way. I cannot explain how much I emotional connected to this book, and how I related so so many aspects of the book.

It is definitely a slow start, but it is definitely worth the pay off. Especially since Sabaa Tahir really does a great job at unpacking all the difficult topics that she bring su through out the book. The writing overall felt very poetic, which was such a contrast to what was happening in the book. For me this kept we wanting to come back a read more.

Despite how much I loved this book and the writing style I had to keep putting the book down, due to my very emotional reactions to what was going on in the book. All the emotions that the characters were feeling, I was feeling too. All My Rage brought up a lot of my own trauma and emotions surrounding my race a religion. This was defiantly one of the first times that I have read a book that I didn’t feel alone in this world. Despite not being the same race or religion as the characters in the book I could feel their pain and rage every step of the way.

Honestly this book will go down as one of the best books I have ever read. Am I biased because I reacted to this book so much. Yes. Do I care. Absolutely not. Please for read this book when it comes out.

This is a non-spoiler review. Thank you to Penguin Teen for an early copy of this book (honest opinions only).

Trigger warnings for AMR: drug and alcohol addiction, mentions of repressed sexual assault, physical abuse, Islamophobia, racism, death, law enforcement

If you are a fan of Sabaa Tahir, if you are a child of immigrants (or an immigrant to America yourself), if you are Pakistani, if you are Muslim, if you liked any of Khaled Hosseini’s books if you trust my opinion — you need to read this book. Whether or not you like contemporaries, I fiercely recommend All My Rage.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to capture how this book makes me feel. All My Rage is a deep dive into grief, betrayal and forgiveness, loss, and of course, rage. It’s an assessment of hope — but not in the way the Ember series was. It’s a story with true roots of broken American dreams and hiding so deeply within yourself to protect your heart because you look different from your peers.

It’s a YA story with adult themes and yet I think it should be taught in every high school in this country.

I am not Pakistani but I understand Punjabi and Urdu and the visceral experience of having true South Asian representation is a gratifying feeling I will never, ever get used to. Though the Muslim experiences in this book are not ones I relate to, we are not a monolith and the way Sabaa tells these characters’ stories and struggles with faith is deeply respectful and not dismissive in any way. I already know many Muslims may not like the Muslim rep in this book but I ask that you all read AMR with an open mind and knowing that every Muslim is different. I am recommending it because it is not dismissive or disrespectful as many other Muslim rep books are of hijabis or those who follow the faith more closely.

I am a deeply emotional person and that is why I connect with Sabaa’s writing so vehemently. She captures grief in a way that I’ve never been able to express or understand verbally and I cried my EYES out reading this book. It was heart-wrenching and soul-shattering through more than just sadness and heartbreak; I felt seen and vulnerable and that was more than enough to open the floodgates.

If you’ve read any of Sabaa’s books, you’ll know that she knows how to tell a story and how to do revelations. AMR is no different. I would go even as far as to say that All My Rage is her best work — and this is coming from someone who has over 20 copies of the Ember series (and counting). Salahudin, Noor, and Misbah are characters that will live with me for a long, long time to come and to probably no one’s surprise, my favorite was Salahudin. Sabaa truly knows how to write men 😭

All My Rage is a love letter to family, Pakistan, music, and to the ties that bind us together. I highly recommend 💗