This was an incredible book. I love the intersection of Sal, Noor, and Mishbah as the narrator characters. The interweaving of the stories. The heartache the two main characters faced in their respective lives. I was crying by the end. When a book can raise such strong emotions, I know the author has done their job. Highly recommend this book.

Sabaa Tahir is best known for her Ember in the Ashes fantasy series but All My Rage proves she's a force in contemporary storytelling as well. Thoughtful, painfully honest prose about the Pakistani immigrant experience, as well as the painful ties we have to family---whether we want to our not.

Wow, this book blew me away and it was so different than what I expected from the cover (I don't know exactly what I was expecting from the cover but not what I just read!). It's about two brown teens, Salahudin and Noor (specifically Pakistani), in the very white town of Juniper, CA. They are friends that are like family and each has a heavy emotional load to carry. This book has everything - love, loss, grief, friendship and forgiveness. There's a lot that happens in this book and if you are a sensitive reader, definitely check out the trigger warnings for this one. There's so much music mentioned in the pages of this one. I made a Spotify playlist and listened along and it really enhanced my experience! Here's a link: All My Rage Spotify playlist What an amazing book - pick this one up!!!

This book, what can I say other than, it was devastating, beautiful, heartbreaking, and healing…I’m going to remember this story forever. Thank you for allowing me to read this.

My Thoughts:

This YA novel will haunt readers. I cried in frustration and sobbed in helplessness. Sal, Noor, Misbah, Abu. . . I just wanted to scream out. . .open your eyes, . . look. . . reach out. . .hold on. . .forgive.

This story about love and grief, trauma and addiction is also about hope. When your eyes want to give up reading and wallowing in so much darkness in this book, hold on to the hope.

This is a beautiful book. It really does hold all my rage, but it also holds hope, that lovely idea of the American Dream that says working hard is not always enough, but do not lose hope.

Use all the resources you have as teachers to talk about this book with your high school students because we need to have this conversation in school. If not in school, where?

This has been on my TBR book from before it came out. Put it on your. Bring it in your classroom. Find a student that needs it. Lend it to them. No. Give it to them!

From the Publishers:

Lahore, Pakistan. Then.
Misbah is a dreamer and storyteller, newly married to Toufiq in an arranged match. After their young life is shaken by tragedy, they come to the United States and open the Clouds' Rest Inn Motel, hoping for a new start.

Juniper, California. Now.
Salahudin and Noor are more than best friends; they are family. Growing up as outcasts in the small desert town of Juniper, California, they understand each other the way no one else does. Until The Fight, which destroys their bond with the swift fury of a star exploding.

Now, Sal scrambles to run the family motel as his mother Misbah’s health fails and his grieving father loses himself to alcoholism. Noor, meanwhile, walks a harrowing tightrope: working at her wrathful uncle’s liquor store while hiding the fact that she’s applying to college so she can escape him—and Juniper—forever.

When Sal’s attempts to save the motel spiral out of control, he and Noor must ask themselves what friendship is worth—and what it takes to defeat the monsters in their pasts and the ones in their midst.

From one of today’s most cherished and bestselling young adult authors comes a breathtaking novel of young love, old regrets, and forgiveness—one that’s both tragic and poignant in its tender ferocity.

Publication date: March 1, 2022

Author: Sabaa Tahir

Wow. This book was fantastically written but you must be in the right headspace for it. A fan of Sabaa Tahit’s books I knew this would be wonderful and hearing this was her story made it even more impactful.

A story of family, loss and forgiveness, and so much more. We start in Pakistan with Sal and Noor’s parents background and travel to their present life in Juniper California and the painful and difficult situations the two of them are dealing with.

Go out and buy this book. You will not be disappointed.

This book is about Salahudin and Noor. Two high school students dealing with so many things they should never have had to deal with. There is love and loss, pain and grief, and forgiveness. Sabaa Tahir created such a thought-provoking story that I think probably resonates with everyone, even if, like me, they have never had to deal with any of the things she wrote about in the book. Despite the heavy themes throughout this book, I read it really quickly because I kept wanting to know what happened next and at the end I had to sit and think about what I had just read because there is so much to digest. I definitely recommend reading this book, but, to look at the trigger warnings before because there are a lot of potential triggers throughout the book.

All My Rage is hands down one of the most moving books I have read in all my years, one that I would recommend to everyone I know.

It is a very hard book to read but it is also a very important book to read, one that I am glad exists in the world. Sabaa Tahir makes you feel every feeling while reading, I cried more than I have ever cried reading a book. I walked away from this book definitely gaining a lot, I feel like I have a new level of understanding now.

My hope is that this book is one day required reading in schools all over the world because it is important that today's youth has a book like this. Our society would gain so much if we had more books like it.

This book was absolutely devastating, and I mean that in the best way. Sabaa Tahir has become one of my favorite authors because of the way she is able to write stories that are well rounded in that they are engaging, emotional, flawlessly written, and leave you thinking about them long after you finish.

The relationship between the two main characters was so raw and visceral, that you really needed the break in between them to flash back to our other POV. Which was raw and emotional in its own way, but i LOVED that character so much that I loved being with her. She dies early on in the book, and then you get continuous throwbacks to her pov before she passed. Its so exquisitely done and this is one of the best cases of three POVs with a throwback pov that ive read.

I thought the ending was a smidge abrupt, but the rest of the book was so powerful and perfect that I have no real complaints.

Absolutely breathtaking and heartbreakingly beautiful! The characters were so well written and I fell in love with them. It is a hard read and does include some trigger warnings (please look them up as I don't want to miss one). You definitely need to be ready to read this because it is heartbreaking. What makes it so much more visceral is knowing that this book is a mirror of our world.

WHY DID I LISTEN TO ALL MY RAGE BY SABAA TAHIR?
Way back in the day, I read Sabaa Tahir’s debut, An Ember In The Ashes and really enjoyed it. I had wanted to continue on with the series, unfortunately time got away from me and I haven’t yet read the other three books. After seeing the concept for All My Rage, I was excited. I love when authors write in multiple genres and don’t pidgeon hole themselves. Knowing this was a contemporary book really had my attention. What cemented me picking up the audiobook was the recommendation of the audio from a Booktoker who does such an excellent job highlighting books by authors with marginalized backgrounds – Aubrei at earlgreypls.

WHAT’S THE STORY HERE?
All My Rage is a story with a dual storyline. We have present day Juniper, California where Noor and Salahudin live. They are not just best friends, but might as well be family — only they aren’t related. Noor came to California when she was very little after a disaster in her native Pakistan. She lives with her uncle who treats her with cruelty. Every day Noor dreams of escaping Juniper and going away to college and moving on with her life. Meanwhile, Salahudin is coping with having a very sick mother and his father is hitting the bottle pretty hard. Turns out, Salahudin’s family is drowning in debt and may lose the Cloud’s Rest Motel, which they own.

The other storyline is that of Misbah, Salahudin’s mother. Set in the past in Lahore, Pakistan, we learn how Misbah’s life came to be the way it is now. Misbah’s story has tragedy and of course, her move from Pakistan to California. We see her follow a dream and open up the Cloud’s Rest Motel where she will do her best to support her family, but also comes to believe she will also fail them.

HOW DID I LIKE ALL MY RAGE?
Honestly, All My Rage is definitely at the top of the list of books I’ve read this year. I went through so many emotions reading this. Noor, Salahudin, and Misbah were all characters who I felt a deep empathy for. Much of the book was spent rooting for them to overcome their various life circumstances. I did have a very soft spot for Noor though. Thinking about the level of trauma she experienced and just how it didn’t end with the earthquake in Pakistan but translated into facing Islamophobia in California as well as abuse from her uncle. She deserved the world is what I thought while reading. And Salahudin! Sal! He made not so many great choices, but he’s a kid dealt a crap hand, so, no blame, just empathy. And friends, there’s no way I couldn’t love Misbah. Just, this book is so good and heavy and emotional. Pick it up if you want a book that you’ll feel down to your bones.

HOW’S THE NARRATION?

The audiobook of Sabaa Tahir’s All My Rage has three narrators. The narrators are Deepti Gupta, Kamran R. Khan, and Kausar Muhammad. I am not sure which narrator was which character, however, the three basically are Salahudin, Misbah, and Noor. It was ideal to have different narrators for the different character chapters — it made it so the voices were distinct. Honestly, the audiobook was a really excellent experience. I am so glad I experienced this story via audio. Personally, I got so into this book that I missed a turn while driving home from an area I am not familiar with. It is 10 hours 24 minutes long and I listened to this at 1x speed and STILL loved it.

In her newest book, Tahir makes you feel all the feels. Sadness, joy, grief, elation, and yes rage. Rage for life's unfairness when a child loses everything in a moment, rage when a child needs to be the parent, rage against discrimination and racism. And yet underneath it all forgiveness lurks. Cycling back and forth between the present and the past the stories of the three main characters are deftly woven into a tapestry of a story you won't soon forget.

Such a powerful book about friendship, trauma, and family (given and choice). Read it for the great music, the permission to be angry, and the gift of hope in the rubble of a hard life.

✨ 𝐑 𝐄 𝐕 𝐈 𝐄 𝗪 ✨⁣
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“Rage can fuel you. But grief gnaws at you slow, a termite nibbling at your soul until you're a whisper of what you used to be.”⁣
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𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘔𝘺 𝘙𝘢𝘨𝘦 by 𝐒𝐚𝐛𝐚𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐡𝐢𝐫⁣
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This book is so hard and so heartbreaking and so, so very important. Please be sure to take note of the content warnings listed at the bottom of this caption and always care for yourself first.⁣
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𝐒𝐚𝐛𝐚𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐡𝐢𝐫 has written one of the most beautifully poignant books I’ve ever read. I haven’t felt this way in so long, but I needed it. I found myself in a rage, wanting to protect these precious characters who experienced so many wrongs, things no one should ever have to experience. I felt such raw and keen emotions and cried gut-wrenching tears that needed to be set free. It had me wishing I could go back to high school with my adult perception and help and befriend people who were likely in the same or similar boats.⁣
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Aside from the heavy and important topics, I can’t say enough how much I appreciated those moments of comic relief in the form of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 references and mentions of various books that have now been added to my TBR.⁣
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I really can’t recommend this book enough and want to thank @penguinteen so much for my complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.⁣
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cw: drug & alcohol addiction, physical abuse, Islamophobia, mentions of repressed sexual assault, tense exchange with law enforcement, death

Grief feels like that song that you can’t get out of your head even when you don’t know all the words. Grief feels like all the words left unspoken. Grief feels like remembering and forgetting all at once. Grief is muscle memory. Grief is unexpected. Grief is love.

“Auntie Misbah used to say that God only gives us what we can handle. Do you think that’s true?”

Love feels like playing your favorite song on repeat and never getting tired of it. Love feels like all the best and worst parts of you. Love feels like words yelled at a mountain top. Love is muscle memory. Love is unexpected. Love is grief.

“Maybe we could live forever if we didn’t love so completely. But we do. And by the time old age comes, we’re filled with holes, so many that it’s too hard to breathe. So many that our insides aren’t even ours anymore. We’re just one big empty space, waiting to be filled by the darkness. Waiting to be free.”

Rage feels like a volcano erupting. Rage feels like an uncontrollable hurricane blasting through the body. It feels like a head-on collision. Rage is a blood-boiling, mind-numbing, body convulsing emotion. Rage is muscle memory. Rage is unexpected. Rage is everything.

"I wonder what it's like to be with someone who can love you through your rage."

Salahudin and Noor were best friends both faced with circumstances they never asked for. After a huge fight between the two, they went their separate ways. Until one day, grief decided to bring them together again. While navigating their own individual trials, these two teenagers are struggling to process their own grief after losing the one person in their lives that remained a constant. A beacon. A source of unconditional love.

Tahir takes us through this story shifting from three perspectives--Sal's, Noor's, and Misbah's. These shifts provide beautiful storytelling and unfolds character development in a way that grants the reader all sides of each person--the good, the bad, and the ugly. I fell in love with each character (besides Chachu and Jamie) in spite of their flaws because they are human. Tahir creates characters that are so human and writes a story so rich that it really envelopes you. All My Rage is about love, grief, and rage. It's about finding those that can love you through it all. It's about it all being too much but finding something to pull you through anyway. It's about life. Everything.

One of the best YA books I’ve read in a very long time. A layered, multi-perspective narrative that will break your heart and give you hope.

All My Rage follow Salahudin and Noor, two Pakistani-American teens living in small town Juniper, CA where not everyone is exactly accepting of people who don't look like them. When Salahudin's mother Misbah passes away, everything begins to crumble for both of them. Attempting to keep the family's motel afloat, Salahudin turns to questionable actions in order to pay off the bill collectors. All Noor wants is to get into one of the seven colleges she applied to in order to finally get out of the small town that just keeps crushing her. We also follow Misbah in the past as she meets her husband bringing us to the present from her perspective.

Sabaa Tahir's lyrical writing was so beautiful and painful. This story of two broken teens figuring out how to not only survive but thrive in their lives was hard to read at times but overall so wonderful to have had a chance to read. These characters will hold a place in my mind for some time I think. I just want them to be happy after enduring such hard times.

Content Warnings:
-physical abuse & violence
-childhood sexual trauma (off page)
-death of a parent
-terminal illness
-alcoholism
-drug abuse and OD
-teen motherhood (passive character)
-racism and racist comments towards Pakistani & Muslim people

This was such a beautiful and personal story from Sabaa Tahir. I loved it from start to finish and hope everyone buys it and she makes buckets of cash from the sales because she deserves that and so much more for her talent.

Thank you so much to Penguin Teen and Net Galley for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

All My Rage was so beautiful and heartbreaking and hopeful and real. A little ways into the story, I could already tell that this is one of those books that everyone should read. Sal and Noor and the people around them create so much empathy in the reader, even though they make mistakes or end up in terrible situations, and learning to understand the very real struggles that people face is one of the most beneficial aspects of reading. I know Sabaa Tahir (whose books I've loved ever since I read An Ember in the Ashes several years ago) wrote this book from her soul and from her own experience, and it is so clear in the writing and storytelling. I wish so much that all Americans would read and take to heart this book because it demonstrates so well the difficulties that immigrant families to this country face.

I loved that this book was realistic, even though it hurt sometimes. Toward the end, when a lot of things go awry for the characters, they're left with some happy endings and some hard consequences, and I think that was beautiful. That's how real life goes -- there's a constant mix of good and bad things. I just wanted to wrap Sal and Noor in a big hug even though they both acted like idiots occasionally.

I can't speak from personal experience so I won't make a judgement on the Pakistani and Muslim representation in All My Rage. However, knowing that Sabaa Tahir so lovingly wrote this book with her childhood experiences as a Pakistani-American growing up in her family's motel in the Mojave Desert in mind, I can tell that a lot of care was taken to write characters and events that honor the experience of immigrants to America, specifically from Pakistan.

Do yourself a huge favor and read this book. It was heartbreaking at times, yes, but it left me feeling so hopeful.

This was devastatingly beautiful.

I’ve been a fan of Sabaa Tahir since I read An Ember in the Ashes and so I knew I had to read this too. It did not disappoint. Equal parts infuriating, heartbreaking, yet hopeful.

This is perfect for fans of Such a Fun Age and Against the Loveless World.