Thank you so much to the publisher, Penguin Teen, for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is just raw, emotional and so well done. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect with this story but it is so well done and I need everyone to read it when it comes out.

Here are the content warnings that I can think of for this book: loss of a loved one, grief, alcoholism and racism.

All My Rage is unapologetic angry with the unfairness in the world and I adore it for that. I think we need more books that express the rage that people have with the world, the lives that they live, the families that they are born into, all of it. This book feels so personal and I appreciate the author, Sabaa Tahir for writing this book. I found myself unable to stop flipping the pages and wanted to devour the book as fast as possible to know what was going to happen next. It is a phenomenal read and one that I think everyone needs to read. It is one of the best books that I have read that explores grief and it made me cry at the end.

PLEASE READ THIS. It is fantastic and I adore it with all my being!

Initial reaction: This book was EVERYTHING. I cried so much and my heart is still aching. I felt so raw reading it and I can’t imagine having the strength to write it. Sabaa already had all my respect and it’s since tripled.

I've been reflecting on this book for a while, wondering how to write this review. I read this book in November, and since then, not a day goes by where it doesn't cross my mind. Sabaa said that All My Rage took her ten years to write. It very well may take me ten years to recover. When we say books have the power to change us, it's books like this one that do just that.

All My Rage is a story of struggle. It's a story of loss and love, of failure and success, and of rage and the mercy of forgiveness. This book will leave you raw. And aching. With puffy eyes because you started crying around page 50 and you never stopped. But it's a story that needs to be told. The struggle of the "American dream", of two teenagers stuck in a town with their own individual problems and who somehow still need to lean on each other.

I'm going to speak very briefly on the Muslim rep and leave it at that. These characters have a deeply complex relationship with their faith and while it may not be an experience I completely relate to, that doesn't make it any less valid. The rep is written with the utmost respect for the religion and other Muslims.

There's a particular scene near the end where a character turns to their faith at their lowest moment, and friends, this scene broke me. There are tears running down my face as I write this review because the amount of grief and emotion in this book is enough to keep me crying months after I read it. I feel as though my soul was shattered by this book, but in a way that I know I'll be a better person because of.

I always recommend Sabaa's books, but this is the one. If you only take one book recommendation from me for the rest of time, let it be this one.

TW: drug and alcohol addiction, mentions of repressed sexual assault, physical abuse, Islamophobia, racism, death, law enforcement, grief

I'm so overwhelmed with emotions. I can't even begin to unpack them. Beyond moving, powerful, eloquent, miraculous, desperatation, love, etc. etc. etc.

Sabaa Tahir made a masterpiece, and without a doubt, I believe it will become a classic someday. I swear with my entire heart and soul on my grace. It is a masterpiece. She placed everything within her into this book, and it shows 110%. Every emotion flew through me like every color in the rainbow, and it's simply just a very powerful book in the YA genre.

I'm so honored to have reviewed it early. I'm usually not a big contemporary fan anymore, so I was unsure at the beginning how I'd feel at the end. Obviously, it's incredible, so no need to worry there. I cannot wait to hold a finished copy in my hands and recommend it until the ends of time. Get ready to find tear stains on any and all copies because it's going to be a pandemic of sobs.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Teen for a review copy.

I bawled.
This book ripped my heart to shreds and sewed it back up. (Just to rip it again.)

Wow. I am honestly speechless. This book blew me away. It seems simple enough—two kids in a small desert town overcoming a bunch of stuff thrown their way senior year.

Except it’s not simple at all and they’re not simple at all. They come from complex backgrounds. Their stories are important. Sabaa examines the Muslim and the Pakistani immigrant experience, but in no way claims to be a representation for every experience. She looks closely at the kids—the expectations set on them by their families and peers and the expectations they set on themselves. She captures rage in a way I’ve never read it captured before; if you want to grieve and feel your blood boil, this won’t disappoint. She shows the complexities of family in an unforgivingly honest way. You’ll ride the rollercoaster of loss, hopelessness, desperation, fear, and rage all within a few pages. You’ll struggle to find forgiveness and hope, because it isn’t a Disney “everybody-is-happy” story.

I don’t think I’ve had such a visceral response to a book in a long time. This one is going to sit with me for years to come. It left me feeling raw to my core. Like I said, it’s so much more than a story about two teens in a small desert town—it’s a story about rage.

I cannot recommend this book enough. I finished it in a day, yet it will stay with me for a lifetime. Pick it up. Put a hold on it at the library. Talk about it. Make it required reading. Do not let this one sit on your TBR for years to come. Read it. You won’t regret it.

Thank you Sabaa, for sharing this story.

There are quite a bit of trigger warnings. I suggest looking at them before diving into this one because it’s such an intense book.

My review is already live on Goodreads. It will be live on my Instagram, as well as on Amazon and B&N on publication day.

Last, but not least, thank you PenguinTeen for sending me this eARC.

And the award for first book to make me cry this year goes to....

Seriously though, All My Rage is an incredible book. Heartbreaking and hopeful, a story about pain, loss, family, and forgiveness. I have enjoyed fantasy from this author and was curious to see how she tackled a contemporary story.

Told in two timelines, this book primarily focuses on current day but also includes flashbacks to a young woman coming of age in Pakistan and getting married. In the present day, two Muslim Pakistani teenagers who were childhood best friends are dealing with really difficult circumstances. Salahudin's mom has died, leaving him and his alcoholic father with a mountain of debt and an aging inn. He knows selling drugs is wrong, but it seems like the only option for keeping his family afloat.

Noor is desperate to escape their small town and the racialized bullying she faces, but her uncle- her only surviving family who saved her when a bomb killed the rest of her family in Pakistan- wants her to stay and work in the liquor store he owns. He doesn't want her getting what he had to give up- a college education. And he hates that she is religious.

This book is beautifully written and will rip your heart out before piecing it back together. I felt so deeply for these characters and Tahir navigates very sensitive issues with grace and compassion. I loved this so much more than I expected it to. I received an advance copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Content warnings include addiction, drug use, medical scenes, physical abuse (on page), child sexual abuse (off page), racial and religious slurs, panic attacks, grief, death, police interactions, probably others but those are the big ones.

This book! Gosh, this book, what has it done to me? CRY. IT HAS MADE ME CRY. I understand now, when in interviews Sabaa said it took her ten years to write, and how it is the book of her soul. It's painful, beautiful, at times both hopeful and hopeless. It wrestles with the nitty gritty, grief, mourning, and everything in between. Sabaa lets you get to know these characters slowly... And then all at once, things happen. It's quick and brutal. It's hard and it hurts. But even in the midst of all the hardness and the pain, there is hope. I feel like that is a resounding mantra in Sabaa's works: there's always hope, even when it seems like everything is lost.

The story of Noor and Salahudin and of Misbah as well, it digs and clings to your very soul. It is so incredibly hard to lose a best friend the way Noor and Salahudin did, and the try to overcome what happened in the past to be who they are in the present and future. God, I kept thinking to myself, "When will we see goodness?" It's there, in the cracks and crevices.

I'll admit, I had my hesitations about this book. I'm not much of a YA contemporary fan, and I didn't know what Sabaa would bring to the table, but I knew it would be good. (Hello, I'm still recovering from A ​Sky Beyond the Storm!) I love all the music references (though I often didn't know half of the songs or bands, lol), and I love the Easter eggs to her own books and the ones to her author friends (many of which I think fellow readers of YA will recognize). Knowing Sabaa writes heartbreakingly beautiful contemporary, I'm eager to see what else she will write (and what other genres if she chooses to).

I will say I was really surprised at the events that lead to the ending. I'm afraid saying more or why will be considered spoilers. But I believe there are good things ahead of Noor and Salahudin even if I simply have to imagine it in my head.

I highly suggest being in a good mental state to read this book. There are times I had to put it down, to read something "fluffier" and then return to it because the subject matter is intense.

Ughhhh my heart! I feel so many emotions after reading this. Mental health is a huge issue and this book delves into it and the helplessness we sometimes feel from drowning in it.

Told in different years, we meet Misbah who runs away to start a better life with her husband Toufiq by opening a hotel. Clouds Rest Inn is the perfect dream of Misbah, but as her health is failing, her son Sal steps up to help. But what can you do when you’re father is an alcoholic and your best friend and your in a fight of the lifetime.

Poetic, that’s how I describe Sabaa’s writing. She takes family conflict, turns it on it’s head and adds more unimaginable damage to a persons heart. We all struggle and it’s truly the love and friendships that fuel us. But sometimes we have to hit utter rock bottom to be able to see clearly and pick ourselves back up. Forgiveness is love.

So if you choose to read this, make sure you have a box of tissues and a some water, because my heart broke in ways I didn’t know it could

All My Rage is such a powerful story with several important themes: immigration, racism, family, forgiveness, friendship, loss, and love. What I especially loved about this book is that it's a character-driven novel. You really get to know Salahudin and Noor on a deep level—their dreams, weaknesses, struggles, and their relationships with others. I also loved the perspective from Salahudin's mom, Misbah, and seeing how her immigration from Pakistan to America affected her as a wife and mom.

This book needs to be read by everyone. Seriously. The story added to my perspective and it made me want to be a better person who's quick to forgive and quick to love. I think this book has special value for teens too in how they view and treat one another and how they achieve their dreams. Absolutely loved it!

Writing Aesthetic/Style: 5
Plot/Movement: 5
Character Development: 5
Overall: 5

Thank you, Razorbill, for the ARC!

I've just finished this book and I'm both at a loss for words and don't have enough to say. This was an incredibly powerful, hopeful, and heartbreaking story. I went into it knowing nothing but the characters' names, and I urge you to do the same. We follow Noor and Salahudin where they live in the desert, each with their own demons to haunt them. We also follow Misbah, who, in the past, leaves Pakistan for America with her new husband. This is different from Sabaa Tahir's Ember quartet, obviously, but it holds the same themes of love, duty, and hope that her other series did. It is told with a beautiful, easy-to-read prose; I read this book in three sittings (two if I hadn't had to work, lol) because I simply couldn't get enough. There is discussion of faith and service, friendship and family; also heavier topics like domestic violence (there is a list of trigger warnings at the beginning of the ARC, so I assume there will be one in the finished book as well). While the book did have me crying at three separate points, it was a beautiful and promising novel. I will be thinking about this book for weeks and months to come, and I know I will come back to it in the future. I highly, highly recommend this beautiful story.

Devastating, beautiful, and absolutely heart-wrenching. I am without words right now. Noor’s, Salahudin’s, and Misbah’s stories speak for themselves. Sabaa Tahir has me screaming, crying, and breaking down with her characters through all their rage. This is a story of struggle with forgiveness, loss, faith, and the American Dream dealt with such nuance and maturity. Tahir’s love for the desert, Pakistan, and music bleed through these pages. I can see All My Rage being taught in schools and becoming a classic.

Sabaa! You’ve literally wrecked me once again. I didn’t think I’d ever recover from the Ember series, but here I am, sobbing like a baby after reading about Sal and Noor.

First, can we take a moment to appreciate the music in this book! I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard mentions of some of these artists and songs in my life, artists that also shaped my tender adolescence… Sigur Ros, Street Spirit (fade out), I mean…!!!!! Those mentions honestly left me speechless!

Now let’s move on to the book’s title. It’s simple, just three words, non-specific, however, the title selection could have only been dreamed up by a stroke of genius. All My Rage holds such profound meaning to the layers of the characters… characters who are so tender, vulnerable, complicated and altruistic, characters only Sabaa could create and give life to. My own emotions went through the ringer with this story!

All My Rage is an intimate portrayal of two teenager’s lives. Lives seen as otherwise mundane, yet a series of events threatens to destroy their futures in so many ways. The story is written using different POV’s which felt necessary to deeply appreciate each character’s struggles and intentions, and an unexpected POV that slowly exposes more to help the reader understand the trauma they have gone through. Throughout the book, there were so many moments of hope, inspiration, grief, and yes, rage, that at times felt completely heartbreaking yet simultaneously uplifting.

I couldn’t help but think that although they’re not connected, Salahudin and Noor’s lives reflected so much of the author’s previous work. Like embers in the ash, they each burned brightly… and like a sky beyond the storm, they both found hope.

I absolutely recommend this book for anyone who loves an emotional story, loves complex characters, and appreciates brilliant storytelling. But especially… if you love Sabaa’s previous books, this one is absolutely a must-read!

Thank you to @PenguinTeen and @Razorbill for my advanced e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is already a favorite of the year and I am absolutely certain it will go down in history. Sabaa Tahir's writing evokes such powerful emotion. As the reader, you truly feel everything her characters endure whether or not it is an experience you can directly relate to.

The story follows Salahudin Malik and Noor Riaz during their last year of high school. Their struggles are established quickly as Salahudin's mother passes and Noor tries to hide her college applications from her controlling uncle. Interspersed throughout is Misbah's tale of an arranged marriage and starting a new life in America. She is so full of hope and patience, it's inspiring.

The plot moves along at the perfect pace, nothing is rushed and there are no lulls. once you get into it, this book is hard to put down. Every character is the perfect sum of depth, pain, and rage. They are all trying to fight through their own trauma, for better or worse.

I cried so many times throughout this book but it was so hard to read the last 10% because I could barely see through my tears! It was just a sad cry, it was happy crying, angry crying, and hopeful crying. Tahir's writing is screaming to be read and understood. You can feel that she put her whole heart and soul into All My Rage.

I feel truly honored to have been sent this arc. I am not of color or Muslim so I cannot speak those specific experiences. I am agnostic but I have truly never understood the call to religion more than when Noor and Misbah spoke on it.

If you only read 1 book this year or in your life, make it this book.

A provocative novel that brings together two families and two sets of time together seamlessly. Sabaa tahir writes another amazing novel. This story was poignant and the characters all had their own issues but together they learned to preserve in times of struggle and great loss.

Sabaa Tahir has done it again with All My Rage. It is an absolutely gorgeous YA novel that spans over two generations and covers themes of love, grief, and family. I cannot recommend ALL My Rage enough--it is a MUST read!

If you are familiar with Sabaa Tahir's writing and the type of plot she writes, you will enjoy this but be prepared to be up in your emotions about this. All My Rage is very slice of life that will leave you sitting still after the impact of reading it.

All My Rage is told through the eyes of Noor and Salahudin, two high school seniors balancing the burdens of education, futures and adult problems they shouldn’t even be close to thinking of. And Misbah, Salahudin’s mother, a woman who’s desperate to hold it all together while feeling like she has failed.

This book is brutal in its nuanced portrayal of the consequences of forcing adult problems on young adults. So much of this book feels like waiting for the tsunami to hit. The earthquake has happened but the wave is what will bring the greatest devastation. And make no mistake when the wave hits it is devastating.

These characters felt so incredibly real. I say that because there were so many times I had to remind myself that this was fiction. Noor and Salahudin were so special. They had their problems but they also had their hopes and dreams. They had their humour and sorrows and while the sorrows often overwhelmed me their humanity is what tends to shine through most.

Grief is a major theme throughout the book. Loss of a parent, friend, dream… it’s always there lurking behind a smile or a pun. It fuels addiction, poor choices, brave ones and foolhardy ones. It felt genuine throughout.

Sabaa Tahir is not kind to her characters. She puts them through hell and they in turn take the reader with them. But by the end you cannot help but sit back and think, wow… let’s do that again!

Thank you to Penguin Teen and Netgalley for a copy in exchange of an honest review!






Trigger warnings
- drug addiction, alcohol addiction, death of parents, earthquake (off page), domestic abuse implied and on page, racism, bigotry, death of a mother on page, assault of a child (off page), criminal trial, drug dealing, jail/imprisonment

All My Rage is Sabaa’s best work yet. So rarely does a book quite so personal touch the literary world and leave in its wake a trail of self-reflection quite like this one does. I lost myself in Sal and Noor’s pain, hope, love and grief, desires and fears, and of course, rage. This is a story so richly written that I firmly believe that it can be told by no one other than Sabba Tahir.

All My Rage follows Salahadin, a boy with a sick mother, an alcoholic father, and a dying motel in a desert. We also follow Noor, a girl who lives with her uncle who doesn’t want her to recognize any part of her Pakistani heritage and certainly doesn’t want her to go to college. Together, they have to navigate the complexities of their lives and face the consequences of their actions. And in several journal entries scattered throughout, we have the perspective of Misbah, Salahudin’s mother, as she meets Sal’s father in Pakistan and falls in love.

“Today is a poltergeist I’ll chain to the back of my brain, one forever linked to freezing desert wind and dirty asphalt and a loneliness so deep it shouldn’t belong to this world.”

I love how many aspects of Tahir’s own life are present in this novel. I know that she grew up in a motel in the desert, loves older rock music, and is proud of her Pakistani heritage. Each and every one of these elements plays an irreplaceable role in forming the threads that keep this story intact. I can’t stress enough how his book is clearly a love letter to Tahir’s own life, and how personal it makes the story.

Salahudin and Noor are essentially Pakistani children, even if Salahudin is born of immigrants. The love Misbah (Salahudin’s mother) has for her culture seeps through the pages, into both of our main characters and their lives. I’m a Christian, and although this book focuses on the Islamic faith, I really loved the theme of faith and hope.

“Sometimes we hold onto things we shouldn’t. People. Places. Emotions. We try to control all of it, when what we should be doing is trusting in something bigger.”

I cried so much reading this book and I know that I will cry again upon rereading it. There is something so profoundly human in this story that twists and turns as you can’t help but root for these characters, these characters full of grief and rage and hope, stuck in impossible situations, struggling to make impossible choices. This is about two best friends trying to survive and figure out who they are, all while dealing with an insurmountable range of emotions.

“You were my world. But to your father, Salahudin? You were the solar system. Bigger. The universe itself.”

I’m going to be honest: if I had to give one fiction book recommendation for the rest of my life, it would be this one. This isn’t just a story for YA lovers, or for contemporary lovers, or even those who just like a good tearjerker. I truly think that this is one of those books that will be one of the pillars of the book community for years to come because it deserves to be. If you love your culture, read this book. If you love your family, read this book. If you love music or friendship, if you’ve gone through hard times, if you just want to immerse yourself in a beautifully written story that will steal your heart...I can say nothing else except this: read All My Rage. I think that there are few stories so intrinsically perfect that they can be universally loved, but this is surely one of them.

Thank you Penguin Teen for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review! Quotes are subject to change in finished copy.

can sabaa do any wrong???? i dont think so and this book was a refreshing look at the way her mind works. i will read anything she writes!!

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for an advanced copy of this to review! One of my most anticipated releases of the year, I’m so happy this lived up to my expectations. It’s not always an easy book to read, but it definitely is a necessary one. And one that fills a bit of a hole in young adult literature.

I believe this is loosely based on Tahir’s own life, and you can feel it in the emotions that fill the pages. Something we knew from An Ember in the Ashes, Tahir is an expert at writing emotion, and at writing characters you care about. That’s something that shines through this book. Sal and Noor have great chemistry, even when they’re not talking. Giving us snippers of Sal’s mom’s story also adds to the history and the context of their story.

This book also deals with a lot of tough issues, racism, immigration, sexual assault, drug dealing. However, it doesn’t feel like there’s too much going on in one book, which can sometimes happen. All of these issues in this story are interelated, and through her characters, Tahir shows how that’s true. It’s a story that feels realistic and shows things that many teens deal with on a daily basis.

Even though this is different from Tahir’s fantasy series, you find a lot of the same elements of hope, family, and love. It’s a strongly crafted book, all emotions and all.

From my review for the Seattle Times:
Don’t judge All My Rage by its cover: behind the teen romcom-ready geometry is a heavy story of loss, mistakes and forgiveness. Best friends Noor and Salahudin (“Sal") grew up in Juniper, a small town in the Mojave Desert where Sal’s parents own a motel and Noor works in her uncle’s liquor store. Come senior year, they’re fighting, Sal’s mother is ill, the motel is struggling and escape from Juniper looks near-impossible as Noor tries to apply to college without her uncle’s knowledge. All My Rage has a domino feel—everything that can go wrong goes wrong—but far from feeling predictable, it reads as carefully orchestrated dread. Noor and Sal jump off the page; even as they make realistically bad choices they’re compelling and impossible to root against. Also well-drawn are the side characters: a high-school mean girl is a nuanced depiction of how racism can be disguised by civility and pettiness. The book is a bit of a downer, but also a powerful statement about survival and new beginnings. And it’s gripping: I finished All My Rage at 2AM, enthralled by Noor and Sal’s story.