I loved the display of love and friendship. It really speaks to the importance of love and community and how much we truly need each other. I loved the writing and how the author made me feel what they were feeling.

I truly felt transported into a different life, while also learning about a culture I had no idea about. I had to look up a few meanings of different things but I loved learning. I love when an author makes me really feel things and tugs on my heart strings. These girls feel like sisters by the end of this novel.

Thank you NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for this copy of These Impossible Things

This starts off light and breezy--three young British-Muslim women contemplating their bright future: one planning to be a doctor, one planning to be a lawyer, two in love with white men, but about 1/4 of the way, begins to take a more serious note and that's when I was hooked. I loved learning about their struggles with their religion, their troubles with men, their own inner battles as they navigate through their early 20's, trying to be a good Muslim girl and conflicted by their own desires. Their friendships take a toll, but through it all, I was rooting for them. I wanted the best for all three of them.

As a Muslim woman, I enjoyed this book. I loved how contemporary it is- highlighting some struggles of being a Muslim woman. Do you choose love or family? Do you fight for love even if it means losing your family and friends? I sobbed and laughed a lot while reading this book. I could not put it down. Malak, Jenna, and Bilquis (also known as Kees) are so familiar. Muslim women who want to live life, but are dealing with so much. Throughout the novel, I just wanted to hold them. The story grasped my attention from the start, I honestly did not know what to expect. I found myself judging Malak and Kees for their choices, but I had to empathize. Kees was a brave woman for her decision. Each of these women represent a woman out there struggling with her religion. Salma El-Wardany wrote a beautiful story. Her writing style is impeccable and poetic, especially with the details she provides for the reader. While reading this story, you’re in this world with Malak, Jenna, and Kees and then you do not want to leave it. I believe each woman made the right choice for themselves. This is one of my favorite reads this year. Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for this book.

I featured this title in a roundup of general fiction publishing in June. I sent a link to several blog groups, posted on Facebook, and sent a link to Twitter.

Despite soapiness and repetition, this novel exerted a strange compulsion, in its account of three young Muslim women and their struggles to make partnerships with men that will either work for them or their families’ expectations, rarely both. Middlebrow but always readable and committed, this is appealing work, offering some insights alongside its not-so-unpredictable central characters. This author has some ability.

I was gifted a physical ARC of this book so will instead be reviewing the physical copy of the book on my booksta and across retailer platforms. I loved this book.

I really enjoyed this book. I was in a bit of a reading slump before reading it and this got me out of it. It’s a great story of culture, religion and the importance of female friendship.

These Impossible Things is a coming of age story following the lives of three Muslim women, Malak, Kees, and Jenna.

I liked that this book focused on their lives after college, trying to keep up with friendships after careers start, dating/engagements, and going in different directions. Friendship is harder to maintain after college and I haven’t read many books that touch on that subject. I also liked learning more about the Muslim faith and their traditions.

My heart broke for these women as they had to decide who to live for, their family or themselves.
Recommend!

Thank you #Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free copy in exchange for my honest reviews.

These Impossible Things centers around female friendship and religion. Malek, Kees and Jenna have spent their formidable years bonding only to see their friendship deteriorate once they leave High School. We learn of life, love and sacrifices each makes in the name of love and faith.

These Impossible Things gives a snapshot of what it is like growing-up Muslim and the expectations within the culture. This novel is incredibly raw in its telling of heartbreak, tradition and in the end happiness.

A book hangover - YEAH that's exactly where this novel has left me!

Thank you Grand Central Publishing for the advance reader copy.

(Before I get in to my review, please note that I gave it 4 stars. I liked it a lot! Don't just read that first sentence an think otherwise.)

Is it possible to break up with a book? I didn't want to DNF it but I really really wanted some of the characters to just up and leave the book. I didn't like them. Didn't like what they were doing to other characters and just wanted them gone! I loved Malak, Kees, and Jenna. The struggle these three go through made me laugh, cry, want to hug them, etc. I could feel their despair and internal conflict between wanting to be modern independent women and also adhere to their faith and family obligations. Isn't this a line we all have to traverse? Additionally, I loved how the story sometimes transitioned from one place to another with a paragraph that offered a quick one sentence look at several of the characters at a single moment. It was like a palate cleanser between courses of a meal. I ate it all up!

Thank you so much to Grand Central Publishing for my ARC of These Impossible Things!

4.5/5 stars

Malak, Kees, and Jenna have worked their way into a special place in my heart.

Salma El-Wardany's writing is poetic and goes straight to the heart. The characters are full and flawed and yearning. The relationships and conflicts are grounded and real and messy. This book is a beautiful exploration of young womanhood amidst the complexities of family, friendship, and religion. It's about bravery and impossible choices. I have laughed and cried with and learned from Malak, Kees, and Jenna. I found this book so moving and relatable, and I suggest seeking out Own Voices reviews as well!

I get excited to read debut novels, particularly by female authors. These Impossible Things follows the story of three Muslim girls who are friends and find themselves dealing with religion, relationships, and adulthood. I didn't really connect with the story or the character, perhaps I'm too old, but a younger reader who is dealing with some of these same issues might really enjoy this book. Quick read and the cover art is a standout.

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC.

📚Book Review📚

These Impossible Things by Salma El-Wardany
June 7, 2022
416 Pages

Jenna’s pick for this month just didn’t work for me. These Impossible Things follow three best friends, Muslim women in their 20s living in London, and the tension they navigate between their secular and religious lives. There was a lot of calling each other “Babe” and contrasting different life choices. One defies her family and marries outside her religion and deals with the fallout. Two choose partners who are acceptable to their community and each deal with the fallout. This book was too long and many times I wanted to put it aside.

Thank you @netgalley and @grandcentralpub for a gratis e-arc in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I love the idea of this one! A coming of age of 3 Muslim women, struggling to find their place between the differing values of their families and the values of society.
However, I really struggled to get into the book and connect with any of the characters.

When I read the synopsis I was really excited to read this book. Unfortunately I just didn’t find myself connecting to the main female characters and felt it was slow. I really struggled reading it and maybe it was also that there were so many swear words. I don’t mind an occasional word here and there but this was just a lot for me. Overall this book was just ok.

Thank you NetGalley and grand central publishing for an eARC in exchange for my honest review!

I was looking forward to reading this but unfortunately, this was not for me. I had trouble connecting with the characters. Thank you to the author & publisher for the ARC!

This book is beautifully written - it deals with some heavy topics, but the prose pulls you in and propels the story forward. Though the three main characters are all very different, they are united by their faith, their ties to their family and community, and their love for each other.

There are moments that are very hard to read, including scenes depicting domestic and sexual abuse. There are several male characters who are controlling and abusive, and watching the cycle of abuse repeat itself was challenging at times. Truthfully, at times the plot made me wonder if I should put the book down, but because the writing was so powerful and because I came to genuinely care for the women at the heart of the story, I stuck with it - and I'm glad I did.

Definitely read the trigger warnings before diving into this book because the author doesn't pull any punches, but at no point did anything feel excessive or gratuitous, which I appreciated. The challenging elements were critical to the plot, and only strengthened my empathy for these characters.

These Impossible Things is an exploration of love, family, commitment, religion, and (especially) friendship through the lives of three young Muslim women. I loved getting each woman's perspective and getting a window into their world. These women struggle against the expectations of their families and the rules of their religion and rely on friendship to make sense of their lives. I loved the characters and felt like they were each well fleshed out, along with a couple of the side characters. The book is getting some criticism already for negative representation of the culture, but it seems that characters like these must certainly exist in reality: women who love someone outside their religion and who face difficulties resulting from that. Shouldn't that story be told? It's not my culture so I can't speak to the representation, but I want to hear everyone's story, and this one was well told.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advance copy of this novel.

Beautiful story about female friendship, and also religion, race, love, and family. The three women at the center of the story: Kees, Malak, and Jenna, are young Muslim women finishing university, moving into adulthood, and navigating life with and without each other. While the women each navigate relationships with non Muslim men in different ways, the themes of the book are universal - female friendship (the good and the bad), love, moving into adulthood. This is a wonderful debut novel: El-Wardany writes about heavy topics with a light hand. I laughed and cried.

"It’s always been Malak, Kees, and Jenna against the world. Since childhood, under the watchful eyes of their parents, aunties and uncles, they’ve learned to live their own lives alongside the expectations of being good Muslim women. Staying over at a boyfriend's place is disguised as a best friend’s sleepover, and tiredness can be blamed on studying instead of partying. They know they’re existing in a perfect moment. With growing older and the stakes of love and life growing higher, the delicate balancing act between rebellion and religion is becoming increasingly difficult to navigate.

Malak wants the dream: for her partner, community, and faith to coexist happily, and she wants this so much she's willing to break her own heart to get it. Kees is in love with Harry, a white Catholic man who her parents can never know about. When he proposes, she must decide between her future happiness and the life she knows and family she loves. Jenna is the life of the party, always ready for new pleasures, even though she’s plagued by a loneliness she can’t shake. Through it all, they have always had each other. But as their college years come to a close, one night changes everything when harsh truths are revealed.

As their lives begin to take different paths, Malak, Kees, and Jenna—now on the precipice of true adulthood—must find a way back to each other as they reconcile faith, family, and tradition with their own needs and desires."

Thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Malak, Kees, and Jenna have been friends since childhood in the tight knit and nurturing Islamic culture of the UK. As they embark on their adult lives, a sudden falling out one evening separates them temporarily. They begin to build lives apart, but, in crisis, are drawn back to one another.

This was yet another novel that took a while for me to engage with and really appreciate. Initially, I thought the friends, for their age, to be quite adolescent, or at least their conversation seemed so.

Beautifully written, the author tackles some very difficult topics. There is so much here…the pull of family and culture, gender roles, abuse, the strength of friendship, and what, to me, has always been the tyranny of religion. It is an engrossing, rewarding read. There is a technique the author employs that I really like. As she told the story from each woman’s POV, she also related what was going in other related peoples’ lives at the same time.

Thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for providing the DRC.