A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi

From powerful moments to funny, relatable moments to important moments to cute moments, I was glued onto the pages. I’m not even exaggerating when I say that probably 50% of this ebook’s text is highlighted. It’s different and it’s jarring, but it fits the story. Gone are the flowery paragraphs of images and metaphors, but they’re replaced by hard-hitting and steel edged descriptions of Shirin’s real life.

This book cuts the crap from Shatter Me & Furthermore’s writing style and says it how it is. Despite this, I was highlighting paragraphs basically every other page because Shirin’s experiences and anger born from them was so powerful. I was nervous starting this book because the first 25% of this lays a lot of groundwork and there’s a lot of telling instead of showing. Updating with my full thoughts now that the book is out! I wrote all of this down when I first read it in May. It terrifies her-they seem to come from two irreconcilable worlds-and Shirin has had her guard up for so long that she’s not sure she’ll ever be able to let it down. He’s the first person in forever who really seems to want to get to know Shirin.

Instead, she drowns her frustrations in music and spends her afternoons break-dancing with her brother.īut then she meets Ocean James. She’s tired of the rude stares, the degrading comments-even the physical violence-she endures as a result of her race, her religion, and the hijab she wears every day. So she’s built up protective walls and refuses to let anyone close enough to hurt her. Shirin is never surprised by how horrible people can be. It’s an extremely turbulent time politically, but especially so for someone like Shirin, a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl who’s tired of being stereotyped. Longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature!įrom the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Shatter Me series comes a powerful, heartrending contemporary novel about fear, first love, and the devastating impact of prejudice.

A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi