Longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People´s Literature!
From 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.
It´s 2002, a year after 9/11. 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.
Shirin is never surprised by how horrible people can be. 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. Instead, she drowns her frustrations in music and spends her afternoons break-dancing with her brother.
But then she meets Ocean James. He´s the first person in forever who really seems to want to get to know Shirin. 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.