e-Audio, 09:50:00
Narrated by: Channie Waites, Lynette R. Freeman, & Tamika Katon-Donegal
Release Date: February 8, 2022
Published by: Recorded Books, Inc. / Inkyard Press
Read from: February 12-15, 2022
Stand-alone
Source: Library’s Libby
TW: Islamophobia, Racism, Online Harassment, Bombing Violence
For Readers Interested In: Social Justice, Contemporary, Teen Activists, Full Cast Audiobook, Sparkly Covers, Realistic Fiction, YAIn this compelling and thought-provoking debut novel, after a terrorist attack rocks the country and anti-Islamic sentiment stirs, three Black Muslim girls create a space where they can shatter assumptions and share truths.
Sabriya has her whole summer planned out in color-coded glory, but those plans go out the window after a terrorist attack near her home. When the terrorist is assumed to be Muslim and Islamophobia grows, Sabriya turns to her online journal for comfort. You Truly Assumed was never meant to be anything more than an outlet, but the blog goes viral as fellow Muslim teens around the country flock to it and find solace and a sense of community.
Soon two more teens, Zakat and Farah, join Bri to run You Truly Assumed and the three quickly form a strong friendship. But as the blog’s popularity grows, so do the pushback and hateful comments. When one of them is threatened, the search to find out who is behind it all begins, and their friendship is put to the test when all three must decide whether to shut down the blog and lose what they’ve worked for…or take a stand and risk everything to make their voices heard.
*MY THOUGHTS*
I didn’t really need much to make me add this to my TBR. I saw the cover and it was all I needed. And then I heard it was an own voices novel and that made me even more excited. I knew from the very beginning I needed this book.
When there’s a terrorist attack near where she lives and the culprit is automatically assumed to be Muslim, Sabriya tries finding a way to feel comforted. She makes an online journal to rage write out her thoughts. When the journal goes live on accident, she finds there’s more people out there that feel the same way. They reach out to her and they end up coming together to make the site more than any of them ever expected. Zakat, Farah, and Sabriya end up being really good friends who risk everything to have their voices heard.
Of course the best thing about this is the social justice part. I LOVE seeing teens be the strong and powerful activists that they are. These are the ones who are welcoming change and I love to see them start acting on it. I hope that this book opens the minds of those that read it and gets them to enact on changing some things as well.
To get some things straight, I am a Black woman. I am not Muslim, so since I was reading an Own Voices book, I accepted this to be the way the author practices. So with that being said, I loved the representation. Though the list is growing, there’s still not many books about being Muslim, and there’s even less than that about being a Black Muslim. This was a great book to open the gates to know more about Black Muslims. **After looking at some other own voices reviews, there is a discrepancy of the teen wearing a hijab with short sleeves on the cover. They mentioned she should have long sleeves on, and as an Own Voices author, they should have caught that.**
But of course, with this being about social justice, I do want to touch on what they were fighting against. Especially since they’re teens. Dealing with racism on top of Islamophobia would be enough to break down any adult. The fact that they are teens just blew me away. And I know some might say “it was all online tho.” And (for the most part) it is. But as a blogger myself, hate online is sometimes scarier than people saying it to your face. At least if they’re saying it to your face, you know to stay away from them. But the online trolls can be anyone. (And if you read this, well…. you get it.) These teen girls were so strong and I loved their characters.
The writing style itself was just ok though. It didn’t really have anything that STOOD out. And I didn’t really feel like the “new” romance was necessary in this? Idk, they’re here and kicking ass and taking names, they didn’t need the romance with it. It seemed to be written in just to have some romance in it. I did like the girl who had the issue with her new family tho. I liked the way they came together and took care of their problems.
This was SO, SO GOOD. I really enjoyed reading this and I hope that there is more where this came from with this author. It did have some debut issues, but those can be fixed in her next books. I hope there’s more!
Overall, I give this
I read this for Booklist and thought it was pretty good. I didn’t really look at the cover so that’s a shame that they didn’t catch that. Same thing happened with one of Alisha Rai’s book.