Book ReviewVolume 14 Issue # 07

A Very Large Expanse of Sea

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Shatter Me series comes a powerful, heartrending contemporary novel about fear, first love, and the dev-astating impact of prejudice.
It’s 2002, a year after 9/11, and Shirin has just started at yet another new high school. It’s an extremely turbulent time politically, but especially so for 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 com-ments – even the physical violence she endures as a result of her race, her religion, and the hijab she wears every day. Shirin drowns her frustrations in music and spends her af-ternoons 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 her. It terrifies her -they seem to come from two irrecon-cilable worlds – and Shirin has had her guard up against the world for so long that she’s not sure she’ll ever be able to let it down.

Share: