All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir

Summary from Goodreads:

Lahore, Pakistan. Then.
Misbah is a dreamer and storyteller, newly married to Toufiq in an arranged match. After their young life is shaken by tragedy, they come to the United States and open the Cloud’s Rest Inn Motel, hoping for a new start.

Juniper, California. Now.
Salahudin and Noor are more than best friends; they are family. Growing up as outcasts in the small desert town of Juniper, California, they understand each other the way no one else does. Until The Fight, which destroys their bond with the swift fury of a star exploding.

Now, Sal scrambles to run the family motel as his mother Misbah’s health fails and his grieving father loses himself to alcoholism. Noor, meanwhile, walks a harrowing tightrope: working at her wrathful uncle’s liquor store while hiding the fact that she’s applying to college so she can escape him—and Juniper—forever.

When Sal’s attempts to save the motel spiral out of control, he and Noor must ask themselves what friendship is worth—and what it takes to defeat the monsters in their pasts and the ones in their midst.

From one of today’s most cherished and bestselling young adult authors comes a breathtaking novel of young love, old regrets, and forgiveness—one that’s both tragic and poignant in its tender ferocity.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Sabaa Tahir comes a brilliant, unforgettable, and heart-wrenching contemporary YA novel about family and forgiveness, love and loss, in a sweeping story that crosses generations and continents.

Review:

So, I wasn’t expecting to love this book so much, but I did. It’s the kind of YA novel that punches you in the gut, and makes you feel all of the emotions. I love stories that cross generations like this one. It was the immigrant story and the children of immigrants story. It was the survivor story and the dreamer story. There was so much harshness in here at times, I had to put the book down and just question why the world was so hard. I would have devoured this book as a teenager. And as an adult, it just makes me feel everything. And sometimes you just need a book that does that.

I’ve had a rough week. I lost a friend who was way too young, and as I write a review for a book that deals a lot with grief and I think about all the things connecting me to this story, I also can’t help but think of hope. There’s something so special to the love in this book. That Sal and Noor can experience all the hardship that they do, yet be so selfless and good is just remarkable. The characters in this book are of course flawed and real. They wouldn’t feel so real otherwise. But, there are these underlying themes of love, redemption, hope, and recovery.

I’m not sure if I’ve read Tahir before, but now I’m definitely curious about her, and want to read more. If her fantasy books have a fraction of the talent and character development of this book, they’d be worth the read.

It is worth noting that this book covers a variety of tough topics that could be triggering for some readers. It covers everything rom physical abuse, drug use and sales, alcoholism, bullying, xenophobia, sexual abuse, and death of family. It is not a light read. It’s a beautiful, powerful, truthful read. I give it a 10/10.