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A review by megsbookishtwins
I Am Thunder by Muhammad Khan
5.0
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book free from the publisher.
Fifteen-year-old Muzna Saleem is passionate about writing. She struggles with Maths and Science but her parents want her to become a doctor. After her best friend is shamed by a scandal, her parents force her to cut off contact and she is moved to a new school. Having to face the world alone is a scary concept for Muzna, as she has always had her friend by her side. At her new school, she finds her voice and pushes back against prejudice she sees everywhere she goes. She meets Arif, the gorgeous and confident boy who takes an interest in Muzna. But Arif has secrets, and his brother Jameel starts to influence Muzna with his views of the world. Muzna starts to question everything she’s heard as her freedom starts to disappear.
I Am Thunder is an extremely powerful, relevant, and harrowing book. It tackles a lot of serious things that don’t often appear in books. It tackles extremism, radicalisation, racism, and Islamophobia.
Muzna is a British-Pakistani Muslim and I love the character growth she goes through throughout the novel. Muzna starts out very naive and timid and she struggles to defend herself as she has always relied on her friend to stand by her side. But I loved how she learnt to voice her opinions and to speak up for something good. I also loved her relationship with Islam. She was taken advantage of, but I still love that she wanted to find her own relationship with Islam. I loved how, despite the radicalisation and extremism she faced, she still chose to wear the hijab because it was, most importantly, her choice. Muzna is a flawed, but a formidable protagonist and she is easy to love and root for.
I thought that I Am Thunder dealt with radicalisation so well and it was so scary how subtle and manipulative and effective it is when done with young teenagers. I’m glad that it was shown because I feel like a lot of people shy away from it. An intense and important book that I think needs to be placed in every school library.
I Am Thunder also dealt with parental expectations and controlling parents. I do think they had good intentions and only wanted what they thought was best for Muzna, but it irritated me that they didn’t listen to her.
An important message that I also took from this book is about those that stand by and watch racism and Islamophobia happen. There is an extremely powerful bus scene that I imagine happens all too often. It shows how racism needs to be called out when it happens.
Overall, I think I Am Thunder is a really important and relevant book, especially to Muslim teens growing up facing Islamophobia but also potentially facing radicalisation and I think it balances the two really well.
Fifteen-year-old Muzna Saleem is passionate about writing. She struggles with Maths and Science but her parents want her to become a doctor. After her best friend is shamed by a scandal, her parents force her to cut off contact and she is moved to a new school. Having to face the world alone is a scary concept for Muzna, as she has always had her friend by her side. At her new school, she finds her voice and pushes back against prejudice she sees everywhere she goes. She meets Arif, the gorgeous and confident boy who takes an interest in Muzna. But Arif has secrets, and his brother Jameel starts to influence Muzna with his views of the world. Muzna starts to question everything she’s heard as her freedom starts to disappear.
I Am Thunder is an extremely powerful, relevant, and harrowing book. It tackles a lot of serious things that don’t often appear in books. It tackles extremism, radicalisation, racism, and Islamophobia.
Muzna is a British-Pakistani Muslim and I love the character growth she goes through throughout the novel. Muzna starts out very naive and timid and she struggles to defend herself as she has always relied on her friend to stand by her side. But I loved how she learnt to voice her opinions and to speak up for something good. I also loved her relationship with Islam. She was taken advantage of, but I still love that she wanted to find her own relationship with Islam. I loved how, despite the radicalisation and extremism she faced, she still chose to wear the hijab because it was, most importantly, her choice. Muzna is a flawed, but a formidable protagonist and she is easy to love and root for.
I thought that I Am Thunder dealt with radicalisation so well and it was so scary how subtle and manipulative and effective it is when done with young teenagers. I’m glad that it was shown because I feel like a lot of people shy away from it. An intense and important book that I think needs to be placed in every school library.
I Am Thunder also dealt with parental expectations and controlling parents. I do think they had good intentions and only wanted what they thought was best for Muzna, but it irritated me that they didn’t listen to her.
An important message that I also took from this book is about those that stand by and watch racism and Islamophobia happen. There is an extremely powerful bus scene that I imagine happens all too often. It shows how racism needs to be called out when it happens.
Overall, I think I Am Thunder is a really important and relevant book, especially to Muslim teens growing up facing Islamophobia but also potentially facing radicalisation and I think it balances the two really well.