You Truly Assumed
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4.8 • 5 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
"You Truly Assumed is a beautiful portrayal of the multitude of ways to be Black and Muslim while navigating our contemporary world. A must-read for everyone."—Adiba Jaigirdar, author of The Henna Wars
In 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.
“I reached the ending with tears in my eyes—tears cued not by sadness but hope and elation.” —S. K. Ali, New York Times bestselling author of The Proudest Blue and Love from A to Z
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sabreen illuminates the often-overlooked perspectives of Black Muslim teen girls in this emotionally charged debut. Sabriya Siddiq is one of only two Black ballet dancers in her school's advanced pointe class. She has spent a year preparing for a summer ballet intensive, but her dream and well-being are put at risk when a terrorist bombs a Washington, D.C., Metro station, and the perpetrator is incorrectly assumed to be Muslim, eliciting a sharp rise in Islamophobia across the country. After Sabriya accidentally posts her feelings about the bombing publicly, resulting in a viral blog she names You Truly Assumed, she bonds online with sheltered hijabi artist Zakat Umar and savvy computer science maven Farah Rafiq, who help run it. As it grows in popularity, the blog attracts Muslim young women globally, as well as an increasingly dangerous spate of alt-right visitors who threaten the teens' peace on, and off, the internet. Despite a concept somewhat dated by the inclusion of blogs, Sabreen skillfully renders three inquisitive, if frequently naive, young women as distinctly characterized as they are united in purpose and faith. Through their alternating voices, she succeeds in relating the frustrating reality of having a part of one's identity acknowledged at the expense of another, and the resilience and love required to persist despite unfounded hate. Ages 13–up.
