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  • An Emotion of Great Delight by Tahereh Mafi
  • Elizabeth Bush
Mafi, Tahereh An Emotion of Great Delight. HarperCollins,
2021 [256 p]
Trade ed. ISBN 9780062972415 $19.99
E-book ed. ISBN 9780062972439 $10.99
Reviewed from digital galleys Ad Gr. 8-10

Shadi's brother is dead; her father is hospitalized with critical heart issues; Mom is self-harming; and there's no emotional sustenance to be found in Shadi's lovehate relationship with her shrewish older sister. Friendship with her ex–best friend Zahra is toast, as are her grades just as college looms on the horizon. This litany of misery is augmented by the book's setting in 2003, as Shadi's Muslim community is under surveillance and often racist harassment post-9/11, and it is divided within its own ranks on how to deal with the pressures. Enter (or rather, re-enter) Ali, whose interest Shadi had spurned in hope of saving her friendship with his sister Zahra. He's turning on his considerable charm and awakening in Shadi a storm of feelings that she believes no good Muslim girl should have, especially one who sublimates her own needs to keep as much peace as possible within her family. Mafi introduces some potent issues around whether passive resistance or confrontation is [End Page 430] the better community strategy, and scenes of anti-Muslim aggression are brief but impactful. However, far more attention is paid to domestic drama of the noisiest kind, and Shadi is a heroine prone to passing out and being saved by Ali, only to ignite another round of unfulfilled passion. Plenty of readers, though, may harbor dreams of rescue by a chiseled-featured, perfect-skinned, passionate hero who runs his hands through his hair while exhaling in the most noteworthy fashion. Even as it skids abruptly to its conclusion, this will be the book for them.

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