 So, I think we're all familiar with Wattpad, you know, the website where you write weird fiction stories about getting pregnant by Justin Bieber, or being kidnapped by the members of One Direction. But I'll admit I do browse there from time to time, partially because there are occasionally good stories on there, and partially because there are some hilariously bad ones. And the other day while I was there, I found one simply called Muslima Next Door. This is the introduction song. It's not very good, but it's not too long. So here's the cover for it, and it was written by Lost Souls, aka Muslima, underscore 07. And it's a work of art. Let me just read the description for you real quick. You know how people say never to judge a book by its cover? I shouldn't have done that myself. Growing up with racist parents planted a negative reputation of Muslims in my head, so I started believing everything they've told me. I thought Muslims were the reason crisis was happening around the world. I thought Islam was an evil religion, but boy was I wrong. Everything changed the day I met the Muslima Next Door. So, you know, it seems like a pretty standard, like, romance type story. Okay, this dude starts off as a bigoted asshole, and then he falls in love with a Muslim girl, and by the end, he's better off. At least that's what I thought at first. Now, something to note about Wattpad is that you can actually put on the sidebar what actors you would want to play these characters if they were ever in a movie. And that's partially just wish fulfillment fantasy, like, ooh, I can imagine this being made into a movie one day. And that's also partially just so that the authors can avoid writing descriptive prose at all because, hey, you already have it in your head. However, the only two actors listed here are that they think Keegan Allen should play James, and Sabiro should be played by Emily Rudd. And, okay, so Keegan Allen looks fine for the part, I guess. Like, he's certainly in his late 20s and doesn't really look like a teenager, but whatever, he's got that pretty white boy thing going on. But Emily Rudd does not look anything like the woman on the cover of this book, and not to dredge up this particular can of worms, but for a story that's so focused on being Muslim and being different and other in America, that does seem a tad whitewashy. But, you know what, now that that's out of the way, let's just actually start reading it. Chapter One, Moving, Sabira. I'm so sorry I overslept, and my apology is interrupted by a very irritated voice. It's been three hours. I'm so sorry, I whisper, looking down at the sidewalk. Yeah, when are you coming, Yusuf says, tiredly? I'm almost there. He replies with the same sleepy tone. Okay, he abruptly ends the call. So apparently she was on the phone that whole time, and they just decided not to tell us until the very end. I also don't know who Yusuf is, but, you know, whatever, let's just move on. So you're probably wondering, what's going on? Well, my life sucks, but Alhamdulillah, I'm sorry, I'm not pronouncing that right, I know. Alhamdulillah, I'm still alive. My parents died when I was 16 years old, three years ago. My brother went to jail shortly after and has been there ever since. But what did he go to jail for? I lived with my maternal aunt for a while, but she kicked me out. She loathed me for some odd reason. Never had she enjoyed, or ever really tolerated, my company. Now I'm officially homeless, which means I have to move in with my uncle Yusuf, the man I was on the phone with. I could have figured that out of my own, you know. The name, the name helps. He doesn't hate me, thank God. He's perfectly happy with the fact that I'm going to live in his house. I know he sympathizes with me because I'm an orphan. Most people do, apart from my aunt. Savira, a familiar voice shouts, which startles me out of my thoughts. Someone engulfed me in a huge hug. Okay, so is this in present tense or past tense? I don't know, whatever. I should also point out that this book is called Muslima Next Door, Parentheses, Editing, because the author is, you know, in the process of editing it. And there are a couple chapters at the end which are labeled not edited, which means that this one has been edited. I just want you all to keep that in mind, because like if this is the second draft, how bad was the first one? Okay, so this goes on for a minute. They like, you know, finish unpacking. They just explain, okay, if it was her friend, her mother lives in Yemen, blah, blah, blah. You know, that sort of stuff. And then, you know, Savira goes to sleep and she wakes up around three in the morning and there's like a giant ass party going on next door and she can't sleep, so she goes over to talk to them and ask them to keep it down. I jump on a stool that helps me see past the fence that is blocking the view of the house next door. Guys and girls are all over the place. Most are either drinking, eating, or dancing. Light is shining out through windows and people gather in idols having conversations left and right. I feel light-headed and sick. It all looks and feels so fake. It's a little judgmental, as I'm going to say. Suddenly people start leaving and hopping back into their cars. A few just drove swiftly away. One person stays by the doorstep. He waves at a girl and mouths, call me later. He must be one who lives in this house. I walk around the fence and up to the steps leading up to his front door, banging on it just after he shuts it. I feel like he could have just called to him, whatever. I hear the sound of the door being unlocked. Then it opens. He towers over me due to his height. His caramel eyes look dark and have bags under them. His eyes narrow down at me in disgust. I look at him, offended by his expression. What the hell do you want? He shouts in my face. His breath leaks of alcohol. It reeks of alcohol. I decide to return the disgusted look. It's three in the morning. Next time, could you turn down the music? Don't tell me what to do. Just get out of here. He grabs a vodka bottle and brings it towards me. I look at the bottle, confused as to why he was waving it around in front of my face, bringing it closer to me. What? Aren't you supposed to be running now? The man laughs, stroking his hair back. I gulp, taking a step back from him. He mimics a feminine voice. Oh, look, alcohol, run! He starts laughing. I back away from him again. Wait! We could use the towel on your head as a blindfold. By now, he's laughing hard. That would be fun. So, again, absolutely no subtlety in any of this. Uh, Sabira just leaves and... Well, no, that's it. She just leaves. And then the next chapter starts. So chapter two is told from the perspective of James, and it's called Party. Finally, my adult life has come. My parents just paid the rent for the house I moved into. My dad is the head of the CEO company, which explains why he didn't mind spending money on this building. So he's talking with his friend, and his friend and him are getting prepared for a party. They buy a bunch of alcohol and all that, and then he gets a phone call. I look at the caller ID. Mom. I groan in frustration. Great. She's probably going to give me a list of things to do and not to do. Yes, Mom? Oh, honey, I just wanted to ask if you needed help packing. No, bye. I say, and hang up. I'm sorry. I only wanted to read that because... I just don't know if you've quite realized it or not, but this guy's an asshole. So the party starts. Man, the house is filled. The backyard and front yard are filled, too. Half of these people are drunk. I am drunk. I've had, like, five bottles. Most of them were vodka. Actually, now that I think about it, all of them were vodka. I don't know what is happening. The only thing I can tell you is that chicks are surrounding me. Okay, so I just want to point out that the author of this book, I'm fairly certain that she is a Muslim as well, and so she probably doesn't know that you can't drink five bottles of vodka and still be alive. You know, like, you drink that much, you will be dead. Not hospitalized. Dead. There are some couples dancing and others are eating each other's faces. I lock my room. I'm not letting anyone go in there. God knows what they'll do in my room. Besides, there are pictures in there. Pictures I don't want anyone to see. Pictures from the past. I just want to point out that all pictures were from the past. Come on, let's go upstairs. A blonde girl whispers in my ear. Nah, I'm good, I reply nonchalantly. She gets up and walks to another guy. Slut. People started leaving. My head hurts. There's a bottle of vodka in my hand. My arm's around the blonde girl from earlier. Yeah, she came back to me once the guy shouted he had a girlfriend. She was embarrassed, I bet. Bottles are out on the floor. Some of them broken. Great. Just great. I unlock the door and open it. I see someone else. A Muslim girl. Gosh, I hate Muslims. So my favorite part about all of this is that he's just straight up admitting, God, I hate these people. But he's being very polite about it. He's not using any swear words or nothing. I just think that's commendable, really. So the next part is basically just the same conversation from chapter one. Only it's from James' perspective. Then we move into chapter three, college, again from Sabira's perspective. So she wakes up. She's going to her culture class at her college. It's like her first class there, you know. And she's thinking about James a little bit. He's like, wow, he's so rude and drunk. And he's an ass and all that, blah, blah, blah. Pretty standard stuff. Then we get to her actually going to class. I quickly head up the stairs and speed walked into my class. The only reason I can remember where the building I'm supposed to go is the 15 minutes it took me to find the room last time. That's a weird sense. You can sit anywhere you like, a male voice says. He must be the professor. He is tall and seems extremely young for a college professor. I walk up some steps to reach an open seat. It's one of the last empty seats because I came late. I sit next to a blonde haired girl who keeps smirking and winking at someone in front of her. Once I noticed who she was being a flirt with, I was out loud of the shock. That rude guy is here. He turned around looking at me with his cold eyes. I turn away looking down at the professor. Dude, there's like 50 people in here. Yasin says, taking the open seat next to me. 50 people in a college class is pretty normal for those of you who don't know. The professor clears his throat and begins speaking. Okay, well, my name is Mr. Saldan. This is my first year teaching at this university. He gets a frog in his throat and he coughs a few students giggle quietly. This is a clip of what's actually happening in Palestine or Israel. Whichever way you say it. The first clip was so sad to watch. There were little kids getting killed in school and out on the streets. The only thing they were throwing at the Israelis were rocks. While the Israelis have machine guns shooting the Palestinians down one by one. The video ends and Mr. Saldan plays the other one. It was a news channel, CNN. This clip showed nothing like the first one did. Americans throwing rocks and shouting and breaking things. Making riots happen everywhere. Mr. Saldan ends the video and switches on the lights. Now can someone tell me why the news channels don't talk about the same things as the first video did? No hands were up so I hesitantly raised mine. The people try to give Muslims an image I say? An image? Can you explain what you mean by that? He prods? Well, clearly the first clip is one that's actually happening. The second clip was like they're trying to make people for lack of a better word and not have sympathy and be upset towards the disruptive Muslims when in reality kids are dying and mothers are crying, I explain. I hear a scoff and look down to see who made the sound. I should have known it was the rude guy. James, do you have anything you'd like to contribute? Mr. Saldan asks him. Yeah, whatever she said was BS. Those people are disruptive, the heartless guy says. James was his name, I believe. I roll my eyes. They're just little kids throwing rocks. Really? I say? Rocks that kill people. Who knows? Maybe the first clip was edited. Maybe it's forcing us to see the bad things happening to them while bad things are also happening to the Israelis. Okay, so that goes on for a little bit but I just want to point out that as long as a shit storm is already brewing in the comments I really find it amusing that a fucking Wattpad story is going to be trying to tackle Palestinian conflict because, you know, you're allowed to have your opinions and all that, it's a very complex issue but when I'm trying to find out some new information about it or I'm looking for a different perspective I don't go to fucking Wattpad for it. So the majority of the next chapter is basically just class but from James's perspective but then after he leaves class he gets in his car and he plays this song really loudly. I turn the volume higher, putting down the window and I continue singing out loud even after I get a dirty look from an old woman whose car is on the left of mine. On my right, a Muslim lady shouts at me turn that down, my baby is asleep. So a couple of things about that. One, how does he know she's Muslim just by looking at her? I mean, I'm assuming she's wearing a hijab or something but also maybe he's just assuming any brown person is Muslim? I don't know. It actually is a Muslim. There are a lot of them in this general area and it's supposedly in the United States but I don't remember them giving a name of what city this is. If I missed that, feel free to comment I won't read it but you know, feel free. I don't know of a whole lot of places in the US where there are this many Muslims packed together but I don't know, whatever, we'll just move on. The light turns green. The old woman on my left then I flip off Muslim lady to my right. When I come to the cemetery, I see her grave. I quickly get out of the car, roses in hand and make my way towards the grave. I read the headstone. Rosemary Anderson, 1998, 2010 I put the flowers down. The roses, just like she always said when I die bring me roses for my birthday. Red roses, nothing else. I sit on the grass facing her grave just letting the tears fall. I hear footsteps. I miss her too, James. We all do. I hear my mother's voice. She places her hand on my shoulder. Okay, so, you know, his mom he's visiting his sister's grave. His mom comes up to him and she's really sad. She says she misses him. I just want you to keep that in mind as we continue this story. My camera died because I'm unprepared. Let's keep going. So James and his mom both blame Muslims for his sister's death. They talk about her for a little bit, blah, blah, blah. Then he leaves. When I get to my house I park the car and head inside the house. I go into the kitchen and grab a bottle. Time to get wasted. Time skip. One hour and 12 bottles of beer, it's totally worth it. I'm just sitting here drinking and thinking about Rosemary. I get off the couch and head outside. I'm still drunk, but who cares? I see a rock. A big rock. I have an idea. I throw it at the window. My neighbor's window. The Muslim's house is next door. I hear screams. I quickly run back into my house, locking the door. I smirk to myself, stifling a laugh. I go back to the kitchen and grab a vodka. A few minutes later I hear the ambulance come. What's going on? I quickly go to the door, peeking through the window and see the crazy Muslim girl covered in blood. That's when I hear a knock on my door. I open it. I just want to point out real quick that one, James is very clearly an alcoholic. Just, again, keep that in mind as the story goes on. Two, we are five chapters in and so far the only interaction that the main characters have had is one, she comes over to his house to ask him to turn down music and he drunkenly yells at her and holds up alcohol in front of her face thinking that that would make her run away. Two, they talk about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in class and then the two of them get into an argument about it and just, James, again, makes it clear that he really does not like Palestinian people or Muslims and three, he gets drunk, throws a rocket or house and it hits her in the head. So, I know a lot of romance stories start off with the two leads hating each other and by the end they fall in love but I'm really not feeling the romance so far. So the next chapter is back to Sabira's point of view. After Yasin and I come back from school, I want to my also known as Ifra's room. I'm so angry that that James guy, he's so annoying. Sabira, come to my room, please. I hear Yusuf shout. Okay, wait, I just have to change. I say, walking through the door to my room. Sabira, Yusuf yells. I'm coming, I yell back. I walk into the room. I stand there for a moment while he looks down at his phone. Yusuf, I ask in a polite voice. I have really good, he's cut off by his phone ringing. He picks it up forcing me to stand there waiting for him. Can I tell you later, please? He asks. Yeah, I smile and leave. I really should find a job, I think. So, I just want to point out that he apparently had something to tell her that was so urgent that he needed to yell at her across the house to come over here immediately and tell her but then he had to leave and talk on his phone. It must not have been that important and it feels like a waste of time. Sabira, I hear Ifra call me. Why is everyone yelling my name today, I thought? It's National Day of Yelling, Sabira. Gosh, I hate it when the voice in my head is like this. She's probably right. And yes, she's a girl. I'm not going to lie. I only read through a lot of that passage so that I could get to that horribly written line right there. So then she goes into the kitchen and then a rock flew into the kitchen window and hit me. All I remember is the loud noise and I fell. Later on, I wake up. All around me are police, ambulance lights and blood. What happened? Where am I? Sabira, Sabira. I hear someone calling my name but I don't know where the voice is coming from. Sabira, it's me Ifra. I'm right here beside you. From the corner of my eye I see the very rude and biased neighbor of ours, James. He looks drunk. He knows something. The police are probably going to question him. I would say that that's like really jump into conclusions, but in this case it's not. So they go through a couple other things. The police come to talk to Sabira. She says that she thinks James did it and then the police say this. We've actually talked to Mr. James about it last night. He thought he did it too. He informed us that he didn't, he said. Oh, okay then, I reply. The next chapter is James's perspective. The officer starts to question me even before I have the chance to say anything. Sir, there's been an accident. Did you see anything? Um, no, I didn't see anything. I say, Sir, have you been drinking? No, ma'am. I've been a good boy, officer Mike. I answer whilst taking a quick peek at his badge. That was hard to say for some reason. I love your uniform. Does your mom wash it for you? I say smirking. I touch his uniform with my hand, feeling the fabric. Please take your hands off of me. The officer says firmly. Okay, so if we didn't already have confirmation that James was white, there it is. So James gets called down to the police station and he's talking to the police even more. James, we've been told that you threw a rock at your neighbor, an officer says. I begin to shake my head. No, that's not true. Who told you, I say, even though I knew I threw the rock? We saw you on camera, she replies. Okay, I was drunk. What's the big deal, I say, giving in? The lady officer turns to another officer and hands him to clipboard she was taking notes on. We didn't actually see you on camera, but we have the right to lie. It's a big deal that a girl got hurt, you replies, while shaking his head. What? They lied. They said that they saw me, liars. Am I really so dumb that I would fall for that? It's not like there are any cameras in the neighborhood. That crazy Muslim girl lied. That wasn't me. I whined, getting up from the chair I was sitting on. So James actually gets let go by the police. Apparently, Sabira didn't want to press charges or something, but, you know, whatever. And then his dad drags him over to their house and makes him pay for the broken window and I guess everything's cool now. Pretty sure what he did was a hate crime, but whatever. We'll just move on. And now Sabira's out of the hospital and her uncle Youssef wants to talk to her again and tell her what's going on. Oh, Alma de Dula, how are you? I reply politely. Great, Alma de Dula. Tell me about something, as I said earlier. Oh, and what was that? Well, we know that you've been through a lot in the last couple of years, he started. The room is quiet. There is a guy that has wanted to marry you for a while now. I told him that I would talk to you about it because you'd be making such a huge decision. Oh, wow. Honestly, I don't know what to say. I say, speechless. Okay, saying something and being speechless are two separate things. I don't think you can say something speechless. I don't know. That's a little pedantic, I know, but for fuck's sake, people. Um, Youssef, do I know this guy that wants to marry me? I ask, still shocked at the news. As a matter of fact, you guys were best friends as little kids. You guys are probably thinking, what? You actually want to get married? But let's face it, I'm ready to handle this. I mean, we were best friends as kids. I think we'll click very well. Here you go. Look at these, Youssef said while handing me the picture of the guy. As I looked at them, I started having flashbacks and memories of us. I don't remember his name, I said, looking at him with a smile on my face. Oh, how rude of me. Muhammad is his name, he informed me. Muhammad, Muhammad. I keep saying the name over and over again in my head. When do we meet? I mean, I'm not sure if I'm going to get married yet, but it would be nice seeing him again, I guess. He said he'll come over anytime you're ready to meet him, he responded. So, Sabira agrees to meet with Muhammad and maybe possibly get married to him. It's kind of very glossed over, all things considered, especially because this is a romance story, but whatever, let's just move on because there's a lot more shit to get through. So, the next chapter is James's perspective. It's right after he agrees to pay for the window, he goes to his house, or rather, he storms off to his house, and then this happens. I hear a small knock on the door and get up, ugh, people these days. They just can't even leave you alone. I open the door and see my father standing there looking angry at me. What did I do wrong? Yes, I look at him confused. Why is he so angry? Why in the name of Allah are you so disrespectful? Did he just say Allah? What did you say? I asked, not believing my ears. Why in the- I cut him off. I heard you the first time, I say. Hurts, pissed, that's what I feel. He's a Muslim. After what happened to Rosemary, how could he? I say, as tears run down my cheeks, you didn't tell anyone. It was your little secret, right? I wipe away my tears. No, your mother knows. He gives me a shy smile. How long I yell in his face, not caring anymore? Two years. The religion is so perfect. The Holy Quran is the most beautiful thing you can hear. Son, please forgive me for not telling you, but Islam is the best thing that's happened to me. He smiles at me. Okay, so let's go over that real quick. His dad converted to Islam two years before this took place. And somehow, he never found out about it. Like, he never- His dad never told him. He never noticed that his dad was going to mosque, or that he was acting differently. He never- What? Okay, look, I've known people who have converted to different religions before, and I myself have left religion altogether. And believe me, there's a period of time where you won't fucking shut up about it. Okay? It's just- What? Okay, so James has like a long ass argument with his dad, and then the chapter ends like that. So then we go to the next one with Sabira, talking with some of her friends. She's out and about, and then she comes back into our house. Once I walk into the house, I see three men sitting there, all talking. And then, suddenly, they all look right at me. Uncle, Yusuf, and Muhammad. At least I think it's him. Salam, I said, lowering my gaze. Salam, they all replied. Sabira, could I talk to you in the kitchen, please? Says Yusuf. Oh yeah, sure. I reply in a kind of angry, confused voice. Yusuf, what in the world is he doing here? I never agreed to have him here today. I yell, throwing my hands out of anger. Calm down, Sabira. He just wanted to come see you, says Yusuf, with open eyes. Without my consent, you should have asked me before. I say, staring at the floor. The designs on the tiles suddenly look really interesting. So, a little while ago, she was really excited to see Muhammad again, and was considering getting married to him without even talking to him, and now, she's very upset. So, she starts talking to Muhammad. So, Sabira, how is everything going for you? He says, I see him smiling out of the corner of my eye. His hair is shaped so perfectly that it looks like a cloud. His eyes are this magical, grayest blue. His smile, masha'Allah, I should be lowering my gaze. I'm sorry, there's an Arabic word there, and I'm not even going to attempt to pronounce that one. Lowering my eyes to my coffee, I answer his question. Everything is going good, Ahamadidullah. Thank you for asking. How are you? I ask, making small conversation. It could be better, he says, looking down at his cup. There's something weird going on here. I don't know what. So, the rest of the conversation continues just as awkward as that. Obviously, I think that it's like, supposed to be awkward in this case. So, there's a whole chapter devoted to the fact that James' dad is leaving his mom. The logic behind that is not exactly explained, but I'm sure you'd all be used to that by now. Then there's a whole long-ass chapter about him being late to class. He has to sit next to Sabira again. They fight and call each other names, blah, blah, blah. And then, Sabira is leaving school. At the papers, I hear footsteps behind me. I look behind me and see a guy wearing a black sweater, the hood covering up his face. He starts helping me pick up the papers. Thanks, I say, once all the paper has been picked up off the floor. Listen, Sabira, do not listen to anyone in that household you're living in, he tells me. He starts walking away in the direction he came from. How in the name of Allah did he know my name? Most importantly, who is he? So, then, Sabira runs off from the black hooded guy and she has a gathering with her family and Muhammad's there and they talk about their favorite colors and shit. But she never even thinks about the man again until the very end of the chapter. And she says, it's been a long day. I still don't forget what the mystery guy said to me. I will never forget it. Listen, Sabira, do not listen to anyone in that household you're living in. I repeat those words he said to me in my head over and over. But, like, why? Why would you just trust this random stranger? Like, I truly honestly don't get it. Hey, remember how this was supposed to be a story about James and Sabira falling in love? Well, the next couple of chapters are all basically just them doing their own thing, like James is becoming or continuing to be a horrible alcoholic, he doesn't want to talk to his parents, blah blah blah and then Sabira is just chilling with her friends and thinking about her parents who, oh yeah, remember, they're dead because you can't have a story like this with alive parents. So now James is in class and he's taking a test and he can't find a pencil. I can't find a pencil. I'm doomed. I can't believe I'm doing this, but I have to. Cray Muslim girl, can I borrow a pencil please? I ask the crazy Muslim girl. No. What? How can she fucking say no? I glare at her until she notices. Why? My name is Sabira, not Cray Muslim girl, she replies. Okay, Cray, Sabira, can I have a pencil? I repeat again. She gives me a forced smile as she hands me a pencil. I need to clean my hands after I complete my test. She touched the pencil. You Sabira, why does her name ring a bell but her face doesn't? Aren't you just feeling the love? So a few more chapters of Bullshit Pass James decides to get a job at his dad's company and then Sabira gets a text from an unknown phone number telling her to meet him in the park if she wants a job and then she goes there and James's dad is there but apparently he didn't send her the message but he gives her a job anyways because, you know, that's how finding a job works and then she leaves and she gets a message that says good choice soon we'll be together inshallah. Granted, it's spelled differently, but whatever. Okay, so the next chapter starts, it says a few months later but then the first paragraph says it's been one year since I started getting the messages. I have a job and yet paid a decent amount which is really great. I've been living in a dorm but I also recently moved out to a small apartment which is also great. So I really just want to take a second to say that even though Sabira apparently has a job which pays well enough for her to have her own apartment we never find out what that job is like they never give a title to it they never say what it entails or describe how much time it takes or anything like that and she's working for James's dad but we never even find out what the company does I mean we know he's the head of the CEO company but we don't know what the CEO company does so just remember that I guess. So Sabira later has to give James a ride home because he was out doing shit I don't care you don't care it doesn't matter and then while they're driving home she puts on a CD of the Quran which I'm not even going to touch that with a 10 foot pole whatever but then James leaves his wallet behind she opens it up looks inside and there's a picture of his sister and apparently Sabira remembers that oh yeah I was friends with his sister when we were kids and that does beg the question how many childhood friends has she had and then forgotten about is this a fucking anime and you know what a lot of this this last third of the book is just so spread out and so repetitive that I don't feel like going through it all at once but you know all the spelling errors and everything that you read before yeah that's all still there trust me but so basically the rest of the story is that James confronts Sabira about stealing his wallet and she says oh no it's fine but also what happened to your sister and he's like oh she's dead you Muslims killed her blah blah blah and apparently he hates his Muslims because he thinks they killed his sister which at the beginning it said that he was raised to hate Muslims but you know whatever and so apparently what had happened was that his sister was friends with Sabira and she wanted to convert to Islam and I'm not sure how old she was what happened because her gravestone said she was only 12 when she died I don't know we're just gonna move past that we're gonna not question it too much because the more we question it the more lost we're gonna get and then apparently their mother being so angry about this like got them in the car started driving around all crazy and eventually crashed into the car that Sabira and her parents were in and you know they all died her Rosemary died her parents died and Sabira was in a coma which apparently caused her memory loss again we're not going to question that and we also find out that the mysterious hooded man was actually Sabira's brother who she thought was in jail turns out her uncle had wanted to blame her brother for the car accident which killed her parents and so they forced him to go away I'm not sure why he agreed to that but he did and then when he came back he decided not to just tell Sabira about this he decided to be all mysterious and shit I I've read this over three times and for the life of me I still cannot figure out why any of them did this but you know I guess emotions and motivations are secondary in a romance and then after that Sabira finds out that one of her friends apparently likes Mohammed so she decides not to get married to him and also while all of this is going on James is just reading through the Quran and finding out more about Islam and then he just decides to convert I guess and then at the end there's an epilogue where him and Sabira go on a pilgrimage to Mecca and they're married now and then she finds out she's pregnant and that's the end and remember how I said earlier how a lot of these sorts of romance stories start off with the main characters hating each other and then by the end they're in love this one kind of forgot to add that middle part where they fall in love or even where they stop hating each other so um I don't really know what to add there just make of that what you will and I'm not going to lie the idea that James actually converted does kind of bother me a little bit because pretty much all of the non-Muslim characters in this story are just James and two parents and his mom was just a crazy lady who goes to prison at the end his dad converted to Islam and his mom converted to Islam and he converted to Islam and so what all of that seems to be saying is that one if you learn about Islam then you'll immediately want to become one which I can say from personal experience is not true like I have read through parts of the Quran and decided no that's not for me but I've also done that with several other religions and it also seems to be putting forward this idea that you can only respect Muslims if you are one like you can't be friends with them you can't associate with them like you're just going to be an asshole to them all the time and again that is kind of insulting and it's simply not true so um that out of the way there's probably a shitstorm of brewing already I'm just going to read the beginning of chapter 25 to you so we end on a lighter note chapter dedicated to at blueberry cake 55 characters since most of you forgot due to my lack of updates Sabira main character the Muslima next door James two main character Ifrah Sabira friend who is Yusuf daughter Yusuf Sabira father's best friends parentheses note that Sabira's dad died Muhammad engaged to Sabira Ayyan best friend to Sabira Yasin Yusuf son and Ifrah's brother Ahmed Barley in the book Yasin brother and Ifrah brother that's it so uh if you feel like reading through more broken English and shit that I just didn't have time to get to uh check it out I guess it's pretty funny