Name: That Thing We Call a Heart
ISBN: 9780062445728

Sheba Karim

This young adult novel by Sheba Karim, author of Skunk Girl, is a funny and affecting coming-of-age story for fans of Jenny Han, Megan McCafferty, and Sara Farizan. Shabnam Qureshi is facing a summer of loneliness and boredom until she meets Jamie, who scores her a job at his aunt’s pie shack. Shabnam quickly finds herself in love, while her former best friend, Farah, who Shabnam has begun to reconnect with, finds Jamie worrying. In her quest to figure out who she really is and what she really wants, Shabnam looks for help in an unexpected place—her family, and her father’s beloved Urdu poetry. That Thing We Call a Heart is a funny and fresh story about the importance of love—in all its forms.

That Thing We Call a Heart

Shabnam Qureshi is a funny, imaginative Pakistani-American teen attending a tony private school in suburban New Jersey. When her feisty best friend, Farah, starts wearing the headscarf without even consulting her, it begins to unravel their friendship. After hooking up with the most racist boy in school and telling a huge lie about a tragedy that happened to her family during the Partition of India in 1947, Shabnam is ready for high school to end. She faces a summer of boredom and regret, but she has a plan: Get through the summer. Get to college. Don't look back. Begin anew. Everything changes when she meets Jamie, who scores her a job at his aunt's pie shack, and meets her there every afternoon. Shabnam begins to see Jamie and herself like the rose and the nightingale of classic Urdu poetry, which, according to her father, is the ultimate language of desire. Jamie finds Shabnam fascinating-her curls, her culture, her awkwardness. Shabnam finds herself falling in love, but Farah finds Jamie worrying. With Farah's help, Shabnam uncovers the truth about Jamie, about herself, and what really happened during Partition. As she rebuilds her friendship with Farah and grows closer to her parents, Shabnam learns powerful lessons about the importance of love, in all of its forms. Featuring complex, Muslim-American characters who defy conventional stereotypes and set against a backdrop of Radiohead's music and the evocative metaphors of Urdu poetry, THAT THING WE CALL A HEART is an honest, moving story of a young woman's explorations of first love, sexuality, desire, self-worth, her relationship with her parents, the value of friendship, and what it means to be true.

Alisha Dockrat

(Spoiler Review)

From the moment I heard about this book, I knew that it was something I definitely had to read. A popular YA novel with a female Muslim protagonist is rare, and so my expectations for this book were pretty high. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that this book was a disappointment, but Shabnam definitely was. 

The reasons for that were simple. From the moment Shabnam drank the champagne and made out with Ryan, I knew that she wasn’t the protagonist I expected. I understand how difficult it may be to be a perfect Muslim in 21st century America, but I expected her to be a bit more Islam conscious. For me, I just saw it that a proper Muslim girl isn’t a good enough subject for a book.

I got to hand it over to the author though, I loved all the Bollywood references. Even if they were references about Bollywood itself and not about Bollywood content (Ahem, Ranveer Singh) it was great to read about something that I related to that isn’t often featured. I didn’t particularly appreciate the way Islam was portrayed in certain scenes, but that may just be a biased opinion.

I liked Farah the most. The attitude she wore her hijab with and just her character overall. Although, the parking lot smoking scene just didn’t do it for me.

Her relationship with Jamie wasn’t something that I was really into, but it was cute to read (Although, I think it may have been slightly cuter if he was Muslim). I appreciated the way the author focused on other topics such as family and friends as well as romance. 

Overall Rating: 7/10 (3.5 Stars)

Nikki Sojkowski

***This review and more can be found at my blog Love at First Write***

I was given a copy of this book by HarperTeen in exchange for honest review.

The first third of this book, for me, was slow going. Not being Pakistani or Muslim, I didn’t quite understand where Shabnam was coming from until she opened up further into the book. Researching the Urdu words was fun and a great learning experience for me, but I didn’t understand why she was embarrassed about her Great-Uncle or why her friend starting to wear a hijab was so important and relation-ship altering. How and why did Farah’s choice effect Shabnam? While this and more was explained towards the end of the book, the beginning of the book certainly felt closed off to me. However, once Shabnam started working at the Pie Shack, and delved into her history and herself, the book really started picking up and I couldn’t put it down. 

As a second generation immigrant, Shabnam seems to struggle with balancing being a teenager with her parent’s expectations of her. She leads sort of a double-life in that regard, which she brings up on multiple occasions. What I loved was that Shabnam still has a pretty good relationship with both her mother and her father. While she doesn’t feel like she can talk to them about boy problems (what teen does?) they still seemed quite close. Shabnam even explores her family’s relationship to Urdu poetry and the Partition through the book, which was fascinating to watch develop. Even better, the author includes notes about both Partition and the poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz at the back of the book! I had learned about Partition in my Eastern Religions class in college, but it was fascinating to experience it out of the academic setting with realism and weight behind the stories. Though I assume the specific example used by the author was not a true story, it brings home the idea that horrific acts just like the one depicted did occur. The Urdu poetry I had never experienced before and it was really cool as an English major to learn about a new type of poetry along with Shabnam! 

The best part about this book is my favorite character: Farah. She is such a witty sarcastic badass who is super smart and doesn’t take crap from anyone. My hero! It was great to see her navigate her religion and her relationship with Shabnam. Of course friendships aren’t perfect, and it was wholesome to see them have a rocky argument and deal with the fallout. Also, I absolutely adored Ye Olde Donut Shoppe (Shabnam and Farah’s hangout) and its owner Dino. He was so sweet and charming and really tolerated a lot of crap from Jaime. I don’t eat donuts- but it sure made me want to go out and buy one! What a fitting read for National Doughnut Day today! 

This is the perfect summer read. Relationships (both platonic and romantic) are depicted realistically. Shabnam even has a cute summer fling while working at a park pie shop! This was a novel navigating through friendship, identity, and first love and while the topics may be rocky teenager experiences, the writing style dealt with it elegantly.

That Thing We Call a Heart

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