A word: I am not Muslim or biracial. When others put up posts about I Am Thunder, I will link to own voices reviews.
This is a young adult novel that tackles very adult content – racism, Islamophobia, radicalisation, and much more. The main character, Muzna, is a British-Pakistani Muslim girl whose parents are forcing her to become a doctor, even though all she wants to do is write. Throughout the book we really see her develop and grow into a young woman, whose identities often conflict:
It was cruel to bring me up in Britain, make me go to school with British kids, then expect me to act like a girl from back home. Outside of having brown skin, speaking the language, and half-heartedly cheering the cricket team on with Dad, I had no real idea of what it meant to be Pakistani.
At no point during the book did the book imply that there was ‘one’ Muslim experience, or that every Muslim is radicalised, as Arif and Jameel are. This was one of the things I was a bit nervous about when going into the book, so that was a great relief.
I did have some issues with the book, however. Ableist, fat-phobic comments and comments about body hair were rife throughout the novel, and not once were they called out on. This was really disappointing to me, because without them it would have been a truly great novel.
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Great review, Wendy! This is the first time I’ve heard of this particular book. How did you end up selecting this book in particlar for the readathon? Do you have any other books you’d recommend which feature these themes?
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Thanks! I just went through the books that I already had that had Muslim main characters. I’m currently reading Love Hate and Other Filters, and I’ve previously read Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged, which is really good 🙂
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