An Emotion Of Great Delight: New heartbreaking romance for 2021 from author of the much-loved fantasy series Shatter Me and contemporary YA novel, A Very Large Expanse of Sea

In poetic prose the author explores the themes of grief and coming of age as a young Muslim women in a post 9/11 world. With lyrical elegance the author weaves a tale of a young girl struggling in the wake of her brothers death, against the backdrop of the widespread and individual affects of islamaphobia. This story is simply gorgeous, rich and utterly breath taking. It's the story of a people's anger and grief and injustice the story of a young woman finding her way in the world and examines the fragile humanity of us all. Read this book, devour it and love it as I did.

I loved this book and it came in excellent condition!

This is a very insular book, we're in the mind of Shadi while her whole life is getting torn apart. She holds onto her emotions so tightly, not sharing her thoughts or feelings with anyone, to the point where they start to overwhelm and consume her.Is the title ironic? Because this book is filled with sorrow, anger, betrayal, hurt, fright, confusion, but barely dips it's toe into happiness, never mind delight.This is a character study, a plot of beginning, middle, end isn't the most important thing here. At the start of each chapter we see a glimpse into what life was like a year prior, before some very big, sad life events happen. But the main bulk of the story is more a series of events when Shadi become increasingly more and more overwhelmed by her feelings.I really enjoyed the book, it's short and quick and easy to read because you're following this one person who you want more than anything to be happy. There are glimpses and glimmers throughout, but even the end isn't necessarily wrapped up in a nice neat bow.If you like your books with a strong plot, a tidy ending that wraps everything up and a cast of characters you will not enjoy this book. If you can appreciate a very insular character study on one sad teenager and her life, with no particular storyline outside the walls she's built up inside herself, and an abrupt ending that doesn't close any thread presented in the book, then you might just enjoy this book.

As an avid reader and a lover of books of many genres, I was pleased to be offered the chance to read this book via the Vine Program to give you an honest review of it.This book is written in poetic prose which seems to be becoming more popular by the day, whilst i am not always keen on this style, the author achieves this well and in both a beautiful, haunting and memorable way. The coming of age of Shadi, a young Muslim woman in a post 9/11 world, dealing with the recent grief of the loss of her older brother whilst attempting to survive against not only the widespread but also her own individual effects of experiencing Islamophobia as she makes her way in the world are extremely moving.The story gives you an immense feeling of not only sadness for her, but also a heartfelt wish to hug her and tell her that things will be ok as her actions, words and thoughts really move you.Overall this is a moving book that i recommend reading, but i definitely suggest you have a box of tissues nearby as you will need them.Despite being marketed as a book for young adults, I firmly believe that anyone can appreciate this book and I am happy to award it the full 5 stars and to give it my full recommendation.

This is an absolute gem of a book and so stunningly written,With prose that is melodic and lyrical throughout, I was invested in both this book and Shadi from the very few opening lines.Beautiful and haunting in equal measure, what I think is worth highlighting about this book is that it is indeed set against the backdrop of the devastating Iraq war, but it doesn’t pervade the entire story.Shadi's sadness is apparent in many forms and it's hard to get through the book without shedding a tear or two. It is such a heavy sadness and burden that you feel intently as a reader through her words, thoughts, and actions, so much so that I regularly wanted to just scoop her up and hold her, telling her it would be okay.As for the ending, what a fitting finish to a perfect book.I realise this is marketed as a YA book, but I don’t doubt that this will win many adult readers over.Simply beautiful and well worth the read.