A great read!

Tell Me How You Really Feel by Aminah Mae Safi

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book fits so many categories of the challenge, young adult, enemies to lovers, person of colour, Muslim main character, Jewish main character … quite a list. But the really important topic here is coming off age, becoming yourself.

Both Sana and Rachel have known for a while that they are lesbian and it has made both feel outcasts, each of them choosing a different camouflage, though. Their backgrounds could not be more different and their origins more controversial. The one thing they have in common is that they don’t really practise their supposed religion and feel restricted, not to say trapped by it.

When they get thrown together by Rachel’s film project Sana has to fight not to show the crush she’s had on Rachel since a while, as Rachel quite obviously despises her for being beautiful, well liked and the cheerleader captain. The journey of discovering each other through their forced collaboration is as gripping for the reader as it is full of tension for the characters.

The writing is excellent. Even though the late teens are fifty years ago for me now, I felt like a classmate watching in fascination how the two developed. Sana’s friend Diesel was a lovely side character and Sana’s mum … she was my favourite character in the story. Every girl should have a non-conformist strong and independent woman for a mother to learn assertiveness from.

The book is unusual in that it has a somewhat promising if kind of open end, which I found surprisingly satisfactory nevertheless. It could have, but doesn’t really need a sequel. It is in itself a great read.



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