Hey friends! 

Today I’m going to be sharing with you my review for I Am Thunder! I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of this amazing book and I had to share my thoughts on it because it is so worth the read. I have been reading a lot of South Asian #ownvoices contemporary recently and they have all been amazing, like this one! 

This book is told from the perspective of Muzna, a Muslim British Pakistani 15-year-old who has very strict parents whose sole dream is to make her a doctor and marry her to someone of their choosing. She often feels like an outcast in school, and is very self-conscious of her appearance, preferring to remain unnoticed. Things change for her however when she moves to a new school and meets Arif who all of a sudden takes an interest in her. Except Arif and his brother are angry at the west for demonising Islam.

I cannot even tell you what an incredibly powerful story this is. Muzna is such a fantastic main character and you feel for her, you really do. Her struggles of fitting in when her mother refuses to let her shave her legs and her father constantly threatens her of her ‘terrible future’ if she won’t become a doctor, her struggle is real and her struggle is relatable to many South Asian kids. What makes this especially relatable is the detail and accuracy with which these small struggles are explained, like Muzna’s mother thinking girls who want to wear make-up are automatically ‘bad’ because they’re only doing it to impress a boy and Muzna’s father getting angry at the white people in his office for being racist but also, at home, stereotyping others. There is an incredible and heart-aching level of authenticity that tugs to your heart strings.

Other than the incredible detail and relatable-ness, it deals with current issues and examines how radicalisation and modern day terrorism work, as well as Islamophobia and how that may cause those feeling left out to react in violent ways. The text does this so well that I don’t want to end up rephrasing and summarising in ways that may get the message of the book wrong so I won’t go into too much detail, especially since I don’t have enough information to comment but if you want to see how and why people from the Western world, that are mostly happy and who have a good life turn to extremism, and how terrorist organisations work to coerce young people into their groups, then this is the perfect book. It also makes it very clear that Islam, the religion, does not promote terrorism and that like any other culture, the ‘good’ Muslims are ones who are kind and believe in helping others. One of the biggest things that stuck out to me from this book is when Muzna says that no one hates ISIS more than Muslims, which I believe is such a powerful statement and one that a lot of misguided people in the world need to hear. I loved how the book didn’t shy away from these topics, how directly it said what it wanted to and how clearly the message was spelt out. 

I adored Muzna as a character, which I have chatted about before. Other than being relatable, she was so realistic. She had her strengths and her weaknesses and because this story was told over a period of time, you really got to see her grow from a shy, self-conscious girl, to someone who put everything she felt aside to do the right thing, to stand up against all odds and do what she thought was right. My favourite thing was even at the end of the book, she isn’t magically a social butterfly or she hasn’t overcome the challenges she faces by her parents, but rather, she has become better equipped to deal with them, which is all you can ask of any character. 

Overall, as you can probably tell, I ADORED THIS! It is such an important read and I highly, highly recommend you guys check this out. It is so worth your time and effort in reading it so please consider purchasing a copy or asking your library to bring one in for you!

Thank you to Pan Macmillan for providing me with a review copy of this book. however all thoughts and opinions are my own.