Holding on to Each Other in a Very Large Expanse of Sea

~A Very Large Expanse of Sea~
By Tahereh Mafi
Amazon ~ Powell's

It’s 2002, a year after 9/11. It’s an extremely turbulent time politically, but especially so for someone like Shirin, a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl who’s tired of being stereotyped.

Shirin is never surprised by how horrible people can be. She’s tired of the rude stares, the degrading comments—even the physical violence—she endures as a result of her race, her religion, and the hijab she wears every day. So she’s built up protective walls and refuses to let anyone close enough to hurt her. Instead, she drowns her frustrations in music and spends her afternoons break-dancing with her brother.

But then she meets Ocean James. He’s the first person in forever who really seems to want to get to know Shirin. It terrifies her—they seem to come from two irreconcilable worlds—and Shirin has had her guard up for so long that she’s not sure she’ll ever be able to let it down.


This book is set in 2002, but was published in 2018. I'm making assumptions here, but something tells me it wasn't just the author's schedule that kept this story from releasing sooner, and that can tell you a lot about the state of this country. Plus, it's Banned Books Week, which should also tell you a lot about the state of our country...

Much like with Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give, I don't feel completely comfortable giving my opinions on a realistic story set so outside my own personal experience. I'm white, so my praise and critiques are no doubt going to reflect that. I'm also female, so that also plays into my opinions on each work. So can I say definitively that this book gives an authentic representation of a Muslim teen in the time after 9/11? Well, no (though I do trust this author to do her best). But I did find the main character very easy to empathize with.

Shirin didn't read any differently than many YA protagonists these days. Though, even expecting something different shows how much I know. Still, Shirin was snarky, outspoken (inside her head, at least), and just tired of peoples' shit. Her main distinctions are her interest in breakdancing and overall love of fashion. It did bother me a little that we never got a description of the color/pattern/style of her headscarves, or most of her fashion in general, but since Shirin didn't ever dress to impress, I guess it wasn't that important to know...

Also, just in general, kids are dicks. Other people can also be dicks, but kids seem to take the chance to be dicks most of the time. So, I guess I'd say that's definitely an accurate depiction of high school.

I don't know why this book didn't blow up as much as The Hate U Give. Or, at least, I didn't see it brought up in media nearly as much. Sure, it's not as outspoken, not including riots or police brutality or the like, but it still has an important message about bigotry and racism. One passage I highlighted calls it right out. Shortly after Shirin and Ocean officially come out as a couple, we get this:

But it was so hard for Ocean to stomach that the world was filled with such awful people. I tried to tell him that the bigots and the racists had always been there, and he said he’d honestly never seen them like this, that he never thought they could be like this, and I said yes, I know. I said that’s how privilege works.

It kind of goes hand in hand with that old saying about how you should judge a man's character not by the way he treats his equals, but by how he treats his subordinates. Or at least, those he perceives as lesser (which ideally would be no one).

As far as the romance goes, I dug it. Ocean might have been a little too perfect, but it'd be wrong to say that golden boys don't exist. I could definitely relate to Shirin's feelings of unworthiness when it came to Ocean's affection. There's a part where he admits that he doesn't like doing something, but feels obligated to continue because he doesn't want to let everyone else down. And Shirin comes back with, well aren't they all letting you down by forcing you to do this thing you don't like? And Ocean's kind of taken aback. Yet Shirin doesn't ever realize that her own lack of self-worth is basically saying that what Ocean cares about [her] doesn't matter. Ah, the teenage (lack of) logic.

Overall, I really liked Shirin's story. The Islam religion doesn't really factor in to the story very much, aside from her choice to wear her hijab, which should ideally make the story more accessible (and less likely to be banned?) to the American youth. I'd highly recommend this to anyone who likes YA romance, but I think it's also great if you're looking for a new perspective from a non-white American. It'd be nice if stories like these could be completely fictional, but until that time it's the least we can do to read the experiences of others and choose to be better.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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