I was finally able to read and finish this book on this free, happy day, of love, cheer, and peace.
I will be quick, and not dwell too much on negativity and the state of the world right now. Not today. In the spirit of the holiday season, this will be a purely feelings type of review.'This Book Won't Burn' is essential, vital, relevant reading. I love books, I love libraries and bookshops, I love equality, and I love free love, and 'This Book Won't Burn' delivers wonderfully, delicately, and deliciously, with plenty of 100% justifiable rage to spare. It is thrilling, engaging, and as addictive as a Terry's Chocolate Orange.
Book banning is wrong. Censorship on universal, human truths and experiences is wrong. It is never spearheaded by good people. Book banning is a step towards fascism; it is rooted in it; it is fascism. Let's not ignore, sidestep or deny the issue; it is time to call out things for what they are.
Book banning is a human rights issue. It is banning stories, and that means banning telling stories, telling truths, telling all sorts of different experiences, which human beings have always needed in their lives, in order to live freely and be their happiest, most fulfilled, and best selves. Always learning, always happy. It is a literal necessity for survival. Book banning, book burning, is inhumane; it is antihuman. It is anti-education. It is anti-freedom. Always has been, always will be.
It is anti-American. And America is not and should never be a fascist country. We need to do better.
This all should go without saying.
Book banning and book burning are literal Nazi ideologies.
I love the characters in 'This Book Won't Burn', as well. The good people in it are so sweet and real. Noor Khan is a great, young human protagonist and activist - of her own story, and for her country of the US of A.
But this 2024 YA novel just had to include a damn love triangle, didn't it? A hetero love triangle, at that.
Although, it isn't too annoying. It doesn't distract from, nor detract from, the reason for this book to exist, and both its internal and external drama do serve well as a breather away from the harsh, corrupt reality of US politics. Deary me, by the complicated fires of hell, the love triangle BS actually manages to be kind of sweet and endearing.
It certainly gives Noor, a caring, anti-silence, pro-free speech and pro-education activist, and thus a right-wing political target and scapegoat, a break, and a way for her to process issues from her personal life; to move on from her family trauma and its devastating consequences. Noor's beloved activist and lawyer father abandoning her and her mother and younger sister has resulted in her thinking she can't trust her own feelings, especially towards other people. She doesn't believe in, nor thinks she deserves, positive emotions, memories, friends, loved ones, any of it. It's too painful and she wants nothing to do with it, for fear of getting hurt again. In the wall she's built around herself, there lies young Noor's inner challenge in life, her dilemma of whether she can really trust anyone anymore.
But still, why a typical, messy, daytime TV soap teenage love triangle in such a serious book like this?
It hasn't escaped my notice that in 'This Book Won't Burn', and in Samira Ahmed's previous two YA novels I've read, 'Internment' and 'Hollow Fires', none of the female protagonists are queer. None are subversive or unconventional when it comes to the romantic side of things. For all Ahmed's books' talk of the importance of freedom and inclusion and diversity, their heroines are almost stupidly hormonal over boys - their priorities get messed up over something as shallow as physical good looks when it comes to boys - even for teenagers. They usually come to their senses until it is far too late, in literal life and death situations. Though in the case of 'Internment', the protag relies heavily and exclusively on male support and rescuing, no lessons learned there.
But, on a positive note, in 'This Book Won't Burn', the heroine doesn't end up relying on boys to help her out when her life is in danger. In fact, it is the women and girls in her family and friends group who have her back and support her along the way, with a male love interest or two relegated to the background.
It also hasn't escaped me that, as far as I can tell, none of Samira Ahmed's truthful and diverse, hard and painful books about modern social justice and activism, actually include a trans character in them.
'This Book Won't Burn' has a couple of fleshed out LBGTQ side characters, at least. (A sapphic couple, to be exact.)
But I love it regardless, on this perfect day where I got to finish it. In my opinion, it is Ahmed's best, most polished and careful novel. It isn't perfect, and there are a few flaws in its writing, and its ending is somewhat rushed. But nothing is perfect, and I wholeheartedly endorse the sentiment and intention - the messages, and lessons needing to be taught to people, over and over and over again - behind it.
It is my favourite of Ahmed's books to date, but I absolutely recommend all of her work, for their humanity, their passion born from and burning with wakeup calls to action in an unfair and unjust society, and for the dark, scary, harrowing truths they expose. They definitely would get banned by conservatives and evil, hateful, opportunistic liars with too much power, money and influence, in an unearned position and platform, and that is a good thing; a reason enough for why they need to be read by everyone.
Don't ban books. Don't burn books. Do better.
Don't let hate win.
Stand and fight against fascism and oppression and erasure. Against violence and destruction. Always.
Teach people to read. Get more people to read. To read whatever they want, and need. It's how societies learn, improve, and progress. It's about love, passion, and creating, too.
'This Book Won't Burn' - what an appropriate book to complete reading, to feel hope on a blissful Yuletide day. And what an appropriate novel to end 2024 on.
Happy holidays, everyone.
I do mean everyone.
Love you all.
Final Score: 4/5
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