**I received an ARC from Netgalley. These are my honest opinions, and in no way was I compensated for this review.**
The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf
Release Date: February 5, 2019
My Rating: 4.25 stars
Summary: A music-loving teen with OCD does everything she can to find her way back to her mother during the historic race riots in 1969 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in this heart-pounding literary debut.
Melati Ahmad looks like your typical moviegoing, Beatles-obsessed sixteen-year-old. Unlike most other sixteen-year-olds though, Mel also believes that she harbors a djinn inside her, one who threatens her with horrific images of her mother’s death unless she adheres to an elaborate ritual of counting and tapping to keep him satisfied.
But there are things that Melati can't protect her mother from. On the evening of May 13th, 1969, racial tensions in her home city of Kuala Lumpur boil over. The Chinese and Malays are at war, and Mel and her mother become separated by a city in flames.
With a 24-hour curfew in place and all lines of communication down, it will take the help of a Chinese boy named Vincent and all of the courage and grit in Melati’s arsenal to overcome the violence on the streets, her own prejudices, and her djinn’s surging power to make it back to the one person she can’t risk losing.
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**Content warnings: Racism, graphic violence, on-page death, OCD and anxiety triggers.**
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Da mana bumi dipijak, di situ langit dijunjung. Have you heard this before? It means where we plant our feet is where we must hold up the sky. We live and die by the rules of the land we live in. But this country belongs to all of us! We make our own sky, and we can hold it up—together.I first heard about The Weight of the Sky from Twitter and was intrigued by its premise: Malaysia during the 1969 race riots. Frankly, growing up in the US, I'd never heard of this event, having never learned about it in school, so I knew that this book would teach me something new. And it did! Complete with a historical, non-Western setting, The Weight of the Sky delivers a new side of YA, one where we expand our Western-centric boundaries.
Although I had no knowledge of the 1969 race riots, it is not far off from some of the events occurring in the US today. I won't conflate them, but here, strong tensions existed between the Malay, the Chinese, and the Indian peoples. From what I understand, this was a very delicate racial issue; although the sides blamed each other, there was no singular group in the right. Personally, I think Hanna Alkaf depicted this well, how all the different groups of people belonged in Malaysia, but I would strongly encourage you to find #ownvoices reviews.
Do not ever let anyone tell you that you do not belong here. We all do. There is space for us all.The writing was, I think, my favorite part of this book. Alkaf's prose is just one of those that you can fall, head over heels, in love with. She writes how I think, and everything just flowed so easily.
Melati's OCD and her faith are very much tied into the plot; the author included a note at the beginning, describing the limits of mental health treatments back then, as well as the existence of djinn in Islam. I found this incredibly informative, and it provided more context for non-Muslim readers.
I loved all of the characters, so so so much. I loved Melati's perseverance, Vince's compassion, Auntie Bee's generosity. Although you bear witness to many horrible occurrences throughout this novel, you also get to see the kindness and the consideration of people, bold in the face of atrocities.
Jasmine. That's what your name means, right? Melati? . . . Jasmine flowers are so pale, so delicate, you'd think they couldn't survive in this relentless tropical heat. But they thrive on it. They grow strong and gorgeous, and they bloom. Their perfume is . . . intoxicating, so strong that it leaves its mark on you long after you've left it behind.This novel is so necessary today; I think this is a step in the right direction, a path that will bring more inclusivity to YA, so that it won't be so Western-centric or white. If you're looking for a historical novel, one with a non-Western setting (Southeast Asia, or more specifically Malaysia), or OCD rep, I wholeheartedly recommend The Weight of the Sky.
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About the Author: Hanna Alkaf graduated with a degree in journalism from Northwestern University and spent over ten years writing everything from B2B marketing emails to investigative feature articles, from non-profit press releases to corporate brochures. She now spends her time making it up as she goes along, both as an author of fiction and as a mom. Hanna lives in Kuala Lumpur with her family. THE WEIGHT OF OUR SKY is her first novel.
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