ARC Review: An Emotion of Great Delight by Tahereh Mafi

Title: An Emotion of Great Delight

Author: Tahereh Mafi

Publisher: HarperCollins
Rating: 2/5 Stars
Hardcover, 256 Pages
Published June 2021

Summary: It’s 2003, several months since the US officially declared war on Iraq, and the American political world has evolved. Tensions are high, hate crimes are on the rise, FBI agents are infiltrating local mosques, and the Muslim community is harassed and targeted more than ever. Shadi, who wears hijab, keeps her head down. She's too busy drowning in her own troubles to find the time to deal with bigots. Shadi is named for joy, but she’s haunted by sorrow. Her brother is dead, her father is dying, her mother is falling apart, and her best friend has mysteriously dropped out of her life. And then, of course, there’s the small matter of her hear— It’s broken. Shadi tries to navigate her crumbling world by soldiering through, saying nothing. She devours her own pain, each day retreating farther and farther inside herself until finally, one day, everything changes. She explodes.

I received an advanced copy of AN EMOTION OF GREAT DELIGHT from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. When I first heard that Tahereh Mafi had a new contemporary novel out, I was intrigued -- A VERY LARGE EXPANSE OF SEA was not one of my most favorite novels around, but both myself and my co-bloggers all absolutely adored the SHATTER ME series. I even had the chance to meet Tahereh a few years ago at a signing, and she was such a gem! So when I was asked about a copy of AN EMOTION OF GREAT DELIGHT, I was thrilled to dive into another Tahereh Mafi story. 

As the summary explains, the story is told in a dual-timeline, both parts from the perspective of Shadi, a Muslim-American teenager who is dealing with the onslaught of harassment, assault, and horrors that came with being a Muslim in a post-9/11 world. On top of that, after the death of Shadi's brother, her whole family is falling apart -- her father is sick, her mother is filled with grief, and her sister hates her. The book basically deals with Shadi's bottling up of pain, grief, emotions, and anything and everything that she wants to say, keeping herself small and out of the way, trying not to make trouble. But people can only bottle up their pain for so long, and eventually Shadi finds herself with a burning need to speak out and be heard -- exploding in a million different directions. 

Unfortunately, I didn't find myself as enamored by this book as I had hoped to be. For starters, it felt a little bit too literary for me, which isn't a bad thing in and of itself, but just isn't my type of writing style that I usually love. Even though the chapters and sections would clarify which timeline -- 2001 or 2003 -- that part of the story was taking place in, there were a lot of moments where I had to go back and reread a few sections to get clarity on what was happening, because I felt really confused. 

I think, looking back on all of Tahereh's books that I've read, I've been very invested in her sci-fi/fantasy stories, and not so much with her contemporary writing. While it seems like plenty of people adore it, I just had a hard time really connecting with it. Something about the way she writes contemporary stories with such a literary lean makes it a bit hard for me to connect with, and I felt like so many major things happened in this book and then were just sort of...done. Not addressed. And it left me with a lot more questions than answers. The book itself is a little under 250 pages, so maybe that's why it felt that way to me, but it feels like barely any major plot points were sewn up by the conclusion of the book.

(Spoilers in this paragraph, so skip to the next one to avoid them!) An issue that I had with A VERY LARGE EXPANSE OF SEA that I'm noticing again here is the lack of resolution in the story. Sometimes, books end off leaving the reader wondering what would happen, but in that case some other loose ends are usually tied up. Shadi and Ali seem to be beginning a relationship, but there was so much else I wondered about: Does her mother get help? Does her father find out what her mother was doing to herself? Is he cured of whatever ailments were happening with his heart? What happens with the friendship -- or lack thereof -- with Shadi and Zahra, especially after finding out about Shadi and Ali? And what about Noah?! I loved him so much in the few short bursts that he was on the page, and I really wish I could've seen him more. I remember getting toward the end of the book and realizing that I had only 10-20 pages left, and realizing that basically NONE of my questions were even close to being addressed. It felt a little too open-ended for me, which is where I feel that the book fell short, thus giving it two stars -- our rating here which translates to "It was okay." 

However, there were some aspects of AN EMOTION OF GREAT DELIGHT that I enjoyed as well. Like I mentioned above, Noah was a character that I loved seeing, and his kindness and the way he was constantly reaching out to Shadi even when she was trying to withdraw into herself really made me smile. It goes to show that you never really know when someone can use a friend. And watching the way that Shadi dealt with grief and pain and harbored it all, bearing the burden for her entire family until she couldn't handle it anymore, was a very sharp, poignant, important image that reading about really struck me with. It tugs on your heart to realize that there are some people in this world who are so misunderstood, forced to carry so much pain, and forced to endure so much more than anyone ever realizes.

Overall, while AN EMOTION OF GREAT DELIGHT didn't feel like my cup of tea and what I was hoping for with the book, that is just my opinion on it! Just because I didn't particularly enjoy a book doesn't mean that you won't! So if this book was on your TBR and you were considering reading it, I definitely still encourage you to give it a try. Plenty of people ended up loving this book, and it just so happened that this one wasn't my cup of tea.