#muslim characters | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

white-moon-kitty · 5 months

Text

Jewish Nathaniel Kurtzberg headcanons

It is canon that Nathaniel is Jewish, evident in his surname and absence from the Christmas special. However because "religion is a secular matter and cannot be portrayed in a children's TV show" (🙄), Nathaniel's heritage won't be represented in any of the episodes, so I'll be writing these headcanons.

Nathaniel (like Marinette, Adrien, and their classmates) was born between late 2000 and mid-2001.

The law on religious display in public schools (la loi sur les signes religieux dans les écoles publiques) was signed on March 15, 2004.

The law on face-coverings in public (la loi interdisant la dissimulation du visage dans l'espace public) was passed by the Senate on September 14, 2010.

TW for references of antisemitism and Islamophobia

Nathaniel's great-grandparents were German Jews who fled to France shortly before World War II

his family is not Orthodox but they are religious, they go to synagogue, celebrate the holidays, follow kosher, etc.

Nathaniel has always been a shy, quiet kid but his parents raised him to be assertive and to question authority if necessary

the first time Nathaniel realizes he is different is when he is three years old and starts preschool, during lunch he can't eat what the other children are eating in case the food is not kosher

his parents contact the preschool, who refuse to provide a kosher/pork-free option or let Nathaniel pack his own lunch, they compromise to let him go home for lunch instead

December rolls around, and the other children are excited about Christmas, except for Nathaniel, who is excited about Hanukkah but can't help but feel a bit left out

at six years old, another boy in his class starts running his hands through Nathaniel's hair out of the blue, "I heard that your people have horns, where are yours"

at eight years old, a girl in his class sees the gold Star of David necklace that Nathaniel always wears and starts bombarding him with questions

Nathaniel knows that she has no bad intentions but can't help feeling a bit uncomfortable and othered

at nine years old, during a class debate on the hijab ban, another boy says how anyone who wears their religious symbols are not truly French and should go back to where they came from, leaving Nathaniel flushing with shame and anger

at eleven years old, he begins attending Collège Françoise Dupont

on his first day of middle school, Principal Damoclés makes him remove his Star of David necklace

he is afraid but looks the principal straight in the eye and refuses, "this is my religion and my identity," he says, his heart pounding and his voice shaking

after a few more resists, Principal Damoclés suspends him

when he goes home to his confused parents, Nathaniel breaks down in tears as he explains Principal Damoclés suspending him on his first day of middle school for his necklace

his furious parents storm over to the school to confront the principal, demanding he allow their son back to school immediately and for him to wear the symbol of his religious pride

Principal Damoclés lets him back the next day but Nathaniel never wears his necklace to school again, only at home and in non-school settings

the day he returns to school, fellow classmate Alix Kubdel approaches him

Alix explains her family heritage: her family is of Algerian origin and Muslim, and while she can pass as white, her parents and brother have faced racism, Alix's mother have even had her hijab ripped off by an old white man on public transit and no one defended her

Nathaniel knows that he, as a white-presenting boy, cannot relate to the experiences of Alix or her mother, but appreciates having a friend who understands

he invited Alix to his bar mitzvah

he loves learning about the Holocaust, it is painful but his ancestors' strength and resilience make him proud, he can't stand how all of his classmates seem to stare at him during class whenever it comes up

in his third year, he is placed in Miss Bustier's class with Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Chloé Bourgeois, Sabrina Raincomprix, Rose Lavillant, Juleka Couffaine, Lê Chiến Kim and Max Kanté

when he arrives at school one morning he sees a swastika drawn in permanent marker on his desk, drawn by Chloé "Can't he make sushi like everyone else" Bourgeois

he reports it to a furious Miss Bustier, who sends Chloé to Principal Damoclés, who lets her off with a mere warning, which infuriates Nathaniel and his parents

as much as he wants to stay home from school the next day, Nathaniel is determined to not let Chloé win and shows up at school the next day

a sneering Chloé comes up to him, but before Chloé could open her mouth, fellow classmate Marinette Dupain-Cheng spoke up

"you suck, Chloé." Marinette glares at the blonde. "you speak of him as if he is below you, but he's got more nerve in his finger than your entire body"

Rose and Juleka join in, "Leave him alone, Chloé" "go pick on someone your own size, someone with an overinflated head like you"

Chloé started bullying Marinette

meanwhile, Nathaniel starts to fall for Marinette and becomes closer to Rose and Juleka

in the middle of his fourth and final year, he gets over his crush on Marinette/Ladybug and instead starts falling for Marc Anciel, with whom he works on their Ladybug comics

he confides his feelings for Marc to Alix

"you might be bi or pan," Alix, who is aromantic and an expert in LGBT terminology, explains to him

he first comes out as bisexual to Alix, who is nothing but incredibly supportive and proud of her best friend

Rose and Juleka (canon girlfriends!) are the next to know, and he grows closer to the girls than ever

Nathaniel is hesitant to come out to his parents, however: he feels like he is betraying the Jewish identity his parents instilled in him since childhood by coming out to them

he begins to research queer Jewish identity on the Internet and hears stories of others from all across the globe, who are queer, Jewish and proud

Nathaniel eventually asks out Marc, who agrees to be his boyfriend and he is happier than ever

Marc isn't Jewish but is more than happy to learn about Jewish culture and to fight anyone who dares to say anything antisemitic, whether about Nathaniel or not

since he started dating Marc, Nathaniel gains the courage to come out to his parents, who immediately accept him, much to his pleasant surprise

"you are our son, and our religion accepts everyone," his father says

"love is love, and if this boy Marc makes you happy, that's all that matters," his mother says

he gets into the same design school as Marc and Marinette for high school

in his first year of high school, he and Marc finally publish their Ladybug comics, which quickly become successful

towards his final years of high school, he begins studying for the baccalauréat while continuing his relationship with Marc and their comics and applying for his birthright trip

on his final year of high school, he passes the bac littéraire along with Marc and Marinette, and the three reunite with their middle school friends to celebrate

soon after graduating high school, he leaves for birthright (Alix cried buckets of tears at the airport)

the trip is the best ten days of his life, Nathaniel feels at home as he connects with other French Jews and Jews from across the globe and visits the cultural sites

shortly after his return to France, Nathaniel invites Marc to the Seine, where he gets down on one knee, much to the latter's delight (they both cry tears of joy that night)

his and Marc's wedding was the most beautiful day ever, they have a traditional Jewish wedding filled with ketubah, chuppah, glass breaking, joy, light and love

30 notes · View notes

gummmy · 1 month

Text

Btz: Sporty my love.

References at bottom. Shout out to my friends for helping me come up with her color scheme.

#my art #personal project #character design #do not reupload #btz #dirt bike #muslim characters #zombies #sketch #apocalypse #her name will probably change #I suck at names #bounty hunter #portfolio

10 notes · View notes

sappholovell · 3 months

Text

I want to write a novel with a largely POC cast, and I'm looking for opinions and feedback before writing the first draft.

The main poc identities that I'm looking for feedback and input on are:

Native American/Indigenous Americans

Black Americans

Japanese Americans (or immigrants to America)

Muslim Americans or Muslims who live in America, especially of Middle Eastern ancestry

If you aren't part of these cultures but still want to see your culture represented, I want to hear it. There may or may not be space for a character in the draft, but I will write down anything you say for future works too.

I want to write a. urban fantasy novel about queer werewolves and fae (with a diverse cast of both supernatural and human characters) but as a half-white, half-Latina author living in the USA I want some input on what you as a POC person would like to see more or less of in fiction. I want to hear about your culture and the type of characteristics that you do or definitely DO NOT want to see in a fictional character. I'm apprehensive about giving animalistic traits (because werewolves) to POC characters since in the USA there is a long history of propaganda giving such traits to people of color to dehumanize them, so I would like to primarily discuss what exactly I'm thinking for that and why, and if you're okay with the way I want to write it, if you want to set some boundaries, or if it's a hard no.

I mainly use DMs on Tumblr, but I also use Twitter DMs and I made a Discord account specifically for this. Mind you, I don't know how to use Discord so you'll probably need to explain it to me first. Thank you!

#POC #Writblr #poc representation #native american #native american culture #native american characters #black representation #asian representation #muslim characters #writers on tumblr #seriously i'm kind of scared to write this book'#I WANT YOUR OPINIONS

14 notes · View notes

pulpandgristle · 7 months

Text

V: A CITY ON A HILL

Pilot ID: Matthias Shawcross, third-generation bioframe veteran of the Mourning War

Status: Inactive (Honorable discharge)

Asset Class: Bioframe, bipedal combat model, low-gravity configuration (Deceased)

Site of Asset Decommission: Colony Veritas, Bay of New Antioch aquatic terraforming facility

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Citizen: Intissar bint Yushib

Homeworld: Yushib

Status: Active (Yushib, shore of the Sea of Lilies)

Current Assignment: Field technician, translator and diplomat (Septarchy occupation)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Begin transmission.

Greetings from the Sea of Lilies. To my comrades in the Periphery, blessings and salutations. To the people of the Septarchy, listen closely.

I am Intissar bint Yushib—Intissar, the daughter of Yushib, the Jewel of Achernar, Shelter at River's End, my homeworld. You would slander Her as "Colony Veritas". I will do Her no such dishonor.

The Septarchy tribunals that discover this message will likely know who I am. I have worked alongside them for many years. If you are listening, Executors, you may consider this my resignation.

I speak today with pride and love. In the name of my mother and all her mothers before her, I hereby renounce my vows to the Septarchy, vows that were extracted from me unwillingly, through pain and coercion, and in their place I choose to bear the banner of Yushib, a free world of the Periphery.

There is an estuary, not far from here, whose shape mirrors the transit of Adila, Yushib's moon. The arc of the river follows naturally into the sea, a near-perfect parabola. My family and I have tended to that estuary for more than two hundred years. My ancestors sculpted its banks to honor Adila in her travels.

Today, I was supposed to demolish that estuary and bury a leviathan in the upturned silt. I will be doing no such thing. That animal will rest, in time, naturally, as all dead things do . . . but not until I am done. Not until there are words as inalienable as the estuary.

Not until you understand.

At this very moment, Yushib is changing. Being changed. Scarred. The Septarchy calls this mutilation "terraforming"; they intend to flood my homeworld's rivers, to call down rains and salts and metals and build a hive for their leviathans atop Her corpse. My family's work will be wiped away along with several million lives if they succeed in this task.

The estuary is a statement. It carries knowledge and intent. During the initial invasions, my people used it and many other landmarks to plot orbital trajectories and cement the paths of celestial bodies as an inalienable truth. Stone carvings could not be disrupted by electromagnetic bursts, and Septarchy pilots were too ignorant to read them.

Today I was the escort of Matthias Shawcross, a perplexing man who I found endlessly fascinating. He had a curious build, mantis-like, dead-eyed, stretched along the spine by years of microgravity exposure. He was one of the Septarchy's heroes. He conquered Yushib astride a weapon too terrible for living memory. He and I were to conduct a burial together.

I have obliged him the burial, at least.

Shawcross was in need of my people's help. His war machine is very sick, you see. It can hardly complete reentry without injury, a pitiable animal by the Septarchy's definitions. With the combined force of earthmoving equipment and targeted kinetic bombardment, we were to put it out of its misery.

I remember him so clearly, watching me from the edge of estuary. He encouraged me, called me words I will not repeat, and held his service weapon with such sickening confidence. Of course, if he had his way, I would have fallen into his leviathan's grave as soon as I had finished digging it.

He was merciful by Septarchy standards. Nowadays there is little need for pretense. Perhaps he was the sentimental type.

This burial would be a claiming of sorts. An annexation in miniature. Septarchy leviathans are unbothered by physical death, and when they become useless they simply cease to move. The mechanisms of urgency and war proceed unbidden, impotent, confined within their hulking shells. They are buried as testaments—and to poison the worlds of the Septarchy's enemies.

Shawcross intended to destroy the path of Yushib's moon with that final gesture. He would destroy the estuary my family has tended to since Earth still spoke to the Periphery, since before my ancestors engineered a dozen calendars to pray to the rhythms of a dozen setting suns, since before my great-grandfather returned to me in the last year of his life, having finished a sixty-year Hajj and come home with only a handful of sand, equal parts Arabian soil and post-nuclear glass.

Septarchy leviathans are poisonous by design. They bleed radiation and oil and solvents and anger, and bullets if they are provoked enough. Man undergoes the same transformation with extra steps, using proxies, animals of rock and plastic that he chooses to call tools. The Septarchy are simply cruel enough to bend thinking creatures to this purpose. The change is unremarkable otherwise.

The Periphery makes no such concessions. Even the inanimate can carry the will of the holy. My plow, my trowel, my mother's knives, these are animals of a type, born from Yushib and Her sisters, hewn out of Her metals and Her plant fibers and Her human attendants. They are engines of potential inspired by mankind's connections to the divine, limitless and undirected and beautiful.

They are not leviathans. They are not bombs. The power to wage war should only be humanity's burden, but the Septarchy have spread that terrible duty to others unfit for the task. They would make the rivers bloodthirsty if they possessed the means. Perhaps they do.

Shawcross called himself intelligent. The Septarchy claims to teach, but I have only kept the pieces that they fused to my people. I have learned a cumbersome dialect whose words fit sharp and unwieldly in my mouth. I have learned that the children of Yushib will not be remembered because we have not done anything worth remembering. I have learned that the Septarchy are bad liars.

I have learned so much about funerals.

When my grandmother passed, it was a special occasion. I think of it happily. Mother taught me the Ṣalāt al-Janāzah and I wore a beautiful gown to the proceedings. There were figs in bloom on the river's edge when we returned her to Yushib. That night, I had them roasted with honey and almonds over dinner. Mother was proud of me.

I will name my daughter after my grandmother when the time comes. Even when I was young, I could not resent her leaving us. That day remains one of the best days of my life, because I was there, and so was she, and now we are together on Yushib. She did not have to see the orbital strikes, to see my mother's body reject a prosthetic hand. To see the mosque burn and crumble under Adila's light.

Every sweet fruit is my grandmother now. It makes me smile.

Mourning is supposed to be clumsy, raw, upsetting but ultimately healing. Colony Veritas has torn that tapestry of feelings apart. There is no organic process now. Even the agony is extracted with ruthless efficiency. Desecrated ashes flung over cliffs. Men dumped from airships into mile-wide ditches. There is no river, no tree to cry underneath.

You have made me an accomplice. My prayers are reduced to tools, to hammers, the enhanced hands of an efficient laborer who works not for rest and family and worship but for the drudgery of more work. I was made into the final link in a chain of predictable, reproducible human disassembly. Yes, he is blessed. Now, he goes.

I remember it so clearly, hearing the hammer click back under Shawcross's thumb.

I pause. He barks another slur, the swine. His settler's words scrape surly and abrasive against the afternoon air. I have missed my midday prayer for this. I tell him so. He shoots me in the gut.

Yes, your pilot betrays me. Yes, he tackles me, threatens to defile me and my world, and yes, I slice open his throat with his own combat knife, clumsily unsheathed and pressed to my belly but reclaimed with a single twisting grasp. He stains my hijab with the hatred and blood and radiation that pours in maroon curtains through his opened self. Yes, he is blessed. Now, he goes.

Next.

The Septarchy would strip Yushib bare. It is just a stepping stone to them, not a Mother, not a Living World, not a jewel placed in the sky for humanity to cherish. In another time, we could have held that jewel together. Perhaps later, in a distant time, we can try again. But not yet. Not while this is the fourteenth burial I have made in three years, and another hundred are yet to come. Not while I have to practice letting go of the dirt so that I can finish burying mother.

I want so badly to mourn, but I have lost all that is inside me to mourn with. The Septarchy has taken even grief from me. I will never forgive that, and Yushib will not either.

My mother taught me well. She said that the universe is a patient judge, and that She is not kind to the guilty.

Your pilot's leviathan still breathes, diseased and weak. Frail. A man, I choose to believe. He wheezes in the dry air.

I stumble to my feet, legs trembling, and fall backwards over the edge of the leviathan's grave. We sound alike, him and I. Two castoffs of empire stuck in another ditch.

As I fall into his cavernous chest, a cockpit gutted for parts until it is raw bone and searching nerves, I think of my grandmother, and her rasping sandpaper laugh, and her shawls, and her holding my mother in all those photos, still so alive and bright and small, and the pastries that the two of them taught me to knead by hand on Eid al-Fitr.

He catches me. I collide with the embrace of another living thing, too weak for contempt, or perhaps too strong for it, even now. The kindness of the act destroys me.

He says I can be healed. I accept, and I weep at my fortune. I have finally learned something of value from the Septarchy.

We will stay together, I think. I intend to return home—my wounds are survivable and besides, mother needs me—but Yushib will decide when. Let the hours come. I trust Her more than anything. The Sea of Lilies can hold the leviathan.

I remember what the Septarchy taught me of the pilots. I have mimicked their rituals in my own time, and the leviathan can see that. I have nestled in him, here, in the estuary, beneath the water, where he can breathe for me and I can keep him company. He weeps too, in his own way. Shawcross wielded him without care. But I am not Shawcross.

The current is warm. The blood is washing out. Slowly.

He feels gentle. I am at peace in him, and he cradles me. Mother cradles me. Grandmother cradles me. Even your leviathans surrender to the land, Executors. My family has stolen this one.

We will not surrender. Not ever again.

The suns will rise tomorrow, my skin will knit closed, and I will live. The leviathan will sleep, patient, simple, and he will live. Yushib will turn for another year. She will always live. Beyond the Periphery, beyond the Septarchy, beyond war, beyond blood, the Jewel of Achernar will shine, a jasper marble in the infinite sea of creation, stronger than all of you. My Mother will live.

My people will live.

Forever.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you can, please donate to the PCRF to help Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and abroad. Every dollar counts.

#my writing #biopunk #flash fiction #mecha #scifi #science fiction #microfiction #gristlebits #queer artist #muslim characters #cw: body horror #cw: gore #sarcoclast

14 notes · View notes

eddieheart · 5 months

Text

So I’m thinking of writing a story and in it there will be a Muslim character, as I started planning specifics I realized I don’t know all that much about the religion/culture and I want to know everything that anyone can tell me!

The character herself is in her twenties, living in the states. She does wear a hijab, for herself though, not because she oppressed/forced to in any way. The character works as a waitress at a family restaurant. She’s a genuinely kind hearted and sweet person even if she’s not always given the same treatment in return.

Please help me in any way you can, I want to know about holidays, dietary restrictions, dress, culture, hijabs and other coverings, and about any resources you might have to find this kind of information.

Thank you!

#writing #original female character #character design #muslim characters #I really just want to do her justice and make her portrayal as respectful as possible #name suggestions would be great too

8 notes · View notes

writingwithcolor · 2 years

Text

Middle Eastern /Arab Muslim mercenaries

Anonymous asked:

Hi there. I wanted to write a Middle Eastern action story set in near future Kurdistan. These are 5 of the most important points: 1) It’s about a syndicate called “The Kurdish Order”. 2) My two heroines are a Kurdish woman and her Arab partner. 3) The reason for them living their lives as professional assassins was because their parents were survivors of a civil war in their country. 4) The supporting characters are the Kurdish woman’s parents who contacts her from the headquarters via a radio, and informs her about the targets’ whereabouts. 5) The main villain is an Arab woman whose evil plan is to distribute a lot of firearms to the mercenaries around the world. When the two heroines confronts her and asks, “What did your parents taught you when you were young?”, the villain’s response is; “You’re correct, my nemeses. This is not a ‘My mom and dad hated me for no reason when I was young’ type of excuse. It’s more of a ‘My mom and dad taught me that the world is about the survival of the fittest’ type of motive.”. The issue here is that I want my story to take place in the Middle East, but I don’t want to perpetuate the “Muslims = Mercenaries” stereotypes. Would my story still work the same if my characters are coded as Christians or Atheists?

I don’t know enough about this topic to speak on it authoritatively but I do want to point out that Kurdistan isn’t currently a country. It isn’t clear from your ask whether you want to set your story in a near-future setting in which Kurds have gained independence and founded their own country, or whether you are referring to the geographic region that spans present-day Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran in which Kurdish peoples are mostly concentrated.

Either way, it’s worth noting that Kurds are currently a marginalized ethnic minority in all of the countries in which they reside. Kurdish nationalism dates back over a thousand years and has a complex history including many instances of violent repression. If you are not Kurdish yourself, I would recommend doing a lot of research into Kurdish history and current political issues before attempting to write this story.

-Niki

The Middle East is diverse in ethnicities and beliefs. Even though Islam is the religion that many people from the region follow, is not the only one. My suggestion in this case, to avoid the “Muslims = Mercenaries”, is to give your readers a clear image of how much of a mosaic the Middle East is. And this can only happen when the worldbuilding is correctly done and the focus is not only on the Muslims but on the rest of the people as well and their customs. As for the rest of your question, I agree with Niki that before you proceed with this project you must inform yourselves deeply about Kurdish history and especially the current political climate

-Asmaa

We would like to turn this over to our Kurdish and Arab readers. How do you feel about the asker’s story premise? What advice do you have for them and which stereotypes would you like them to avoid?

#Kurdish #Middle eastern #Kurdish women #Arab #Arabian #Middle Eastern Women #Islam #Muslim stereotypes #Muslim characters #asks #Arab women #villains

340 notes · View notes

aesthetics-for-harry-potter · 10 months

Text

Moodboard of Lily Evans as a Muslim.

Requested by: anon.

#Harry Potter #harry potter series #harry potter fandom #Harry Potter Characters #harry potter graphic #harry potter aesthetic #harry potter edit #harry potter moodboard #Lily Evans #Muslim Characters #for anon #mod cassandra

11 notes · View notes

intothestacks · 2 months

Text

Children's Books About Minorities (4/?)

Amira’s Picture Day by Reem Faruqi

A sweet story about one of the struggles of being from a minority religion that people from the majority religion may not even think about: celebrating a holiday that falls outside of official holiday days (many of which cater only to the majority religion). It can also be used to talk about how these struggles are similar to those of minority cultures regardless of religion, as only the majority culture’s celebrations tend to get official time off (e.g. lunar new year is a huge deal in many Asian cultures regardless of an individual’s religion).

#kidlit #children's literature #children's books #librarylife #libraryland #school librarian #libraries #school libraries #minority representation #holidays #muslim characters

3 notes · View notes

platypusbunnyfromthetardis · 1 year

Text

Enough about the Doctor celebrating Christmas with their companions.

Where are the fics of Yaz inviting 13 for Eid Al Fitr?

#13th doctor #thasmin #yasmin khan #eid al fitr #thasmin headcanon #thasmin fics #muslim yaz #muslim characters

26 notes · View notes

muslimsinmedia · 6 months

Text

Shahara Hasan

Shahara Hasan from Bodies

#shahara hasan #netflix #netflix series #netflix bodies #bodies #muslim #muslims in media #muslim characters

41 notes · View notes

battyaboutbooksreviews · 4 months

Text

🦇 I Was Born for This Book Review 🦇

❝ In an otherwise mediocre existence, we choose to feel passion. ❞

❓ #QOTD What band did you love just a little too much growing up?

[ Find my review below or on Insta | Storygraph | Literal ]

❝ Most adults see teenagers as confused kids who don't understand much, while they're the pillars of knowledge and experience and know exactly what is right at all times. I think the truth is that everyone in the entire world is confused and nobody understands much of anything at all. ❞ 🦇 Alice Oseman's I Was Born for This is an exploration of friendship, self-identity, and the effects of fame. "Angel" Rahimi lives and breathes one thing: The Ark, a boy band of growing, world-renowned fame. Joining The Ark's fandom has given Angel her best friend, Juliet, a community, and a place in the world. Too bad her Muslim family can't understand why The Ark takes up so much space in Angel's boundless heart. The band's frontman, Jimmy Kaga-Ricci, knows The Ark owes their fans everything, but sometimes...they're a bit much. It doesn't help that their more intense fans are shipping Jimmy and his bandmate, Rowan, or that their constant presence is triggering his anxiety. When Angel visits Juliet in London to meet the band for the first time, reality comes crashing down on all of them. Sometimes, fame isn't all it seems.

💜 It's no surprise that Alice Oseman has artistically explored coming-of-age themes through the universal concept of connecting through music. The Ark and resulting fandom give Angel a family and community; a sense of belonging she lacked in high school. At the same time, her position in the fandom has erased her individualism and identity (her real name is Fereshteh, which translates to Angel). As much as she loves the band, she's not IN love with them though. The Boys--Jimmy, Rowan, and Lister--have lost parts of themselves as well. Fans see the versions of them they want to see, and The Boys, knowing they owe their fans everything, smile and play their parts. They don't see Jimmy's debilitating anxiety, the relationship Rowan is trying to hide from the press, or Lister's depression, alcoholism, or bruised bisexual heart.

🦇 This is a deeply character-driven story; a story that's focused on growing up through friendships and found family, NOT romantic entanglements. As always, Oseman excels at creating diverse, nuanced characters, including: 🎵 Jimmy: trans, biracial Indian and Italian, gay, with severe anxiety 🎵 Angel: Iranian, hijabi, Muslim, queer and questioning 🎵 Rowan: biracial, Nigerian, and very protective of Jimmy 🎵 Lister: bisexual struggling with alcoholism and depression

🦇 One of the most important messages in this story is to love yourself first. The Boys get lost in their fame, which leads them to neglect who they are and what they need, while Angel loses herself (and potentially, her future) in the fandom. As a coming-of-age story, it's also a reminder that it's okay NOT to be okay; that recognizing as much doesn't make you weak, but human. However, I do think the final act is a little messy. Since the story is character-driven, the first half drags, while the second half feels like a tangle of ideas and motivations. I think the story would have been stronger if it focused on the three boys; if they gained Angel's perspective through a fan letter instead. There's so much to Rowan and Lister's story we haven't seen yet.

🦇 Recommended to fans of diverse casts, coming-of-age stories, and all things Alice Oseman.

✨ The Vibes ✨ 🎵 Muslim MC / Trans MC 🎶 Dual POV 🎸 Exploring Identity, Friendship, Fame 🎶 Mental Health Rep 🎵 Connection Through Music

🦇 TW: panic attacks, suicidal ideation, alcoholism, assault, suicide attempt

#books #book blog #book lovers #booklr #book reviews #book reader #book review #queer romance #queer books #queer community #queer #trans books #trans community #mental health #book: i was born for this #author: alice oseman #muslim characters #batty about books #battyaboutbooks

5 notes · View notes