Love, Hate, & Other Filters

Love, Hate, & Other Filters

YA fiction
"The night is beautiful, clear, and bright with silvery stars.
But of course I'm walking across a noxious parking lot with my parents
toward a wedding where a well meaning auntie [honorific for adult, not
blood kin] will certainly pinch my cheeks like I'm two years old, and
a kindly uncle [same] will corner me about my college plans with the
inevitable question: premed or prelaw? In other words, it's time to
wear a beauty pageant smile while keeping a very stiff upper lip..."
Maya, protagonist of Samira Ahmed's Love, Hate, & Other Filters,
must choose between being the good daughter her traditional Indian
parents desire her to be and following her dreams. Their plans
include a college close to home, a high status, secure career, and
marriage to a proper Indian boy from a good family. She has secretly
applied to and been accepted by New York University, the school of her
dreams, to study film making. She has to tell her parents soon and
dreads the drama. The parent approved good Indian boy she's
introduced to at the wedding doesn't make her heart race like her
school's very white football captain.
This clash between two worlds and Maya's quest for self
determination would make for a fascinating enough book. But there's
also an undercurrent of suspense. Between chapters there are terse
descriptions of a troubled young man whose actions will bring
heightened prejudice down on Maya's Islamic family.
Love, Hate, & Other Filters is the authentic coming of age
narrative of a woman with some pretty high stakes decisions to make in
a frighteningly unpredictable world.
I can't end this review without quoting the end of the author's
note;
"And for those who bear the brunt of hope because of the color
of their skin, or the sound of their name, or the scarf on their head,
or the person they love; for those who are spat upon, for those who
are told to 'go home' when they are home: You are known. You are
loved. You are enough. Let your light shine.
I wrote this book for you."
On a personal note, I am in the middle of a two day snow storm and so
glad I don't have to walk to the bus stop in the middle of it. I'm
chilling with precious Joey cat--reading, writing, and spring
cleaning. Last night we and Eugene watched Home Alone 2, one of my
favorites. I had plenty of Christmas candy. Talk about quality time!
I still have thirteen days of vaca left. I'm seriously missing work
and my work family. I've been looking through cookbooks to find new
recipes to try out on them and a blank book in which to copy down the
ones they like.
A great big shout out goes out to my work family who I miss very much.
jules hathaway



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