December 11, 2023
Iranian American Mitra Esfahani, a high school senior, can’t wait to finally graduate from her Bellevue, Wash., Catholic school. Still, she’s excited for her selective poetry seminar, which she’ll be taking with her Mexican American best friend Bea Ortega, with whom Mitra has been collaboratively drafting an ongoing poem for years. Bisexual Mitra has long held a secret flame for lesbian Bea but has feared risking their friendship or unintentionally interfering in Bea’s relationships. Now that Bea is single, however, she notices Mitra’s pining and the two decide to date. But Mitra frets about Bea’s ex, Cara, who is also in their poetry seminar, and is further unsettled when her father announces that he has been talking with Mitra’s drug-dependent mother, whom the family moved away from. With college decisions looming, anxieties about her new relationship brewing, and unresolved anger toward her mom festering, Mitra struggles to hold everything together. Akhbari skillfully enmeshes myriad poetic styles with organic depictions of Iranian culture and food, and channels the insecurities of adolescence and the overlapping pressures of growing up to worthy effect in this promising debut. Ages 14–up.
Starred review from January 15, 2024
Poetry, first love, and family trauma all play roles in a queer Iranian American teen's coming of age. Mitra Esfahani, a "Muslim-Zoroastrian raised-in-Catholic-school weirdo," has worn a protective shell since she was young, ever since her mother's addiction to painkillers reached a tipping point and changed her family forever. Her lifeline has always been poetry: It both connects her to her heritage through her love for ancient Persian poets and also forms a bond with her best friend and secret crush, Bea Ortega, who's Mexican American. Together, with the help of The Book (the ongoing, shared work of confessional poetry that they began writing the year they met), the two seniors have withstood the trials of being queer people of color at their stuffy private Catholic school in upscale Medina, Washington. When Bea expresses her attraction, Mitra is euphoric about finally being able to show her true feelings--but she's also convinced she's going to screw everything up. Things become more complicated as ghosts of Mitra's traumatic childhood resurface, forcing her to confront the way her history has been holding her back without her realizing it. The author, a therapist, offers a heartbreaking but hopeful portrayal of parental addiction and its impact on families, written in lyrical first-person prose alternating with excerpts of poetry. Chat logs, passed notes, and other ephemera are included, which lend authenticity to Mitra and her world. Expressive, emotional, and quietly optimistic. (Fiction. 13-18)
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Starred review from February 1, 2024
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Mitra never understood why her Iranian Muslim father enrolled her at Holy Trinity Catholic school. She transferred in eighth grade not expecting to make a friend, let alone fall in love. Enter Bea, co-conspirator from day one, devoted best friend, and author of the note--in which they first traded original poems--that started it all. A few years, 13 notebooks, and one Never-Ending Poem later, Mitra is in love with Bea. Clich�? Yes, and Mitra is determined that Bea never know. It's senior year, and they're in a poetry seminar together, so close to graduation and moving to Seattle to live their best queer lives, but no plan is a sure thing. Suddenly Jaleh, Mitra's mother, is newly sober and trying to reenter her life, but Mitra can't forget the "before" like Azar, her younger sister, has. Mitra has kept more than just her romantic feelings from Bea, and it just might ruin everything. In Akhbari's powerful debut, poetry gives life to the text through the verses of Mitra and Bea, as well as the renowned poets they read, like Mary Oliver, Rumi, and Naomi Shihab Nye. This is laugh-out-loud funny, poignant, realistic, and heartbreaking in the best way, and perfect for teens with literary aspirations who want to read about big feelings.
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June 7, 2024
Gr 9 Up-Mitra, an Iranian American teen living in Bellevue, WA, with her dad and sister, is surviving life one day at a time. With her dad's parting words of, "Make it the best day of your life," Mitra starts anew, sitting in a Catholic school, the daughter of a Muslim, reeling with imposter syndrome. When fate throws a curveball Mitra's way in the shape of a spit ball, she embarks on a journey of truth, love, and forgiveness beginning with Bea Ortega, her newfound friend. Bea becomes Mitra's one constant in life as she struggles to deal with the effects of her mother's addiction struggles on her family. Mitra embraces writing to make sense of the world she now lives in. Poetry becomes the thread that binds the girls amongst the fear, feelings of inadequacy, family, and forgiveness that serve as rites of passage to coming of age in this tenderly written novel. Bea and Mitra's journey from friendship to more unfolds through the awkwardness of learning to love and trust amidst spatters of notes, chats, and heartfelt lyrical prose. Akhbari's experience as a mental health therapist by day and a writer by night is the avenue through which these words come alive. VERDICT A love affair among poetry, Iranian culture, and teenage angst is happily fused in Akhbari's debut.-Mitzi Mack
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