A Very Large Expanse of Sea
From the New York Times bestselling author of the Shatter Me series comes a powerful, heartrending contemporary YA novel about fear, first love, and the devastating impact of prejudice.
Very Large Expanse of Sea is an incredibly authentic account of both modern day Islamaphobia and real teenage life based on the experiences of Tahereh herself.
Tahereh has a significant online presence with over 90k followers on both Instagram and Twitter. The announcement of Restore Me crashed her account.
It's 2002, a year after 9/11, and Shirin has just started at yet another new high school. It's an extremely turbulent time politically, but especially so for a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl who's tired of being stereotyped. Shirin is never surprised by how horrible people can be. She's tired of the rude stares, the degrading comments - even the physical violence she endures as a result of her race, her religion, and the hijab she wears every day.
Shirin drowns her frustrations in music and spends her afternoons break-dancing with her brother. But then she meets Ocean James. He's the first person in forever who really seems to want to get to know her. It terrifies her - they seem to come from two irreconcilable worlds - and Shirin has had her guard up against the world for so long that she's not sure she'll ever be able to let it down.