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A Very Large Expanse of Sea
A Very Large Expanse of Sea
A Very Large Expanse of Sea
Audiobook6 hours

A Very Large Expanse of Sea

Written by Tahereh Mafi

Narrated by Priya Ayyar

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

()

About this audiobook

A National Book Award Longlist title!

From the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Shatter Me series comes a powerful, heartrending contemporary novel about fear, first love, and the devastating impact of prejudice.

It’s 2002, a year after 9/11. It’s an extremely turbulent time politically, but especially so for someone like Shirin, 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. So she’s built up protective walls and refuses to let anyone close enough to hurt her. Instead, she 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 Shirin. It terrifies her—they seem to come from two irreconcilable worlds—and Shirin has had her guard up for so long that she’s not sure she’ll ever be able to let it down.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateOct 16, 2018
ISBN9780062888198
Author

Tahereh Mafi

Tahereh Mafi is the New York Times bestselling author of the Shatter Me and This Woven Kingdom series, the latter of which has been published in over 30 languages around the world. She was born in a small city somewhere in Connecticut and currently resides in Santa Monica, California, with her husband, Ransom Riggs, fellow bestselling author of Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children, and their young daughter. She can usually be found overcaffeinated and stuck in a book.

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Reviews for A Very Large Expanse of Sea

Rating: 4.319946484605087 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

747 ratings38 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    3.8 ?
    I really did enjoy this but I wasn't 100% obsessed with it. Yes I liked most of the characters, the plot was shocking and thought provoking but I genuinely wasn't the biggest fan of the relationship. Max

    2 people found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    One of the best books I’ve read in a while. Electric and emotional, Mafi, speaks for those who have not been heard. This one will stay with me. So glad I happened upon it.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    love love love love it! one of the best audiobooks I've ever listened <3

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The narration was amazing!! Loved the voice!! Beautiful book❤️

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    i like it, except where they kissed and everything, because im a muslim myself, and i know its against the law of muslim. but overall, the narration is good and i love it.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I want more, ???please make book number 2. Awesome reading.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Why people so terrible?
    I feel related to Shirin because I am Muslim and wear hijab too.
    Really like the story and how Shirin character develop..
    Love Ocean James so much.. can't you be real and be mine T.T

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Amazing book....intense, raw and honest. I loved everything about it!

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A book all should read, not just YA - and not just or the romance but the REALITY of Shirin's situation. As a teacher, I was angered by the teacher's behavior. As a human, I was enraged at the attitude of others....so much so that is still prevalent in our world today - sadly!

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Loved every bit of this. I love all of Tahereh Mafi’s books!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    amazing. amazing amazing. ended up loving this book more thanks to the incredible narrator
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I thought this book was cute. I liked the Romance. I also liked the moral of the story and I particularly loved the very end though it seemed pretty unremarkable. The narrator was great. It was easy to fall into the story. To feel like I was the one reading and not all audio books can do that.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    i love this book so much ?? ocean, i want to have your kids
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It was heartwarming. I enjoyed reading this book, though it wasn't what I expected. There were the kissing parts which portrayed that it's okay for a Muslim teenager to kiss. The behaviour isn't allowed in Islam.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What an amazing book! Loved Shirin and Ocean so much!!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book is so raw and real about the struggles that people who look differently, speak differently, or are from a different religion go through on a daily basis. It’s not right that we judge people to the point that Shirin was in this book. We are human beings, cut from the same cloth, and I feel like this book does an amazing job at giving an eye opening look at what it’s like to grow up Muslim after 9/11.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Sweet love story that brings ugly stereotypes to light. Light quick, feel-good read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved it, the presentation was very simple and easy to understand. First read of 2020 and more to come ❤️
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved this book so much. This was such and interesting, captivating and enthralling read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I have a lot to say about this one but I'm going to save it for rmy journal.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Very well written and important read. The characters were complex and amazing, the romance had the roles reversed and I love Shirin. Hands down one of the best books I have ever read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wiw, just wow. Amazing book, definetly would read again?I loved it
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Amazing book that made me think so much about how I treat other people and how sick our society really is :(
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    My favorite book ever omg my heart is so in love with this book ??
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved this story so much I couldn't sleep until I devoured it all
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Mafi's writing style in Shatter Me did NOT work for me, nor do I do romance as a genre, so I was surprised by how much I liked this! I love a prickly protagonist who grows by seeing themself through others' eyes (in that way it reminded me of Eliza and Her Monsters), and I appreciate a straight male love interest who is believable *and* a genuinely good dude.I read this and Darius the Great alongside each other, and having those two very different Persian families in conversation was fun. I was hoping both would be this summer reading list's Aristotle and Dante, and I think that works!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This short young adult novel about Shirin, a 16-year-old Muslim girl in 2002, born in America to Iranian parents, has won numerous awards, including a nomination for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature in 2018.Shirin and her older brother Navid have moved a lot, because her parents are always trying to improve their lives. Navid has an easier time adjusting than Shirin; he is a good-looking male who can protect himself, and perhaps most importantly, he doesn’t wear a head scarf, as does Shirin.Shirin has a virtual spike-covered wall around her to protect her from the slings and arrows of degrading, ill-informed, and cruel insults from fellow high schoolers and even high school teachers. Since the attack on 9/11, however, it has gotten much worse. Mostly she tries to tune it all out (literally) by listening to music all day through headphones that are invisible because of her hijab. She also works out her frustrations physically by practicing break-dancing after school with her brother and some of his friends.She thinks she is weak though because she does get hurt: “I still cared too much. I was still so easily, pathetically, punctured.”Shirin won’t stop wearing the hijab though; she likes, and even needs, the power she feels it gives her over her own body. But Shirin is stronger than she realizes, and remarkably mature and self-confident, and that also helps. After one of her teachers subjected her to an incredibly insensitive episode in class, she wanted to drop his class, and he tried to convince her to stay. She told him:“‘I’m tired as hell, Mr. Jordan. I’ve been trying to educate people for years and it’s exhausting. I’m tired of being patient with bigots. I’m tired of trying to explain why I don’t deserve to be treated like a piece of shit all the time. I’m tired of begging everyone to understand that people of color aren’t all the same, that we don’t all believe the same things or feel the same things or experience the world the same way.’ I shook my head, hard. ‘I’m just — I’m sick and tired of trying to explain to the world why racism is bad, okay? Why is that my job?’”Her newly assigned bio partner, Ocean James, a year older at 17, is different than the rest. He is kind, funny, and seems genuinely interested in getting to know Shirin. He willingly admits his ignorance over her culture and expresses embarrassment about it. And Shirin finds it harder and harder to resist his overtures. But if they were to have a relationship, could it hold up against the reaction of their classmates and the community at large? Furthermore, while Shirin knows from past experience what to expect, she worries over how would it affect Ocean. She feels the need to protect him from what she knows will happen; his white privilege has made him oblivious to the particular cruelty he would be facing by being open about his feelings for Shirin. And yet, it is so hard to resist the pull toward him she feels.Discussion: Mafi said in an interview that this novel was inspired by her own time in high school. One shudders to think about what kids who are “different” in any way have to endure. But if anyone can bring the emotions to life that teens experience, it is Mafi, who’s Shatter Me series shows that she has a unique talent for remembering exactly what it is like to be young, to hurt, to love, to feel passion, to be confused, and to learn to tap into resiliency and strength. For those looking for romance, there are few better than Mafi, but she couches her relationships in commentary on important social issues, so that her books are more than just stories about runaway hormones.Evaluation: This is an excellent book that will resonate with teens who are made to feel like pariahs in high school, as well as for those just looking for a swoony novel.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    diverse teen fiction (10th-grade hijabi Persian meets 11th grade all-american basketball star)

    a sweet love story (with some sizzling kissing scenes) complicated by bigoted high school students and teachers post 9/11.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    My entry for 2021 PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: a book by a Muslim American author

    More than five years ago, I did not finish Tahereh Mafi's Shatter Me. It was too slow-paced for me, so I thought this book is the same thing. Woah! I am actually surprised by how good this book is.
    This is probably my first book about Muslim immigrants in the USA (when 9/11 happened). It reminds me of the famous movie line "My Name is Khan and I'm not a terrorist" (love that movie, btw).
    The main character is one of the most assertive people in literature that I know of. Actually, most characters here are tough (because they have to be), interesting and talented (I see you, Shirin's father).
    I thought this is another romantic cliché I can live without. Well, they're adorable and wholesome and their chemistry is similar to Eleanor and Park. Will definitely read a sequel, if there's any.

    content warning: profanity
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    3.5 YA Compelling and meaningful romance with a relevant twist. Shirin has started her third high school and she is only a sophomore - her family moves around a lot as her father improves his lot and the family's status pursuing the American Dream. Shirin is Iranian-American and wears a hijab, more for personal and cultural reasons than devout religious ones. However, it is 2002 and people make assumptions and rude comments based on what they think they know. This new school and the students and sadly, teachers in it are no different. Shirin is used to it and has lots of coping techniques, mainly keeping to herself, keeping earbuds in under her scarf to listen to music all day, and she is just a tough cookie. Plus she has a cool older brother, Navid and together, they have break-dancing. He doesn't seem to have as much trouble fitting in at new schools for lots of reasons, but here he has already formed a break-dance club, found some guys to join him, and lets Shirin join as well. Shirin meanwhile, has been assigned a lab partner who is unlike all the other kids in all the other schools. Ocean James is polite, interested, caring and determined to get past the box other kids (and Shirin herself) put her in. He is also very good-looking and the school's basketball star. His attention to Shirin, that she initially tries to deflect does not go unnoticed and soon the couple is an item, but everyone thinks they are entitled to weigh in on the topic from Ocean's Mom (he needs a scholarship and Shirin is jeopardizing that) to his jackass coach who flat-out tells Shirin to leave Ocean alone. They are really tough and inspiring young people who are determined to buck the system and the bigotry until something happens that is bigger than both of them and the pressure is too much. Great insight on yet another way/reason kids get bullied - Shirin's point of view is so knowing, that the reader gets to experience everything alongside her. I love the line her father gives her: She has asked him "How do you know if you've done the right thing?" and he replies "If the decision you've made has brought you closer to humanity, then you've done the right thing." (274). Wisdom and grit make this a book worth reading.