A Very Large Expanse of Sea is about a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl named Shirin. The story takes place in New York in 2002, one year after 9/11, and Shirin faces a lot of discrimination and racism wherever she goes. This causes her to not socialize with anyone at her school or in general, besides her older brother, Navid. She is passionate about breakdancing, and she joins a crew with Navid and his two friends, Carlos and Jacobi. Breakdancing becomes her way of self-expression and escape from reality. That same day, when she goes to her Biology class, she meets a boy named Ocean James. She and Ocean start off as just lab partners, but then as they work together more and talk to each other about things going on in their lives, they begin to learn so much more about each other that their friendship grows and they become very close.
I picked this book out from the library not necessarily knowing what it was going to be about. As I started reading it, I could see that I had made a good choice. The story was well-paced and I enjoyed learning about the characters and their different personalities. I liked that the characters also felt relatable and weren’t too exaggerated. I also enjoy reading realistic fiction, so that may have also made me like the book a bit more.
Overall, I would give this book 5/5 stars because it was a nice surprise for me, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I would recommend it to people who like realistic fiction and books about friendship.
-- Xenia
Great post! I also love taking a gamble on an unknown book in the library, and I like it even more when the book turns out to be great. I am glad yours turned out great too. I also really like realistic fiction and with a 5/5 review, I think that this would be a cool book to check out.
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