Book Reviews (CFCU - Sorry!!)

Am I Really Worth Loving? Review

Am I Really Worth Loving? By PrincessDia12

Overal Review:
This story is one in which captures Islam and thier cultures as well as Islam traditions. However the story also revolves around a secret love story and a broken family, one in which torments Yasser everyday of his life. Never does the hate, the torment the hardship stop for him, even at school its hard and he gets bullied - a constant question that sticks in yaseahs mind is 'Am I Really Worth Loving?' When depression takes over, it can be really hard to know whether he will ever find happiness but a certain person might change that all. Intrigued, go and check out the book!

Positives/What I enjoyed:
- I like how you included meaning for Islamic words at the beginning of your story as it helped the reader (me in this case) understand it better.

- I like how the stories protagonist is a boy (Yasser) and that it starts with his point of view rather than a girls percpective because not so many books have it where its from a males percpective and if it is It's not until later in the book, like with what you did but with the girl's perceptive instead. It just gives a slight originality/difference from other books.

- I belive you did well in conveying Yasser's hard life in a way it made the readers feel connected/ sorry for him however I belive you can still dulge further into making us feel a connection, this can be done by explaining his feelings more ( I have added on what I mean/ How you could do this in constructive criticism, as the last point)

Constructive Critism:
- Ok, my first advice for you would be to show and not tell! Whilst you do show in some points of your book you do not always and I belive that if you do it more and anywhere you can that would make sense then you should. This is so the reader can feel even more engrossed and connected with the story as it creates a more emotional connection (Like with the last point in this section)

For example, instead of saying "I had no choice but to cry in front of my other brothers, they just burst into laughter" show he cried/ imply it for example like this, "Thoes harsh words left nothing but pain, I couldn't control my thoughts, my emotions. Every time I think I'm Ok I am not, I prove that even right now when my eyes starts to water, tears threatening to pour down my face, I'll look weak and broken in front of my brothers, shamelessly they will laugh, they always do"

You see how this is more descriptive and more emotional to read, creating a stronger connection?

-Maybe you could make it more descriptive. What I mean by this is changing your words up every now and then, so instead of always saying your brother laughed, you could perhaps say they snickered. In most cases in which you have used laugh it makes sense that snickered would also work, like when the chandelier broke would be one example. Or you could say 'a smirk plasters to each of thier faces, just proves they have won and are mocking me, no words, no sound needed" or something, just so that every time it's not "they laughed" or "bust out with laughter" etc. It helps the reader not get bored with the same vocabulary and understand the motives behind the "laugh" more. I suggest using a theuraurus to help possibly?
(This is minor and up to you, I just think it would be better switching up the words but🤷🏻‍♀️)

-(Spoilers in this last point for any readers out there) Ok, so what I mean with adding a further connection to Yasser's character by showing his emotions/feelings more is by telling us what he is thinking... Hm, for example...
When you mention his mum thinking he is obese, go further into that and how it makes Yasser feel, yes we know he is suicidal etc and obviously feels bad, show is further within little glimpses like this because you kind off threw that information out there and then moved on to him washing the dishes, it just felt kind of forced in a way.

So what you could do (and to actually get to my point🤦🏻‍♀️) is you could after saying about his mum thinking he's obese say,

"Whilst it is true what my mother says, I don't understand why she must remind me everyday of my clearly pathetic life, its not like I don't already know this fact. It's as if this whole family hates me, in fact they do my mother thinks I'm obese, my dad is always yelling, my brothers slap and push me - do they even love me? It's hard to think they could. Do I even love them?"

Or if he generally isn't t obese and its just his mum putting him down, you could have

"why does she think I'm obese? There are people who are bigger than me and there considered fat - at the most! So W- Why is it that my family must be so cruel? I have done nothing wrong to them to deserve anything that has happened to me"

You see where I'm going with all of this? I'm diving into his thoughts more, and by making the reader read exactly what he is going through helps them understand the pain and his character better, furthermore if he is depressed, it would be good in fact to show him getting hurt over the simplest of things because he thinks 'he's worthless' and a 'screwup' etc. Oh and if you didn't know how to go onto the next line about the dishes after something like that you could say

"However, despite all these horrible, stupid thoughts I still am here washing the dishes and doing chores even though they don't deserve it" or something.

I mean you started doing this when he started to cut because I noticed you started making Yasser ask himself questions but I think it be good to do this through out the book and more often, but this is constructive criticism and so is completely up to you if you decide to or not.

Overal thoughts:
Overal, I think the emotional and heartbreaking part mixed with the obvious love that is meant to come (based upon the summary) will make this book rather extordanary.I think this book could be interesting and in ways heartwarming, especially if the girl makes Yasser happy. I just think a little bit of editing could be done to really strength that emotional connection and make the book so much more better 💕

Personal rate: 6/10
Its good, but can still be improved. Plus I think the concept of story is rather interesting🤷🏻‍♀️ :)

Hope you enjoyed this review/ Hope it helps ☺️💕