The Beauty of the Moment by Tanaz Bhathena - ESSENTIAL

The Beauty of the Moment by Tanaz Bhathena, 354 pages.  Farrar, Straus, Giroux (Macmillan), 2019.  $18.

Language: PG (22 swears, 0 ‘f’); Mature Content: PG (teen smoking, drinking); Violence: G

BUYING ADVISORY: MS - OPTIONAL, HS - ESSENTIAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

Susan and her mom have just moved from Saudi Arabia to Canada; Dad is supposed to join them, but he seems to keep making excuses to postpone his arrival.  Malcolm has been acting out since his mother died of cancer and his Dad remarried.  The two are drawn to each other, but every relationship in their lives is complicated and has added dimensions of complexity to Susan and Malcolm’s interactions. Love might be possible in the long run, but they must discover themselves.

I started and finished this in one afternoon.  Bhathena doesn’t rely upon overdramatized plot points or tropes to further the plot – but Susan and Malcolm’s tale unfolds with the right amount of drama and complications to keep me wrapped up within it.  It breaks pretty much every common trick I’ve come to expect from a YA book (copious swearing, described sex, heavy drug use, cringe-worthy betrayal), and instead gives us a healthy look at a teen relationship that still includes incidents that read believable.  I loved it – I hope my students will love it too. Even though the characters are seniors in high school, I think this can read down to 9^thgrade. By the way - though some of the characters are Zoroastrian and I think some other religions, they just are that -- it is not a religious book in that it feels like it has to explain all of the how-to's and why-for's.

Cindy, Middle School Librarian, MLS