An interesting read, I enjoyed the focus on her conflicting identity as Maya deals with family, education and her future. There’s important dialogue within the story but the romance and plot didn’t grip me as much as I thought it would.

In Love, Hate & Other Filters we meet a young Muslim girl, seventeen year-old Maya Aziz. She is planning for her future, for college, for potential romance, for life. But her parents are also planning and their ideas are subtly different: a nice Indian boy, a safe career choice and staying close to home and family. They will certainly need some persuading to accept Maya's dream to study film in New York. And when there is a bombing which seems to have involved a young man with the same surname as Maya's family her parents are even more keen to keep her close at hand.

This was an interesting story, which helped to explain the issues faced by young Muslim women wanting to fit in with the Western way of life without sacrificing their religious principles (or those of their families). Although, to be fair, Maya doesn't really mention religion other than to be shocked when her potential love-interest Kaleem drinks wine. Any girl feeling a bit over-protected could sympathise with Maya's position but it is also vital to understand how everyday events can affect various groups. I appreciated the fact that this was a family with no connections to extremism but who were targeted simply for sharing a surname with a suspected terrorist. My only issues really are that this book was more about her families Indian culture than their Muslim faith - and, of course, that it is USA based. I'm still waiting for the YA novels about young people with a Pakistani or Bangladeshi heritage set in the UK (and preferably Yorkshire) - these are the girls I meet every day and whose stories I'd like to hear.

Maya tries to be a good Indian daughter, and mostly she succeeds, but she wants to live her own life at the same time. She goes along with her parents wishes as much as possible but has her own dreams that she wants to fulfill, things that she wants to experience.
Along with the main narrative are hints of a much darker story going on in the background. The events leading up to a terrorist attack and the thoughts of the perpetrator contrast sharply with the daily life of a teenager.
This book is very easy to get into. There are both carefree and serious elements but everything is dealt with wonderfully.
I read quite a lot of fantasy and I found that the way Maya narrates her life and talks about filming is a little bit like magic.

A story about boy-girl relationships where different cultures clash. Maya comes from an Indian Muslim family, where marriages are still arranged but she has other ideas, having grown up in a small American town. Maya also has different ideas about her future career. About half the book focuses solely on these issues and to be honest I was on the point of giving it up as just another romance but then suddenly, as in real life, an incident in a neighbouring town has severe consequences for Maya and her family and I was interested in the way this would resolve to the end.
I'm not sure if I will buy this for my library as it's a different situation for most of our students so I'm not sure they will identify with Maya so easily.

Maya Aziz wants to be a filmmaker. She doesn’t go anywhere without her camera, it acts as a shield and it is her passion. However, her family doesn’t understand it and they have already planned her future out for her. They want her to be dutiful, to be married, and to be a doctor. But that is far from what Maya wants. Fighting against parental expectations and fighting her feelings for the guy she likes, but who she shouldn’t like. However, Maya’s life is rocked when a suicide bomber apparently shares her last name, and she comes face to face with racism and Islamophobia.

“And for those who bear the brunt of hate because of the color of your skin or the sound of your name, for those who are spat upon, for those who are told to ‘go home,’ when you are home: you are known. You are loved. You are enough. Let your light shine. I wrote this book for you. – Samira Ahmed.”

Love, Hate & Other Filters is an important book that I highly recommend. Maya is an Indian-American, Muslim teenage girl and Love, Hate, and Other Filters deals with things like parental expectation and romance to more serious and nuanced discussions including racism and Islamophobia.

Love, Hate, & Other Filters is mostly a romance, full of culture and heritage, but then takes a drastic turn after a suicide bomb. It managed to balance being fun and cute while also being serious and nuanced. It showed how a teenage girl’s life can be thrown into chaos due to racism and Islamophobia.

I really liked Maya. I loved her passion for film, but I also love how she used it as a shield sometimes and can escape a situation using it. I like how determined she was to turn her passion into a career. She didn’t want to be a doctor like her family wanted her to. She wanted to decide what to do with her life, leaning on her aunt for support.

Love, Hate & Other Filters also deals with parental expectations. You can, to an extent, see where her parents were coming from. They understood how the world would view Maya, and they wished to protect her. They came from a good place, despite how they went about it wrong. I did love Maya and how she stood up for herself and was determined to follow her dreams.

Overall, Love, Hate & Other Filters is an important and powerful book that I highly recommend.

What can I say? I loved this book from start to finish. Full of interesting characters, I was hooked from the very first line. I read the book basically in one sitting, stopping only to get a cup of coffee. I didn't want to put it down.
I loved the balance in this book between the romance and the more serious plotline, and the way the main character Maya handled situations both at home and at school. This book shows her growing into herself in an uncertain, often scary world and I loved that.
This book felt honest, heartfelt and it was written so well.
There wasn't a single part that I didn't like and I would highly recommend it.

Wowza. This book was much more than I expected. The first half of Love, Hate and Other Filters reads like a fluffy contemporary, a coming-of-age story of young Maya, who is torn between pleasing her Indian parents or following her dreams of going to NYU to study film.
The second half takes a more sinister turn, after a man who shares Maya's last name is suspected of being a suicide bomber. Following that tragic event, this novel addresses islamophobia, hate crimes, and shows how some events lead to humans behaving at their worst - banding together and generalizing because of the actions of one individual by jumping to conclusions; pointing fingers before checking their sources. But it also shows humanity at its best, coming together to protect Maya, safeguarding the innocents and helping them speak their truth.
In a way, I feel like this book shows the strength of YA: to approach hard-hitting, difficult topics in an approachable setting that makes kids want to read about topics they might otherwise shy away from.
Evidently, I cannot speak for the rep in this book, but I do realize that the narrative was following the usual clichés one hears about Indian parents: 'guiding' their daughters into the right kind of lifestyle - meaning that they want their children to go to university and study law or medicine and marry a good boy from an Indian family who respects his parents - and setting strict rules such as early curfews and deciding everything themselves.
I also can't speak for the Muslim rep, but from the reviews I've read so far and the fact that it is an #ownvoices novel, it appears to be authentic.
All in all, this was a captivating YA contemporary with an enthralling spin on hard-hitting topics, perhaps for fans of When Dimple Met Rishi or The Hate U Give.

Maya wants to be a film-maker but her Indian-born parents have other ideas for her. They'd also love for her to find a nice Indian boy, and Kareem seems the perfect choice. Maya is slightly annoyed that she doesn't hate him on sight, but she faces up to the fact that she'd much rather be with her childhood crush, football star Phil. Who isn't exactly available right now.

Maya sees her life through a lens, sometimes literally. She's the go-to person to film her extended family's weddings and dreads the day she'll be in front of the camera. She's just not ready for that yet, no matter what her pushy parents want. There are plenty of references to romance films, as she compares her life to those. But basically, she is really into film.

This was pitched as a girl facing Islamophobia following a terrorist attack and to be honest I was disappointed in this aspect of the book. One person in her town has a problem with her (blurb suggests everyone turns on her, this is not the case). No one should have to deal with harassment or assault of course, but it only occasionally touched on the insidious fear of day-to-day prejudice, often flamed by the media after such attacks. She worries about her dad being stopped at the airport but soon goes back to thinking about college and boys. Her family are treated with respect and dignity by the local police when their property is targeted (as they should be, but we all know this is often not the case).

There are passages running up to the terrorist that are from a different perspective, that of the terrorist himself. I found Samira Ahmed was generous towards her fictional terrorist, recognising that he was a product of his life experiences, that things could have gone differently for him had someone stepped in earlier. These parts added a real edge to the book, along side the romance.

Maya generally seems more upset about not being able to follow her dream. Her parents reaction to the wider Islamophobia (I'm assuming a lot went on off-page, it's told from Maya's perspective after all) is to try and protect her by keeping her close. They seem quite traditional Indian parents whilst Maya is a modern American girl (and not a devout Muslim).

Overall it's quite a sweet romance, which I can't really call fluffy because of the other content. It's kind of a mish-mash of things, and I'm not sure it all worked for me, but I still enjoyed it. I also felt her parents were a bit harsh on her at the end, they seemed kinder people than their actions.

Maya Aziz aspires to break the mould. Rejecting her parents' plans for her to study medicine and marry a 'suitable' Muslim boy, she dreams of making films in New York. Just when she thinks she has convinced them to let her go further afield, a suspected suicide bomber, who happens to share their last name, strikes and it changes everything...

This book is perfect for fans of When Dimple Met Rishi who want a grittier look at the realities of being a Muslim teenager in America. Samira Ahmed skilfully blends a cute romance with a harrowing exploration of Islamophobia and bigotry. The book begins with a focus on the two love interests (Kareem, the result of parental matchmaking, and Phil, who Maya has had a crush on for years) but becomes much darker in the second half.

As I see it, the filters in the title refer to the filters the characters put on themselves before presenting themselves to the outside world. Maya puts a filter on who she is and who she wants to be in an attempt to fulfil her parents' expectations and live by their rules. Phil, similarly, filters perceptions of who he is at school and in the community in order to get by; it is easier for him to be seen as just a footballer, dating Lisa and working for his Dad. Alongside this though, the titular filters are also the source of prejudice and we see how our view of things can easily become clouded by the opinions of those around us and the media's portrayal of events.

Samira Ahmed's foreword to this book moved me before I'd even started reading and some of the events in the book itself will stay with me for a long time. The ability to blend a warm, romantic storyline with some weighty issues shouldn't be under-appreciated. It is through this approach that more readers will be eager to read about a wider, more challenging, range of topics and it should be celebrated.

[This review will be available at the link below on Tuesday 9th January.]

Love, Hate & Other Filters is the story of Maya, an Indian/American girl who dreams of becoming a film maker but has to face her parents' different plans for her future, and also the aftermath of a terroristic attack which causes threats and attacks on her family.

Samira Ahmed's debut is being compared to The Hate U Give and I can see why, but they are two very different stories. Samira Ahmed's book is more light-hearted and fluffy, but the more serious topics are addressed in a powerful way. It is less impactful than Angie Thomas's novel, but it's still an eye-opening and important read. However, the topic of Islamophobia was not as central as I would have liked. This is more a coming of age story about a girl struggling with different problems than the average white american teen and less a story about racism. The fact that Maya was Muslim was also barely addressed: the religion really wasn't a big part of the story and I was a little disappointed because I was interested in that aspect.

However, I really enjoyed this book, and Maya, our main character, was one of my favourite parts of the story. She was extremely likeable and it was easy to sympathize with her struggles. I loved to see her growth through the story: her bad experiences hurt and scared her a lot, obviously, but in the end they made her stronger and more determined to follow her dreams. Her determination and her passion for film making were truly inspiring. I sobbed a little while reading the epilogue, I was so proud of her!

The secondary characters were great too. I loved Violet, Maya's bestfriend, who was so supportive and outspoken, and Hina, Maya's aunt, was awesome. Both of them helped Maya so much and it was heartwarming. But I also liked Kareem, not as a love interest but as a friend/older brother. He was a genuinely nice guy.

Unfortunately, I didn't much like Phil, Maya's crush. The romance is a pretty big part of the novel but I couldn't get on board with it.

All in all, I would definitely recommend Love, Hate & Other Filters. It is not the phenomenon that The Hate U Give was, but it's a good novel which balances serious and fluffy topics well.

I really enjoyed this book! I couldn't put it down, as soon as I'd finished one chapter, I had to read the next and find out what happens! It was an almost typical ya romance, without being a typical ya book, as it focuses on racism and a difficult family home, which many readers will be able to relate to. Which makes it a well timed book to be released with everything that has been happening in the past few years. I really enjoyed the writing style, the book flowed really well.

A searing #OwnVoices coming-of-age debut in which an Indian-American Muslim teen confronts Islamophobia and a reality she can neither explain nor escape--perfect for fans of Angie Thomas, Jacqueline Woodson, and Adam Silvera.

American-born seventeen-year-old Maya Aziz is torn between worlds. There’s the proper one her parents expect for their good Indian daughter: attending a college close to their suburban Chicago home, and being paired off with an older Muslim boy her mom deems “suitable.” And then there is the world of her dreams: going to film school and living in New York City—and maybe (just maybe) pursuing a boy she’s known from afar since grade school, a boy who’s finally falling into her orbit at school.

There’s also the real world, beyond Maya’s control. In the aftermath of a horrific crime perpetrated hundreds of miles away, her life is turned upside down. The community she’s known since birth becomes unrecognizable; neighbors and classmates alike are consumed with fear, bigotry, and hatred. Ultimately, Maya must find the strength within to determine where she truly belongs.



From the very first moment I read the synopsis of this book, I knew I had to get my hands on it. It sounded similar enough to books I've read and loved, like The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas  or Dear Martin, by Nic Stone - even Marchetta's Tell the truth, shame the devil- but at the same time unique enough, in the sense that it dealt with Islamophobia, from the perspective of an Indian protagonist, while also being an #ownvoices book. And I am glad to say, it did not disappoint.

The book's best asset was its protagonist. Maya was someone I could relate to, someone I could see myself being friends with. Her sense of humour and her personality fascinated me, and even if I disagreed with some of her decisions I could understand them - or, at least, see the reasoning behind them. Another thing that ultimately drew me into the book was the fact that Maya had a hobby, something she was passionate about, a dream she wanted to pursue. So often, YA female characters lack 'hobbies' or interests and their entire storyline revolves around the ongoing romance. In Maya's case, her love for film-making was a driving force throughout the novel, something that shaped and moved her character forward. Even the narrative was related to this, as she so often made movie references, or described the events as if she were in a movie.

The character dynamics were another important asset of the novel. There is a quickly resolved love triangle, where all parties involved are so much more than their perspective roles in the romance, each with their own dreams, personalities, and story arcs. Also, the friendship depicted between Maya and her best friend, Violet was a magnificent one. It was so refreshing to see two girls unconditionally love and support each other, and I wish we could have seen a bit more of their bond.

Now, if I'm being honest, I do think that the terrorist arc was a bit unnecessary. In my opinion, it was handled better by Marchetta, but I'm always a bit biased when it comes to her. I feel like Ahmed already had enough to say even through a "simple" coming-of-age story, and that this bit was well incorporated into the story, yet still unnecessary. This, however, is just a personal opinion, and not a flaw in an otherwise brilliant book.

Trigger warnings for violence throughout the book.



**An ARC was provided in exchange for an honest review**

This book is utterly fantastic, heartwarming, emotional and just brilliant in every way. The topic in hand in dealt with in a very informative yet emotional way. I was blown away by this book and would recommend to anyone.

Dipped in Indian culture albeit in the US, this book seems like a rom-com at the beginning, except for the intervals of unknowns you expect to be joined by some event. Maya and her caught between the correct boy & the one she always wanted antics are so readable. The intervals are intriguing, some foreboding.

Maya dealing with the expectations of her culture & parents, is done very well. We get to understand the guilt that might be induced by them. Also I enjoy her cinematic way of thinking.

The event changes the narrative and fear is dominant with all its social consequences. It is good to see them from the POV of those who get ushered without fault into the blame. Seeing a different side of the aftermath, as prejudice rears its ugly head.

Emphasizing the importance of everyone's right to live in the peace of respect. So relevant in today's world with so many hateful acts. This read is powerful, thought provoking, painful at times, glorious and emitting hope.

Love, Hate and Other Filters is an own voices debut novel by Samira Ahmed that follows Maya, an Indian-American Muslim teen with a passion for film making, through her life leading up to leaving for college and also her experiences after the aftermath of a terrorist attack.

As the book started I fell in love with Maya as a character straight away, she was sharp and witty with times I was actually laughing out loud. I loved how she addressed certain situations were becoming a bit of a cliche of the rom-com style movie.
I didn’t however feel much of a connection to any of the other characters, they all seemed to be a bit of a stereotype but not in an intentional way, there was the love interest who could do not wrong, the feisty best friend, and a rather bland attempt at a love triangle. I found Kareem a rather pointless character as he was very prominent in the first half of the novel then kind of pushed aside and forgotten about. I really did enjoy him as a character and feel that he may have been better if he was introduced as a best friend rather than a potential love interest.

I think that the matters addressed in the novel, such as racism and the reaction people have to the muslim community in light of any terror attack is so important. Those parts of the novel resonated with me the most and felt the most fleshed out. Sadly the rest didn’t quite live up.
The end seemed to be rushed and didn’t quite feel satisfying, it could have possibly benefited from a few extra chapters just to wrap things up slightly more. I would have especially liked to see more of Maya when she was in college.

A part of the book that didn’t quite gel with me was the third person story that was on the end of each chapter that was telling the story of the bomber who committed the terror attack. I’m not quite sure if this was just a slip on my behalf whilst reading but I didn’t find this to be obvious when reading and wasn’t until close to the end of the novel I realised. I thought it to be more cinematic ideas that Maya was having that related to events of the chapter. I do really like this as an idea but felt it possibly wasn’t executed well enough.

Overall I did enjoy reading the novel, it was fast paced and gripping with an extremely likeable main character. I think that the world needs more own voices novels and those that deal with topics such as this one did, it just a shame that I found certain parts not up too the standards of the rest.

Thank you, NetGalley for eARC in exchange for an honest review.
https://bookstalebyme.wordpress.com/2017/12/28/love-hate-other-filters-arc-review/

I really enjoyed this book. While it is presented as YA, I still felt it was really relevant to a 30 year old. Maya is struggling with her dreams of being a filmmaker and her duty as an indian/muslim daughter. Her dilemma over which university to go to is then overshadowed as a terrorist attack by someone with the same surname as her. While Maya feels very much American, others at her school start to view her differently. The book is well written and the subject matter is interesting and relevant.

I have to admit, I did not expect this book to be this good. I am not a big fan of what you would call “a casual teenage novel”, and yet this was simply just my taste. Maya represents a powerful brown young girl in America just like Starr is a strong black teenager in “The Hate You Give” by Angie Thomas. In a parallel world, I see these girls meeting and becoming genuine friends,truly. I am pretty much waiting for a sequel of this book, that’s for sure!

This book comes to you in two very distinct parts. The first is a version of All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han, with our main character, Maya, attracting the interest of two boys: the very sweet parents-approve Muslim and the most popular guy at school that Maya's had a crush on for years.

In the first chapter, she seems really into Kareem. They meet at an Indian wedding and have a lot in common, with Kareem encouraging Maya to pursue her dream of being a film-maker. It was cute and I was looking forward to the romance unfolding, following in the footsteps of When Dimple Met Rishi. 

Then Paul gets introduced later and there's this contrived way from them to hang out: teaching Maya to swim. Paul was an exciting prospect because I haven't read many interracial relationship before, but I couldn't get behind their romance because Paul was already in a relationship. He's hanging out with Maya in a definitely romantic fashion, and neither of them show any remorse for the fact that what they're doing is cheating. It wasn't okay in Anna and the French Kiss and it's not okay here. I can't root for a couple when I know there's another girl outside the page that's getting her heart broken.

The cheating thing felt especially bitter when Kareem was so lovely and an all around great guy. I didn't understand that something which started quite flirty quickly fizzled out into 'let's just be friends'. I've never been on the 'wrong' side of a love triangle before, so this was an interesting experience and one that I hope never to have again.

So, if you haven't got the sense already, this is definitely a contemporary romance. It stays that way for around 60-70% of the book. The rest of the story takes a complete U-turn from this.

At the end of every chapter, you get this tiny scene that slowly tells the story of a suspected suicide bomber that shares the same surname as Maya. They are in no way related, but the town reacts as if Maya's family is responsible for the trauma. The 15% where this storyline is pursued feels like a different book. I wish it had played a bigger part in the book as a whole, because it felt like I was waiting and waiting to get to the moment described on the blurb, and the romance was just filler until then. Regardless, this plot line was powerful and will always be relevant to what's going on in the world, but particularly this year when every day we seem to wake up to news of another terror attack, or more mass injuries. It was jarring to place these two things together, but realistic in the way that a terror threat is always going to deeply disturb a normal life.

However, if I didn't know this book was going to have such a powerful perspective on the repercussions of prejudice, hatred and Islamophobia, I don't think I would have kept reading beyond the halfway point.

I'm so pleased that more books like this are being published, and that I got the chance to read about a character so far from my own perspective. It's definitely inspired me to try and find more books like this in 2018 - and also finally get round to The Hate You Give...