Ten Steps To Us by Attiya Khan {book tour book review}
{I was gifted an e-arc of the book Tens Steps to Us by Attiya Khan in exchange for an honest review and to join the book tour. This article also contains an affiliate link.}
Hello friends,
I’m starting off the virtual book tour for Ten Steps to Us by Attiya Khan today. The details of everyone else taking part in the tour is below.
The story follows teenager Aisha Rashid, a devout Muslim who has chosen to wear the Hijab. Aisha faith is incredibly important to her but when new boy. Darren, starts to show an interest in her, her faith is tested because Darren isn’t Muslim and so clearly off limits. But Aisha has a plan, a ten step plan to be precise and she hopes that it will be the answer to all her problems.
When I read the synopsis for this one I was intrigued by the premise of the story with it being set around the Muslim faith, as I’ve not read a book that includes it before. However, I’ll be completely honest, while I wanted to absolutely love this book and I did enjoy it, it was also a little hit and miss for me in certain areas and here’s why… {I’ll do my best to make this as spoiler free as possible.}
Firstly, I was really hoping for the story to delve more into the Muslim faith and while certain aspects of the faith was touched on, like the Hijab and the daily prayers. Towards the beginning of the book, Aisha takes part in her first fast for Ramadan, which was interesting to read about. However, towards the end of the chapter which features Ramadan, Aisha talks about using it to help her strengthen her faith and deal with the temptations of her feelings for Darren, but in the next chapter, Ramadan is over. I really wanted to read more about that and how Aisha would accomplish this, so when the next chapter started and it was over, I felt like time within the book had gone a bit too fast and there was a missed opportunity to elaborate on this aspect of Muslim faith even more.
Secondly, as much as I wanted to like Aisha as a main character, I just found I got really frustrated with her at times. I completely understand that she’s struggling with low self-esteem and the fact that she stands out as different for her faith ~ while I’m not Muslim, I can relate to this part of Aisha’s life incredibly well. I’m part of a faith that also gets ridiculed a lot, makes me stand out from others, and it wasn’t easy going through high school at times. But I found Aisha was very self deprecating and at times quite judgemental of those around her, especially her friends. I understand the feelings she was having and why they were included as part of her character and towards the end Aisha begins to grow as a character. I just think if the book was a little longer, there would have been more growth.
It also felt like many of the issues would be made clearer if Aisha just communicated more. This was highlighted a little in relation to Aisha’s first day fasting at school. She’d assumed that no-one would understand so didn’t mention it. Then when her friend asks why she isn’t eating lunch, Aisha simply says that she’s fasting and it’s Ramadan, but doesn’t go into any more detail about what that is or what is involved. So her friend’s reaction is almost understandable as she has nothing else to go to give an informed opinion. Again, I understand the difficulty that can come with speaking up about your faith and I know that’s probably what’s being highlighted, but given all the facts of Ramadan and why it’s celebrated, may have allowed for a different response.
So where Aisha was concerned, while it was interesting to see the realistic struggles with her faith, and her feelings in regards to Darren, I felt she was a little too changeable in that regard; Going from being proud of her faith to not sharing it with others, even almost ashamed and compromising it at times, all within a few paragraphs sadly for me, effected the flow of the book.
I did say I wouldn’t give any spoilers but to round up this review I just want to touch on the ending, which I really liked. Although there was a little bit of growth with Aisha, she was definitely still struggling with some things and the choices she knew she had to make in regards to what sort of life she wanted. The way this was showed was focused around one of her Hijabs and the decision of what to do with it. The reader is never told what she chooses to do, though I like to think Aisha chooses her faith. I felt this was such a clever way to show that those of us with a faith, whatever it may be, but maybe requires more from us than simply attending a religious service once a week, all have that choice to make at some point. Especially when we’re presented with different choices in life that could either make us want to stay true to our faith, decide to walk away from it or not be as devout within our faith.
So overall while I felt I wanted more from this book regarding certain aspects, it was a good read. It was interesting to see a character that was Muslim and having the focus on that faith was great and I felt Attiya Khan did a good job with what she did include. I can imagine it wasn’t an easy job to get the balance right as an author as to how much detail to delve into when highlighting certain parts of the Muslim faith. While I personally wanted more of that, I can imagine other people reading this book, wanting more of the relationship with Aisha and Darren and so I feel Attiya Khan did a good job of balancing out the story, as it can’t have been easy.
The book for Ten Steps to Us is running from today, the 9th of September through to the 1st of October. There are 29 other book reviewers taking part in this tour and while the graphic below details the dates and their twitter handles, I’ve also included a written list so anyone using a screen reader. So you can follow the tour from review to review if you’d like to read what other people thought of this book.
Stay Safe. Read a Book.
L x
9th September:
The Book Ends with Me: @TheBookEndsWithMe
11th September:
Amalia Mihailescu: @amalia_mih
12th September:
Dash Fan Book Reviews: @Dough_nut81
13th September:
Highland Book Fairy: @BookHighland
Chantelle Hazelden: @Brew_Fiction
14th September:
Emma Hardy: @bobsandbooks
Mila’s Bookshelf: @milasbookshelf
15th September:
Katie Napier: @ katieNAPZ
16th September:
Aanandika” @aanandikasood
17th September:
Just Read It: @justreadreviews
18th September:
Lucia Chaplin: @butterflys1974
Rosie & The Books: @rosieandthebooks
19th September:
Beth Ralphs: @bookishworld_
20th September:
Lesley Wilkinson: @janelesley
21st September:
My Emerald Bookshelf: @ChiaraLiberio
22nd September:
Misha Manani: @MishaManani
23rd September:
Karen: @karteabooks
24th September:
Haadiya: @herbookish
Kelly McFarland: @tbhonest
Ellie Biggs: @evmbcreatives
25th September:
Beatrice: @BookforThought1
26th September:
Kerry Robinson: @cats_herding
27th September:
Ceri Evans: @iheartbooks1991
29th September:
Katrina: @Katrina_reads
Maria Pujol: @sweeet83
30th September:
Safiya: @safiyareads
Surjit Reads and Recommends: @surjitparekh615
1st October:
Dawn {Reads A Lot} Robinson: @InkDrinkerDawn
*If I have made any mistakes with your handle, please contact me and I’ll edit it.
