Love, Hate & Other Filters by Samira Ahmed
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I swear I don't mean any insult and disrespect when I say that I did not expect to love this book as much as I do. The synopsis at the back of the book, frankly, does not do the story justice.

To be honest, I was expecting a sort of run-of-the-mill story about racism and Islamophobia. But the book was such an easy read, the chapters not too long, and the story so relatable. I may not be Muslim, and Islamophobia might not be prominent here (seeing as Malaysia is a Muslim-dominated country after all), but Maya's struggles with her closed-minded parents very much resembles the life of some of my Indian friends (yes, even in this day and age).

I've been very fortunate that my parents were always open minded and understanding, but I've had friends lament about the mentality of their parents to me. Maya's life sort of felt familiar to me in a way, because it felt like I was reading excerpts of the life of some of my friends.

Yes, there are some cliches, but so does real life anyway. Major kudos to Samira!

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