| Home / College Guide / Review of “Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know†by Samira Ahmed |
| Posted on Sunday, April 05 @ 00:00:05 PDT |
Ahmed, Samira. Mad, Bad & Dangrous to Know . New York: Soho Teen, 2020.
eBook | $10.99 USD | ISBN-13: 978-1616959906 | 336 pages | YA Historical Fiction/Contemporary Romance
Blurb
Told in alternating narratives that bridge centuries, the latest novel from New York Times bestselling author Samira Ahmed traces the lives of two young women fighting to write their own stories and escape the pressure of familial burdens and cultural expectations in worlds too long defined by men.
It’s August in Paris and 17-year-old Khayyam Maquet—American, French, Indian, Muslim—is at a crossroads. This holiday with her professor parents should be a dream trip for the budding art historian. But her maybe-ex-boyfriend is probably ghosting her, she might have just blown her chance at getting into her dream college, and now all she really wants is to be back home in Chicago figuring out her messy life instead of brooding in the City of Light.
Two hundred years before Khayyam’s summer of discontent, Leila is struggling to survive and keep her true love hidden from the Pasha who has “gifted†her with favored status in his harem. In the present day—and with the company of a descendant of Alexandre Dumas—Khayyam begins to connect allusions to an enigmatic 19th-century Muslim woman whose path may have intersected with Alexandre Dumas, Eugène Delacroix, and Lord Byron.
Echoing across centuries, Leila and Khayyam’s lives intertwine, and as one woman’s long-forgotten life is uncovered, another’s is transformed.
Review
4 stars
I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know conjured an image in my mind immediately as a lifelong history and literature lover, given it’s often how Lord Byron was described. And I was not disappointed in the fact that this story connects the works of Byron with those of Dumas and Delacroix to create a rich novel steeped in art, literature, and romance.
There are two timelines, one historical and one contemporary, and I enjoyed both for different reasons. Khayyam is awesome. And given I had previously read Ahmed’s previous book, Internment, that was rooted in the anger and fear about the treatment of Muslims in America, I enjoyed seeing the same fire for justice in Khayyam in terms of pushing for women’s rights and trying to find the obscured voices of women throughout history.
I enjoyed her budding romance with Alexandre as they bond over their common scholar’y interests, and come to blows over their contrasting ideas over what to do with certain revelations.
I wasn’t as much of a fan of the love triangle (of sorts) with her flaky ex, and was thankful it was only a small plot point that didn’t impact the narrative to a massive degree.
And Leila’s chapters…those are truly beautiful. I was moved by the way she tried to take the reins of her fate, and upset when circumstances prevented her from doing so. And the way her story connected with Khayyam’s, both in the more subtle ways and the more overt ones, is wonderful.
I really enjoyed this book and its celebration of intersectional feminism. I would recommend this to anyone who loves stories about strong women, both teens and adults alike.
Author Bio
SAMIRA AHMED was born in Bombay, India, and grew up in Batavia, Illinois, in a house that smelled like fried onions, spices, and potpourri. She currently resides in the Midwest. She’s lived in Vermont, New York City, and Kauai, where she spent a year searching for the perfect mango.
A graduate of the University of Chicago, she taught high school English for seven years, worked to create over 70 small high schools in New York City, and fought to secure billions of additional dollars to fairly fund public schools throughout New York State.
She’s appeared in the New York Times, New York Daily News, Fox News, NBC, NY1, NPR, and on BBC Radio. Her creative non-fiction and poetry has appeared in Jaggery Lit, Entropy, the Fem, and Claudius Speaks.
Her writing is represented by Eric Smith of P.S. Literary.
Buy links
Amazon (affiliate link) Bookshop (affiliate link)
Bookshop (affiliate link)
57th Street Books
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
Google Play (audio only)
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