The audio was very well-done, with narrator Richa Moorjani bringing Zara to life. Zara and her parents have some wonderful friends who are supportive, but Tyler and his family are powerful, both in the school and in the town. That dichotomy makes the terrible choices faced by Zara's family feel all the more real. I enjoyed listening to this book, which combines the light, fun life of a teen with the very real dangers of living as an immigrant in the U.S., among racial and religious intolerance. It's an impossible choice, and her family agonizes over what to do. Besides, as a bisexual, she is rightfully worried that she will face just as much hatred and bullying in Pakistan and won't be safe there, either.
Now, faced with the fact that their family is not safe, her parents are considering returning to Pakistan, but this is the only life Zara has ever known. She puts up with it, but then things escalate to serious hate crimes and even violence. Tyler, the school's football star and all-time most popular guy, is the worst culprit when it comes to racist bullying of Zara, and his group of friends follow his example. He, her mother, and Zara have now been waiting patiently for over eight years for their green card applications to be approved, but the process is bogged down in bureaucracy. Her dad is a doctor who finished med school and did his residency in Texas, and they decided to stay when he was offered a job as a pediatric doctor. She only knows life in America, since her family moved to the United States when she was just three years old. But Zara was born in Pakistan and her family is Muslim, which makes her the target of bullying and prejudice at school. Seventeen-year-old Zara Hossain is like any other teen girl in her Corpus Christi high school: studying and applying to colleges, hanging out with friends at the local frozen yogurt place, and maybe falling in love with her new friend, Chloe. For my last audiobook of 2021, I chose Zara Hossain Is Here by Sabina Khan, a YA novel set in Texas that combines immigration and prejudice issues with typical teen themes of friendship, family, and new love.
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