Sakina Rajpar

4.75/5 stars I followed Sim on Instagram around the time they went viral and seen all their reels and posts since, but this book was still very enlightening and had a lot of new information and history I wasn't aware of. I loved learning more about Jewish history and the history of antisemitism. Everything just made so much more sense, and it made me wish we learned this stuff in school instead of the same zionist propaganda that's shoved down our throats year after year. Sim's voice is funny, with the right amount of sarcasm to make you smile while you read some pretty serious stuff. The footnotes were my favourite because it really helps having definitions for common terms that have been thrown around the last couple years, words you sort of know the meaning of, but not exactly. I learned a lot and it left me feeling slightly more hopeful than I felt going in, especially in the third part of this book where Sim describes what a "Free Palestine/Free World" could look like. Honestly, it almost made me cry because it sounds so perfect and yet feels so unattainable at times. I did very nearly cry reading Shahd's letter from baby Heba's perspective, especially as I'm watching children starve to death live on my phone because Ishitreal refuses to allow formula and medical aid into Gaza. This is a very messed up, dark world we live in, and I just wish and hope and pray for all of this to stop and a better, safer world for all of us to live in.