Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Feb 2019
288 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
A music loving teen with OCD does everything she can to find her way back to her mother during the historic race riots in 1969 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in this heart-pounding literary debut.
Melati Ahmad looks like your typical movie-going, Beatles-obsessed sixteen-year-old. Unlike most other sixteen-year-olds though, Mel also believes that she harbors a djinn inside her, one who threatens her with horrific images of her mother's death unless she adheres to an elaborate ritual of counting and tapping to keep him satisfied.
But there are things that Melati can't protect her mother from. On the evening of May 13th, 1969, racial tensions in her home city of Kuala Lumpur boil over. The Chinese and Malays are at war, and Mel and her mother become separated by a city in flames.
With a 24-hour curfew in place and all lines of communication down, it will take the help of a Chinese boy named Vincent and all of the courage and grit in Melati's arsenal to overcome the violence on the streets, her own prejudices, and her djinn's surging power to make it back to the one person she can't risk losing.
"Starred Review. This stunning debut from Malaysian author Alkaf filters Melati's sympathetic internal narrative through a mental illness barely understood and poorly treated for the era, and the setting and secondary characters convey a visceral, nerve-wracking moment in time." - Publisher's Weekly
"Starred Review. Unabashedly rooted in the author's homeland and confronting timely topics and challenging themes, this book has broad appeal for teen readers." - Kirkus
"Starred Review. Echoing contemporary race relations, the subject feels especially relevant...Alkaf's immersive, powerful writing make this a must-purchase for all YA collections." - School Library Journal
"Melati's growing strength gives hope to readers: If she can fight her inner demon and save the day, then they can, too." - Booklist
This information about The Weight of Our Sky was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Hanna Alkaf graduated with a degree in Journalism from Northwestern University and now spends most of her time making things up as she goes along, both as a writer of fiction and as a mom. The Weight of Our Sky is her first novel. She lives in Kuala Lumpur with her family.
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