At the center of Mad, Bad is a strong character, a great historical story and Ahmed’s fine writing style that should be appreciated by any reader.Samira Ahmed is a force in young adult literature, bringing voice to Muslim American teens and calling out increasingly rampant Islamophobia. Of course, there are boys, romance, a lot of unbelievable coincidences and ridiculous situations, but that is half the fun of a good YA novel. Ahmed knows how to write a great story, and she masterfully weaves in letters and flashback stories from Leila, the mysterious woman at the heart of Khayyam’s research. Because of her French father, she speaks fluent French so she quickly resigns herself to exploring the city and attempting to fix her problems at home by continuing to research the subject of her failing paper. In Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know, Khayyam finds herself spending the summer before her senior year in high school in Paris with her parents trying to recover from academic and personal disappointment at home in Chicago.
All of her books contain powerful female characters of color with strong feminist ideals navigating modern landscapes with interesting stories. With her newest novel, Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know, Samira Ahmed has definitely landed on my list of favorite YA authors.
Echoing across centuries, Leila and Khayyam's lives intertwine, and as one woman's long-forgotten life is uncovered, another's is transformed.
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. 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. 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. This holiday with her parents should be a dream trip for the budding art historian. It's August in Paris and 17-year-old Khayyam Maquet-American, French, Indian, Muslim-is at a crossroads. 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 cultural expectations in worlds too long defined by men.
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