A National Book Award Longlist title!

From the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Shatter Me series comes a robust, heartrending contemporary novel about fear, first love, and the devastating impact of prejudice.

It’s 2002, a calendar year after 9/11. It’s an exceptionally turbulent time politically, but especially so for someone like Shirin, a sixteen-year-old Muslim female who’s tired of being stereotyped.

Shirin is never surprised by how horrible people could be. She’s sick and tired of the about A LARGE Expanse of Ocean rude stares, the degrading comments-even the physical violence-she endures due to her competition, her religion, as well as the hijab she wears every day. So she’s built up protective walls and refuses to let anyone close enough to harm her. Instead, she drowns her frustrations in music and spends her afternoons break-dancing with her sibling.

But she matches Ocean James. He’s the first person in forever who really appears to need to get to learn Shirin. It terrifies her-they seem to come from two irreconcilable worlds-and Shirin has already established her safeguard up for such a long time that she’s not sure she’ll ever be able to let it down.