Jolin: In the Name of God

I didn't hate In the Name of God; if anything, I enjoyed it. For a book that I would read on a lazy Sunday afternoon, it was great! I enjoyed the story at its base value, but... that is kind of where the enjoyment stops. I went into the book with an open mind, and not even open in the sense that I knew there was probably going to be some anti-western world talk, and that I would have to deal with that - that wasn't it at all. I figured I'd have to go in with an open mind knowing that the book contained talkings of suicide bombers. I figured, from the beginning, I would strongly dislike any of the characters that led to the suicide bombing talk, and that I wouldn't see their side of the reasoning at all. To be honest, I really didn't see the reasoning. Nadia just seemed a little silly. Now, I've obviously never been in her situation; I haven't had bombs going off in my country, except for the ones that terrorists are setting off miles away from my front door. But Nadia seems to feed into the idea of radical Islam very easily. I'm curious if it's that easy in real life, or if the "recruiters" have more difficulty than that. And then, seemingly easier than her become a radical Islamist, she changes her mind. She seems to change her views on a whim. The ending doesn't sit super well with me. It's an intriguing book, but I wish the last... twenty, maybe thirty, pages were rewritten. That would be an excellent assignment, I think, to rewrite the ending however you would like.

I don't think I would assign this book to my students, but I would definitely keep it in the classroom as a recommendation. It does start off pretty slowly, but once you get to the meat and potatoes, it's pretty hard to put down.