Hi everyone! I’m excited to be sharing a new review for the first time in a while, of a backlist book that I picked up somewhat spontaneously and then ended up loving — Here We Are Now by Jasmine Warga, a contemporary YA published in 2017.
I first read Jasmine Warga’s middle grade novel The Shape of Thunder a few months ago, and was impressed by how the heavy premise (two former best friends struggling with being on different sides of grief in the aftermath of a school shooting) was explored in an age-appropriate way, and due to the sensitive writing. Interested in reading more of her work, I looked up her previously-published YA novels, thought the music and family aspects of Here We Are Now sounded intriguing, and found it in a nearby library (after I could finally! visit! after our lockdown lifted). It ended up being an even deeper book than I’d originally anticipated, and makes me want to look for more backlist gems.
About the Book:
Taliah Sahar Abdallat lives and breathes music. Songs have always helped Tal ease the pain of never having known her father. Her mother, born in Jordan and very secretive about her past, won’t say a word about who her dad really was. But when Tal finds a shoebox full of old letters from Julian Oliver—yes, the indie rock star Julian Oliver—she begins to piece the story together.
She writes to Julian, but after three years of radio silence, she’s given up hope. Then one day, completely out of the blue, Julian shows up at her doorstep, and Tal doesn’t know whether to be furious or to throw herself into his arms. Before she can decide, he asks her to go on a trip with him to meet her long-estranged family and to say good-bye to his father, her grandfather, who is dying.
Getting to know your father after sixteen years of estrangement doesn’t happen in one car ride. But as Tal spends more time with Julian and his family, she begins to untangle her parents’ secret past and discovers a part of herself she never recognized before.
By the acclaimed author of My Heart and Other Black Holes, this is an intergenerational story of family and legacy and the way love informs both of those things. It’s about secrets and the debt of silence. It’s about the power of songs. And most of all, it’s about learning how to say hello. And good-bye.
The story starts when Julian, Taliah’s musician father has reappeared on her doorstep while her mother is away, and she’s with her friend Harlow. As the story develops, we find out more of the backstory regarding Taliah’s mother Lena (inserted from Lena’s perspective while Taliah’s also learning this) and how Tal first started writing to her father, as well as the issues that she and Harlow are dealing with in their friendship.
My thoughts:
Relationships: how they form and break down
The central questions which Taliah have from the beginning of Here We Are Now involve what happened between her parents: how did her mother end up in a relationship with someone who became a famous rock star? Why did her mother lie about him, and how much did Julian know about her? It’s a compelling story of a teen who wants to understand her parents and legacy, grapples with confusion, and surprising revelations; and the narrative from her mother’s point of view was woven in really well. As the story progresses, questions are answered on what Julian did or didn’t know about her, and why he didn’t initially respond when she reached out.
I don’t think I’ve ever read such a nuanced depiction of relationships forming and breaking down in YA before. Both her parents made mistakes, but were also in difficult circumstances that made it hard to choose the right thing for themselves and for each other. This book was so effective at showing how complex life and relationships can be, through Taliah learning and reflecting on this:
I wondered if Debra had been partially right. That a big part of love is learning to accept different versions of the person you love, but that it’s also important to love the version of yourself that the person you love brings out. That sometimes it’s possible to love someone fully, but still need to leave.
That seemed heartbreaking to me. And that’s how I knew it was true.
The impact of family and migration
I’ve enjoyed a lot of intergenerational migrant stories in the past, but they tended to be longer literary fiction — Pachinko, Do Not Say We Have Nothing, America Is Not the Heart. I think this may be the first time I’ve come across this narrative in contemporary YA — at least one that explores this so well. Lena’s story of migrating from Jordan was really compelling, in terms of adjusting to America and the challenges she faces. Likewise, Julian deals with family expectations and the past he had with his now-dying father weighs upon him. These backstories shape the fears that the two of them carry, and how they look back on their actions. Taliah is caught in the middle of this, especially with the new challenges of meeting her father’s family for the first time and understanding her place in it — if any.
Taliah also grapples with how she feels about her own identity — she loves music, but what does this mean if her father’s a famous rockstar musician which she doesn’t think she could be like? Should he change anything about what she pursues? All of this felt so real.
Friendships, growth and vulnerability
This is a more subsidiary part of the book which isn’t even mentioned in the summary, but an aspect which I found really compelling: Taliah’s changing relationship with her best friend, now that Harlow is in a romantic relationship and has ‘replaced’ aspects of their friendship (the music they created together) with someone new. There were subtle links between the way Taliah reflected on her parents’ relationship, and her friendship with Harlow, which was written so well. At the end of the day, it’s about love and the difficulties of love, whether it’s for your parents, a romantic partner, or a friend.
Initially, Taliah drags Harlow along on the trip to meet her father’s family, but forcing things doesn’t go well for either of them, and Harlow leaves halfway through. They confront each other, and Taliah is left grappling with feelings of being left behind, the struggles of opening up to people, and how this transitory phase is particularly hard.
The problem was that it seemed like I was never the one who changed. It seems like it’s harder to watch the people you love change and grow when you feel like you’re staying exactly the same. When you feel stuck.
Overall: I’m so glad I picked this book up, and highly recommend it for the music, family and friendship aspects. The unique premise of discovering you have a rock star for a father was executed in a nuanced and thoughtful way. It’s also a great opportunity to read a book by a West Asian author. I need to pick up Other Words for Home at some point!
Written in Wonder 