Having loved Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé & Adiba Jaigirdar, I knew I had to read Four Eids and a Funeral. And this one was so fun! I listened to the audio book in a span of two days I was so obsessed! Talk about a perfect contemporary for the summer. Keep reading this book review of Four Eids and a Funeral for my full thoughts.
Summary
Let’s get one thing straight: this is a love story.
These days, Said Hossain spends most of his time away at boarding school. But when his favorite hometown librarian Ms. Barnes dies, he must return home to New Crosshaven for her funeral and for the summer. Too bad being home makes it a lot harder to avoid facing his ex-best friend, Tiwa Olatunji, or facing the daunting task of telling his Bangladeshi parents that he would rather be an artist than a doctor.
Tiwa doesn’t understand what made Said start ignoring her, but it’s probably that fancy boarding school of his. Though he’s unexpectedly staying through the summer, she’s determined to take a page from him and pretend he doesn’t exist. Besides, she has more than enough going on, between grieving her broken family and helping her mother throw the upcoming Eid celebration at the Islamic Center—a place that means so much to Tiwa.
But when the Islamic Center accidentally catches fire, it turns out the mayor plans to demolish the center entirely. Things are still tense between the ex-friends but Tiwa needs Said’s help if there’s any hope of changing the mayor’s mind, and Said needs a project to submit to art school (unbeknownst to anyone). Will all their efforts be enough to save the Islamic Center, save Eid, and maybe save their relationship?
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
I absolutely breezed through Four Eids and a Funeral. What starts off as a bond between two unlikely teens about a mentor figure turns into a love story. We all have a mentor figure, a teacher who impacted our lives. And I adore that it’s what bonds Said and Tiwa. From the beginning, it tells us about who they are, the impact someone can make on our lives. In Four Eids and a Funeral, it explores family and love. About how we can feel left behind by the ones who love us and how we don’t know if they will support us.
With flashbacks to how they were before, Four Eids and a Funeral is devoted to the characters. To watching it play out between Said and Tiwa. For them to realize the different ways their community treats Tiwa because of their colorism and how much it will take for us to go after our dreams. The narrators in Four Eids and a Funeral were fantastic. Farah Kidwai, Sandra Okuboyejo & Shahjehan Khan make it feel even more immersive and difficult to put down! I fell in love with how much they embodied Said and Tiwa.
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Four Eids and a Funeral asks us if it’s ever too late. If it’s too late for us to tell the truth, to reveal ourselves to our family, to fight for what we want. Find Four Eids and a Funeral on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.