Author: Zakiya N. Jamal

Zakiya N. Jamal was born in Queens, raised in Long Island, and currently resides in Brooklyn. In other words, she’s a New Yorker through and through. She holds a BA in English from Georgetown University and a MFA in Creative Writing with a concentration in Writing for Children and Young Adults from The New School. She has been published in Romper, BuzzFeed, People.com, Thought Catalog, and more. Her non-fiction essay about her "Cuban Impostor Syndrome" can be found in the Latinx anthology, Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed. You can find her on Twitter at @ZakiyaNJamal.

Man Crush Monday: Liam Stewart

Posted on May 4, 2015May 21, 2015 by Zakiya N. Jamal in Blog

Try to picture the sweetest guy you know. Now multiply that by 100. That’s Liam Stewart. He’s sweet, caring, strong, and the male lead in The Darkest Minds trilogy.

As a Psi kid, a teen with a superhuman ability (in Liam’s case, telekinesis), Liam has gone through a lot including having to leave his parent’s home to escape being put in an internment camp for Psi kids. He was then a soldier for the Children’s League before he left and was then put in a camp that he later breaks out of, causing a lot of casualties that he hadn’t anticipated.

Liam is a natural born leader who believes the best in everyone and he always does his best to protect those he cares about, which is almost everyone. Plus, he’s the perfect southern gentleman. Although his naivety can sometimes be annoying, in this dark series of books, his positive outlook is illuminating.

“‘[Liam’s] so busy looking inside people to find the good that he misses the knife they’re holding in their hand.'” – The Darkest Minds

Book Review: PS, I Love You

Posted on May 4, 2015May 21, 2015 by Zakiya N. Jamal in Book Reviews

*This book is part of my POPSUGAR 2015 Reading Challenge*

Synopsis from Amazon:

A wonderfully warm and heartfelt debut from a stunning new talent. Everyone needs a guardian angel! Some people wait their whole lives to find their soul mates. But not Holly and Gerry. Childhood sweethearts, they could finish each other’s sentences and even when they fought, they laughed. No one could imagine Holly and Gerry without each other. Until the unthinkable happens.

Gerry’s death devastates Holly. But as her 30th birthday looms, Gerry comes back to her. He’s left her a bundle of notes, one for each of the months after his death, gently guiding Holly into her new life without him, each note signed ‘PS, I Love You’. As the notes are gradually opened, and as the year unfolds, Holly is both cheered up and challenged. The man who knows her better than anyone sets out to teach her that life goes on.

With some help from her friends, and her noisy and loving family, Holly finds herself laughing, crying, singing, dancing–and being braver than ever before. Life is for living, she realises–but it always helps if there’s an angel watching over you.

I had mixed feelings about this book. Holly annoyed me a lot but that was because I wanted her to get on with her life and stop being so depressed but obviously her husband had just died so I understood why she was depressed. After a while though, I just wanted to slap her and make her get up and do something with her life. Clearly I’m not that empathetic.

That being said this was still a really good book. Once I got to know Holly as a character and understood her more I began to feel her pain. I cried with her and understood her anger towards her fake friends who stopped calling once her husband died. Additionally, I loved the secondary characters. Her best friends Sharon and Denise were hilarious and supportive and Holly’s family was such an eclectic group of people that I immediately fell in love with them.

My biggest problem with the book was the third-person narration. At times it was a close third-person narration that followed Holly but sometimes it would switch to another character. If a whole chapter was with a different character it was fine but sometimes it would switch mid chapter or even section and sometimes I got confused. In some cases I could see why Cecelia Ahern wrote it this way but most of the time I didn’t like it. I just wanted to stick with Holly.

Overall, I’d say this was a good read. It made me laugh, cry, and question the meaning of life and death. It didn’t end the way I expected it too but thinking back I think the way it ended was just fine. Not perfect but still pretty good. I would definitely recommend it. Don’t watch the movie though. Just by looking at the trailer I can tell it won’t compare to the book.

Favorite Line:

She had been given a wonderful gift: life. Sometimes it was cruelly taken away too soon, but it’s what you did with it that counted, not how long it lasted.

Stars: 4 out of 5. It was pretty good but it wasn’t one of my favorites.

Borrow or Buy: Borrow. I don’t think I would read this again.

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Woman Crush Wednesday: Ruby Daly

Posted on April 29, 2015May 21, 2015 by Zakiya N. Jamal in Blog

The Darkest Minds trilogy is one of my favorite series and that’s mainly because I loved the main character, Ruby Daley. Although she’s very fearful of her own powers she’s not afraid to use them to save the people she loves and care about. She’s fiercely loyal and selfless. Although she makes mistakes (everyone does) she owns up for them and eventually learns from them.

Besides that she’s beautiful with her long brown hair and green eyes. She’s kind and caring but also powerful. With the ability to control people’s mind she could do anything she wants and probably get away with it. Instead, however, she resists the power lust of her abilities and chooses to control them, using her powers only when absolutely necessary.

If you haven’t read these books yet, I definitely recommend them. Great characters, great story, and great writing.

Man Crush Monday: Maxon Schreave

Posted on April 27, 2015May 21, 2015 by Zakiya N. Jamal in Blog

If you couldn’t tell I’m really in a Selection mood this week. That’s mainly because the next book in the series, The Heir, comes out next week and I’m super excited. I won’t spoil the series for you but a brief synopsis of the series is it takes place in a Dystopian world where there are eight castes, one being the upper caste and eight being the lowest. The prince chooses his wife by going through the selection, a competition where 35 girls go to the castle to try and win the prince’s heart.

This week’s Man-Crush Monday is no other than the Prince himself, Prince Maxon. Maxon is cute, kind of dorky, and adorable in his lack of experience. He’s willing to put himself in harm’s way to protect others and really cares about his country and how he can make it better for all his castes. He also treats every girl in the selection with kindness and respect, and goes out of his way to make each one of them feel like they’re special.

If you read the Selection series, you’ll be hard pressed not to fall in love with Prince Maxon Schreave. Even Ms. America Singer finds it rather difficult to resist his charm. If you needed any reasons to read these books it would be Prince Maxon. He’s one of a kind.

Woman Crush Wednesday: America Singer

Posted on April 22, 2015May 21, 2015 by Zakiya N. Jamal in Blog

First, if you’ve never heard of America Singer that’s because you haven’t read The Selection series yet and that’s a shame. Please get with the times.

Moving on, America is gorgeous with her long red hair and ice cold blue eyes. Besides that though, she’s smart, funny, brave, and stands up for what she believes in. She loves hard and won’t let anyone stand in her way when she makes up her mind about something (which can sometimes be a bad thing).

In The Selection series, America is entered into the selection, a competition of 35 girls to win Prince Maxon’s heart and become queen. It takes place in a dystopian world where the U.S. (now called Illéa) is ruled by a royal family, by the way. I won’t say what happens in case you haven’t read the books (which, again, you really should) but what makes America stand out is she never went into the selection to become Queen. She didn’t even really want to be there in the first place.

However, once she figures out what she really wants she’s not afraid to go after it whole heartedly. The way she stands up for her friends, her maids, her caste (yes there’s a caste system; please read these books), and the castes below her is extraordinary, thereby making her beautiful both inside and out.

Book Review: V is for Virgin

Posted on April 15, 2015May 21, 2015 by Zakiya N. Jamal in Book Reviews

Synopsis from Amazon.com:

From the best selling YA romance author of The Avery Shaw Experiment comes a wildly funny and heart-melting rockstar romance. Kyle Hamilton is the quintessential bad boy, but Val Jensen is not your typical good girl.

When Val gets dumped for her decision to stay a virgin until marriage, the nasty breakup goes viral on YouTube, making her the latest internet sensation.

After days of ridicule from her peers, Val starts a school-wide campaign to rally support for her cause. She meant to make a statement, but she never dreamed the entire nation would get caught up in the controversy.

As if becoming nationally recognized as “Virgin Val” isn’t enough, Val’s already hectic life starts to spin wildly out of control when bad boy Kyle Hamilton, lead singer for the hit rock band Tralse, decides to take her abstinence as a personal challenge.

How can a girl stay true to herself when this year’s Sexiest Man Alive is doing everything in his power to win her over?

I wanted to like this book. I really did. But I did not, for multiple reasons.

First of all, the story moves way too fast. We start with the main character, Val, being dumped and then quickly move from her being heart broken to being angry to being fearless to suddenly becoming an activist. Of course she claims this isn’t what she wanted, this is all so crazy, blah blah blah, but in reality she suddenly becomes popular and she doesn’t exactly hate it. She’s begins to benefit from her declaration of virginity and it’s almost way too easy for her. Additionally, the epilogue then jumps ahead four years for no reason other than to set up the sequel.

I struggled to believe that this girl, especially in high school, would rise so quickly in popularity just for standing up for herself. Do I support her standing up for what she believes in? Sure. Is it realistic that after doing so her life would become perfectly perfect and she’d have a rock star craving her attention and become one of the cool kids? Definitely not.

Also, I hated her friendship with the her supposed best friend, Cara. I won’t spoil it but I just felt like their friendship was way to fickle for them to supposedly have been friends for as long as they had. Cara didn’t really seem all that supportive for what Val was trying to do with her “V is for Virgin” campaign and honestly Cara just seemed like a sucky friend in general.

Lastly, I wanted to like Kyle. The whole bad boy, good girl thing usually works for me but I couldn’t get behind Kyle. He comes off as very obnoxious, annoying, and just a pester. Of course as the novel progresses we learn why he’s the way he is and truly he is a good person if you just look hard enough. Typical. However, that shouldn’t excuse his crappy behavior. Moreover, I struggled to believe the complete character turn around we see in him in the end. It’s too perfect.

I think Kelly Oram was trying to present a book that shows it is possible to wait until marriage and still get everything you want. Although I do believe this, what I don’t believe is it would be as easy as she makes it out to be in this book. She makes being a virgin seem cool and has guys who were against it at first suddenly come around and say, “You know what I can actually wait.” Yeah, sure.

This story was just too perfectly perfect for be to believe. Every conflict was easily resolved and Val’s struggles were very minimal. There is a sequel to this novel and although I am curious I don’t think I’m curious enough to read it.

Favorite Line:

“Cheesy lines like that will get you nowhere with me, but, by all means, keep them coming. You’re so much easier to ignore when you’re being an idiot.”

Stars: 2 out of 5. There were some parts that I did enjoy but overall not a favorite of mine.

Borrow or Buy: Borrow. Not worth keeping.

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Book Review: In The Afterlight

Posted on April 8, 2015May 21, 2015 by Zakiya N. Jamal in Book Reviews

*This book is part of my POPSUGAR 2015 Reading Challenge*

Synopsis from Amazon:

Ruby can’t look back. Fractured by an unbearable loss, she and the kids who survived the government’s attack on Los Angeles travel north to regroup. Only Ruby can keep their highly dangerous prisoner in check. But with Clancy Gray, there’s no guarantee you’re fully in control, and everything comes with a price.

When the Children’s League disbands, Ruby rises up as a leader and forms an unlikely allegiance with Liam’s brother, Cole, who has a volatile secret of his own. There are still thousands of other Psi kids suffering in government “rehabilitation camps” all over the country. Freeing them–revealing the governments unspeakable abuses in the process–is the mission Ruby has claimed since her own escape from Thurmond, the worst camp in the country.

But not everyone is supportive of the plan Ruby and Cole craft to free the camps. As tensions rise, competing ideals threaten the mission to uncover the cause of IAAN, the disease that killed most of America’s children and left Ruby and others with powers the government will kill to keep contained. With the fate of a generation in their hands, there is no room for error. One wrong move could be the spark that sets the world on fire.

I can’t believe this trilogy is over. It’s so hard to leave these characters because it they were so good (or bad)! And the ending was perfect as well, which is a rarity for these dystopian trilogies.

In the Afterlight started very closely to where Never Fade ended, with Ruby and the crew trying to find a way out of the recently destroyed L.A. After finally securing a way out and making there way to the Children’s League old headquarters, the group stumbles across old friends and encounter multiple issues.

Once at the headquarters things go from bad to worse in a matter of seconds with high stakes, raised tensions, and various opinions trying to figure out the best way to free the camps and find the cure to IAAN, the disease that made these kids who they are.

Ruby struggles to keep all her secrets in check, especially Cole’s dark secret, and struggles to maintain a relationship with Liam. Liam’s not innocent either, keeping his own secrets. They both struggle to trust each other when they need each other the most, causing more harm than good.

Meanwhile there’s multiple plans in motion to save all the kids in the camp and change the scope of America for the better. Unfortunately things have to get much worse before they get any better and everyone’s lives are put at risk and many are lost.

This book took me on a roller coaster of emotions. I was stressed, happy, sad, upset, angry, and annoyed. I wanted Ruby to me honest about her feelings and secrets with Liam. I wanted to give all these kids a hug. I wanted to slap President Gray, his whole family, and all the PSFs. More than anything I just wanted everyone to have their happy ending.

I won’t spoil the ending by saying if I got the happy ending I was looking for. What I will say is I’ve ready a lot of dystopian trilogies (The Hunger Games, Matched,etc.) and this is quite possibly the only one that gave me a satisfying ending. It was realistic and of course the world wasn’t perfect by the time it ended but enough was resolved for me to believe it would be.

If you haven’t given The Darkest Minds trilogy a try yet you definitely need. It’s worth a read and you won’t regret it. Thanks to Kieran Scott for recommending the series to me and giving me the last book. One of the greatest books I’ve read in a while. Check it out.

*Side note: I really loved the fact that when you put all the titles together of the trilogy it says, “The Darkest Minds Never Fade In The Afterlight.” Cool.

Favorite Line:

“What I’m trying to get at is, as bad as everything seems, I think, at its heart, life is good. It doesn’t throw anything at us that it knows we can’t handle—and, even if it takes its time, it turns everything right side up again.”

Stars: 5 out of 5. So good! I want to read this whole trilogy over again. Especially knowing how it all ends now, reading it again would be interesting.

Borrow or Buy: Buy!!! For explanation please see previous.

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10 Signs You’re Not Ready to Graduate

Posted on April 6, 2015April 7, 2015 by Zakiya N. Jamal in Blog

Some people are more than excited to graduate. You’re not one of those people. You find yourself asking, “Has it really been four years already? Am I supposed to be a real adult now? I’d rather not.” Here’s 10 signs you’re not quite ready to move on just yet.

1. You’ve contemplated going to grad school just to avoid the real world a little while longer.

What’s a few more years of school and some debt?

2. You start to hyperventilate when you think about living alone and silly things like taxes.

What do you mean I have to pay rent? And what are utilities? And who’s going to do my taxes? What is this?

3. Anytime someone mentions graduation you run away.

“So you’re graduating-” Lalalala I can’t hear you. Good bye!

4. Or when someone asks you what you’re doing after college.

Why would you ask me that? I have no idea. I’m figuring it out okay. Let me live.

5. You get stressed when all your friends start talking about how far apart you’ll be after graduation.

What do you mean you won’t be five minutes away anymore? Who am I going to binge watch Friends with? Who’s going to go club hopping with me? #NoNewFriends

6. And you get nostalgic when you look at your old photos from previous years.

Remember that time we celebrated your birthday? And we put all that stuff on your door? DO YOU REMEMBER?

7. You start getting really sentimental about all your past relationships/friendships.

I haven’t seen Rachel in so long. I wonder how she’s doing. What has she been up to? Maybe I’ll give her a call just to say what’s up? (Don’t do it!)

8. You start looking at the underclassmen and reminiscence about when you were just a wee little freshman.

Awwwww. Remember when we use to go to parties with a crew of eight people? Those were the days.

9. You start referring to everything as, “This is the last time …”

I can’t believe this is our last homecoming. Is this really our last time doing pre-registration? We’ll never live together ever again!!! *tears*

10. The countdown to graduation stresses you to no end.

*takes deep breath* How many days is it??? #40days

*The GIFs used in this post came from Tumblr, GIPHY, and Gifsoup.com*

Book Review: Yes Please

Posted on April 1, 2015October 21, 2016 by Zakiya N. Jamal in Book Reviews

Synopsis from Amazon:

Do you want to get to know the woman we first came to love on Comedy Central’s Upright Citizens Brigade? Do you want to spend some time with the lady who made you howl with laughter on Saturday Night Live, and in movies like Baby Mama, Blades of Glory, and They Came Together? Do you find yourself daydreaming about hanging out with the actor behind the brilliant Leslie Knope on Parks and Recreation? Did you wish you were in the audience at the last two Golden Globes ceremonies, so you could bask in the hilarity of Amy’s one-liners?

If your answer to these questions is “Yes Please!” then you are in luck. In her first book, one of our most beloved funny folk delivers a smart, pointed, and ultimately inspirational read. Full of the comedic skill that makes us all love Amy, Yes Please is a rich and varied collection of stories, lists, poetry (Plastic Surgery Haiku, to be specific), photographs, mantras and advice. With chapters like “Treat Your Career Like a Bad Boyfriend,” “Plain Girl Versus the Demon” and “The Robots Will Kill Us All” Yes Please will make you think as much as it will make you laugh. Honest, personal, real, and righteous, Yes Please is full of words to live by.

After reading Mindy Kaling and Tina Fey’s books I felt it was only right to read (listen) to what Amy Poehler had to say and man, was that a good decision.

From describing her divorce, her sons, her childhood, her young adult days (including her experience with drugs), and her success on Parks and Rec, Poehler had me in happy and sad tears. I chose to listen to her audiobook rather than read the book because I think Poehler is hilarious and I expected listening to her audiobook would be way more fun than just reading it.

What made the audio book so great was Poehler wasn’t the only one telling the story. Seth Meyer’s reads the chapter he wrote for the book, Poehler’s parents made an appearance, and many others also jumped in the audio booth with Poehler. Listening to Poehler and Meyer’s banter was one of my favorite parts of the book and I just don’t think that’s something I would’ve gotten if I had just read it.

The audio book then ends with Poehler reading the last chapter live which I thought was really cool. Besides that though, whether you listen to the book or actually pick up the hard copy it’s definitely worth your time.

Poehler is not only funny but she’s honest. She doesn’t sugar coat who she is or her experiences. She discusses her mistakes, taking full responsibility for them, while also acknowledging her flaws in a way that I found very relatable. When she discussed her trip to Haiti I felt like I was there with her and never felt like she was trying to convince me how good of a person she was for volunteering in Haiti. Her book felt very genuine and real and I hope she writes another (even though she said this first one was a struggle) because I’d love to hear more.

Stars: 5 out of 5. I was never bored or annoyed with this book. It felt real and honest, like Poehler was just giving me some life advice.

Favorite Line:

“Saying ‘yes’ doesn’t mean I don’t know how to say no, and saying “please” doesn’t mean I am waiting for permission.”

Borrow or Buy: Buy. You need this book. You will love and cherish this book forever. I promise.

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10 Signs You’re Ready to Graduate

Posted on March 30, 2015 by Zakiya N. Jamal in Blog

Whether you started your senior year hype to be almost done with college or you were feeling sentimental because it was your last year, at some point you’ve probably felt just about over it. College was great, you had a good time, but now it’s about time to move on. Here’s 10 signs you’re ready to bounce.

1. You no longer understand the point of class

Why am I here? Will this help me in the future? What are we even talking about? Just stop.

2. Just getting to class is an enormous struggle.

It’s so far and my bed is so comfortable. I’m allowed to miss three classes before it becomes a problem, right? I’m sure I can get the notes from someone. I wasn’t going to pay attention anyway. Back to bed.

3. And if you do make it paying attention is a joke and a half.

Am I taking notes or texting everyone I know right now? That’s a secret I’ll never tell.

4. You don’t even try to do the readings anymore

Do I even have the book for this class? Did I really spend money on this? I guess it makes a good paper weight. I’m sure it’s on Spark Notes. It’s a big lecture, I’ll be fine.

5. And getting assignments done an hour before they’re due is a good day