• About
  • Editorial Board
    • Staff Writers
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
The Wellesley News -
  • News and Features
    • Professor Phillip Levine Discusses “A Problem of Fit”
      Professor Phillip Levine Discusses “A Problem of Fit”
    • CS Department shifts CS 111 course structure
      CS Department shifts CS 111 course structure
    • WAMI and WRJ host discussion on criminalization of abortion
      WAMI and WRJ host discussion on criminalization of abortion
    • News
      • News in Brief
      • Nation & World
      • President’s Corner
      • Senate Report
    • Features
      • Alumnae Spotlight
      • Eye on Science
      • Faculty Focus
      • LGBTQIA+ Column
  • Opinions
    • Andrew tate: ending the cycle of toxic masculinity
      Andrew tate: ending the cycle of toxic masculinity
    • Turn it off: healing from news fatigue in the digital age
      Turn it off: healing from news fatigue in the digital age
    • Let them eat bread: the unequal effects of food price inflation
      Let them eat bread: the unequal effects of food price inflation
    • Staff Editorial
    • Letters to the Editor
    • The Elephant in the Room
  • Arts
    • The 95th Academy Awards Nominations: The Cool and The Controversial
      The 95th Academy Awards Nominations: The Cool and The Controversial
    • Lucy Dacus Brings a Minimal Yet Powerful Performance to Northeastern University
      Lucy Dacus Brings a Minimal Yet Powerful Performance to Northeastern University
    • “Glass Onion” Takes Shots at Easy Targets
      “Glass Onion” Takes Shots at Easy Targets
    • Arts In The News
    • Reviews
    • Music Peek
    • Books Before Boys
  • Sports and Wellness
    • Student-Athlete of October
      Student-Athlete of October
    • Athletics Update Oct. 19, 2022
      Athletics Update Oct. 19, 2022
    • The Case for Body Neutrality
      The Case for Body Neutrality
    • Athlete of the Week
    • Boston Sports Update
    • The Vegan Digest
    • The SHE Corner
  • The Wellesley Snooze
    • Happy Valentine’s Day from Spog
      Happy Valentine’s Day from Spog
    • The Four Best Places to Loudly FaceTime Someone on Campus
      The Four Best Places to Loudly FaceTime Someone on Campus
    • PJ’s Letter to Santa
      PJ’s Letter to Santa
  • Miscellanea
    • President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
      President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
    • Administrators shocked to learn that students dislike being left in dark
      Administrators shocked to learn that students dislike being left in dark
    • 50 Lies You Tell Yourself in Order to Survive Until Graduation
      50 Lies You Tell Yourself in Order to Survive Until Graduation
    • The Dose
    • The Olive Branch
    • Multimedia
      • Galleries
      • Infographics
      • Videos
By Ann Zhao Arts, Books Before Boys, ReviewsJanuary 5, 2022

Books Before Boys: “You Truly Assumed” perfectly encapsulates today’s youth

Do you ever just know that something is going to wow you upon first glance?

I’ve written a lot in my column about books that have surprised me, but sometimes, you can just tell when a book is going to rock people’s worlds even before you pick it up. That couldn’t be more true for Laila Sabreen’s debut novel, “You Truly Assumed.”

The novel follows three Black Muslim girls from around the United States who form a blog together after a terrorist attack sparks increased Islamophobia throughout the country. Sabriya, from Washington, DC, is at the head of it all, the one who formed the blog and the one who writes the posts. Zakat, a resident of the Atlanta suburbs, does the website’s artwork, though her parents don’t approve of her internet presence. Farah, a Californian staying at her father’s house in Massachusetts for the summer, writes the website’s code. 

As the three of them become friends and their blog grows, so does the hate being thrown at them in the comments of their posts. And then one of them is directly threatened, and the three of them must figure out who’s behind all of it and decide what to do with the website before the situation gets worse. 

Throughout the story, each character also gets their own individual storyline, navigating situations ranging from friend drama to first love. Sabreen shows quite well that there’s no one way to be a Muslim teenager, and the book balances these three characters’ points of view seemingly effortlessly. It was very easy for me to distinguish between perspectives, which is often hard to do when you’re writing in the first person. 

I find myself in awe of how everything was tied together, the way that Sabreen wove themes of girlhood, family and Black Muslim identity. I, of course, don’t come from the same background, but I can still know that this book comes from Sabreen’s heart. The girls of this book seem much more realistic as teenagers than a lot of YA books I’ve read recently — their feelings jump off the page, but they aren’t quite as childish as YA protagonists can sometimes be. 

And I can’t end this review without talking about the blog itself. The way the internet was depicted, from Twitter virality to internet friendships, was done in a way only a member of Gen-Z can, and it absolutely cemented my belief that we should be publishing more books written by teens and young adults. 

I simply think that everyone should read “You Truly Assumed.” It offers a window into the minds of three teenagers with vastly different but impressively similar lives, and I can’t wait to see what else Sabreen has in store.

“You Truly Assumed” comes out on Feb. 8, 2022. I received an advanced copy from the publisher, Inkyard Press, in exchange for an honest review.

Share on

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Google +
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
Previous articleBooks Before Boys: A very meta book about co-writers falling in love by two married co-writers
Next articleBooks Before Boys: This murder mystery hits different (or maybe I’m just feeling a lot of queer Chinese-American feelings as of late)

You may also like

The 95th Academy Awards Nominations: The Cool and The Controversial

image of lucy dacus playing the guitar in multicolored lights.

Lucy Dacus Brings a Minimal Yet Powerful Performance to Northeastern University

“Glass Onion” Takes Shots at Easy Targets

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

Top Articles

  • Logos of social media apps such as Twitter, Tiktok, Netflix, Spotify, and Discord. Andrew tate: ending the cycle of toxic masculinity
  • Stone-Davis dining staff report mistreatment
  • The 95th Academy Awards Nominations: The Cool and The Contro...
  • A collection of a wide variety of foods in the colors of the rainbow Let them eat bread: the unequal effects of food price inflat...
  • Red envelope that contains money to celebrate the Lunar New Year. America’s cultural appropriation is a modern form of i...

Recent Tweets

Tweets by @Wellesley_News

The independent student newspaper of Wellesley College since 1901.

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

  • About
  • Editorial Board
    • Staff Writers
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
COPYRIGHT © 2023 THE WELLESLEY NEWS
Back to top