Kick the Moon

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The only thing I struggled with - and it is defintely my age and not the author - is the street language/slang. Ten years ago, a legendary fighter named Choi Gi-dong and a timid straight-A student named Park Young-joon leave for a high school field trip to Gyeongju city. They feel glad about their unexpected reunion, but the mood gets tense as they rekindle old yet not-so-fond memories. In an instant, they fall headlong in love with her as Ju-ran's gleeful smile sweeps them off their feet. Using the idea that he’s a successful sports player, therefore do no wrong is such a common thing that happens in school.

Although they come from completely different backgrounds they manage to bond over their mutual love of stories and realise maybe they have more in common than they think. Illyas’s father is overbearing and is textbook toxic masculinity, his older sister seems way too immature for her age, and everyone else was literally plucked straight from hell. Thank you to MyKindaBook (Macmillan Children’s Books) for sending me an e-copy in exchange for an honest review. Similar to his first book, one of the things I don’t love is that the language is very much in slang, and it does make it hard to read. I also love that it shows a different take on a religious family and how it’s a part of who Ilyas is, and how he obviously does stand by it.

He crushes hard on Jade but after meeting Kelly in a near accident has his head turned as Jade and her girl gang are mean to her. There's an underlying message throughout the novel of self-worth, and the presence of positive characters like Ms Mughal, drives it home that this is what is needed in young people's lives. I wasn't entirely convinced by the adult characters (the saintly cool Maths teacher as much as Kelly's evil snobby mother), and felt like the climactic scene where the protagonist gets to prove his worth in a big competition was a bit too familiar.

The movie revolves around the two men s rivalry for the affections of a local lady restaurant owner and the fighting of rival gang factions in the small city. For the most part, I thought the premise of this book was incredibly promising – a narrative that explores the themes of racism, sexism, gang culture, misogyny, toxic masculinity, friendships, peer pressure and bullying through the eyes of fifteen-year-old comic book enthusiast Ilyas Mian, who is also bearing the weight of a dozen different expectations on his shoulders. His debut novel I Am Thunder was shortlisted for the YA Book Prize, won the Branford Boase First Novel Award, the 2018 Great Reads Award and a number of regional awards. Kick the Moon, is Muhammad Khan's explosive second novel, with original comic-book art from Amrit Birdi, bestselling illustrator of Username:Evie.It’s a painful scene, made more so by being experienced through the eyes of a young child who doesn’t understand why the colour of his skin rules him out of dressing up as one of his favourite characters. She is a smart, talented young girl who also goes through a lot in the book and finds her own self and strength too. With family pressure forcing him to be a 'man', and push him towards his father's business, peer pressure, academic worries over exams, he is caught between worlds and ideologies, loyalties and desires. Some might dismiss stories such as this as encouraging sentimental slush about finding yourself and then being true to self.