Kick the Moon

Product Information

Stereotypes are drawn on only to be broken down in this great follow up to debut YA novel 'I Am Thunder'. Since then it’s become a hub of book recommendations, author interviews, and in 2024 I will be starting my own YA book club.

There's a sweet acknowledgement to Muzna from I am Thunder, Khan's debut novel, which bonded both books in the present time. The discussions of diversity and privilege were also great to read and the naturalised diversity of the characters was realistic.the representation of teachers wasn’t too bad but i found the majority of the teenagers unbearable to read. Ilyas is getting in with a bad crowd, and has ended up in a gang and doing things he doesn’t want because he’s scared and this comes across so well.

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. Ilyas’s story is one that will shred you to pieces from when he’s spiralling out of control to when someone(s) start to believe in him. 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. I would love to see the author persue the comic aspect of PakCore / Big Bad Waf as I think she could give the Black Panther a run for his money! Muhammad Khan’s teenagers are blisteringly authentic with their street talk and casual nastiness to each other.Full disclosure: I am a middle-aged woman so definitely not the demographic this high enery novel is aimed at! But when Kelly catches the eye of one of the local bad boys, Imran, he decides to seduce her for a bet – and Ilyas is faced with losing the only person who understands him.