I was excited to win this through the First Reads giveaways, but the book was pretty disappointing. The writing is simplistic and unsophisticated, the characters are flat, and the narration is awkward. Here's one of my favorite scenes, when the protagonist is at a dance and sees his friend talking to a Jewish girl whose "diamond-encrusted" gold Star of David necklace "sparkled like it had magical powers": 
 "Are you without a brain?" 
 He jerked his arm from my grasp. "What's wrong?" 
 I addressed the heavens. "This guy just doesn't get it." 
 "Get what?" 
 "What planet are you from?" I wanted to shake him. "She's Jewish and you're Palestinian." 
 "Your point?" 
 "Don't make me think that your IQ is under 60." 
 I read this page probably six times, just reveling in that ridiculous moment. It's not even the cliche situation that bothers me; it's just so badly written. 
 For all the hype about "humanizing" and the "universality" of its approach to the situation, too, I thought the book fell laughably short. Everything was against this one family from the very beginning; everything terrible that could possibly happen did; it just didn't feel real, it felt like propaganda. I really do think that both sides of this conflict need to be humanized and understood, but I don't think this book did that.