Review: Yes, I’m Hot in This: The Hilarious Truth about Life in a Hijab

Title: Yes, I’m Hot in This: The Hilarious Truth about Life in a Hijab
Author: Huda Fahmy
Genre: Graphic Novel
Publisher: Adams Media
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: December 11, 2018
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Popular Instagram cartoonist and Muslim-American Huda Fahmy presents a hilarious, relatable, and painfully honest new collection of comics that break down barriers and show how universal our everyday problems, worries, and joys actually are. 

At some point in our lives, we’ve all felt a little out of place. Huda Fahmy has found it’s a little more difficult to fade into the crowd when wearing a hijab.

In Yes, I’m Hot in This, Huda navigates the sometimes-rocky waters of life from the unique perspective of a Muslim-American woman, breaking down misconceptions of her culture one comic at a time. From recounting the many questions she gets about her hijab every day (yes, she does have hair) and explaining how she runs in an abaya (just fine, thank you) to dealing with misconceptions about Muslims, Yes, I’m Hot in This tackles universal feelings from an point of view we don’t hear from nearly enough.

Every one of us have experienced love, misunderstanding, anger, and a deep desire for pizza. In Yes, I’m Hot in This, Huda’s clever comics demonstrate humor’s ability to bring us together, no matter how different we may appear on the surface.

Review:

This is a hilarious comic collection! It is both entertaining and informative.

Huda shows many of the misconceptions that people have about Muslims in this story. People constantly as her if she’s hot in her hijab (Spoiler: She is hot). They also think she’s wearing it against her will, but she chooses to wear it.

There was also a lot of humour in the story. Huda shows how different movies could be with her in them. She places herself in movies such as Harry Potter (where Umbridge sends her for a secondary inspection), Scarface (which she renames Scarfieface), and American Horror Story (renamed to Hijabi Horror Story). These movies show how little Muslims are represented in pop culture.

I grew up in an area of Toronto with many Muslims. I could relate to many of the things she said of this book because many of my friends were Muslim while I was growing up. It’s amazing how people can ask so many ignorant questions, just because of something she wears on her head. I hope this book can change the way people see Muslims.

What to read next:

Have you read Yes, I’m Hot in This? What did you think of it?