Rana Joon and the One and Only Now

Rana Joon knows that there are certain expectations of her as she is an Iranian girl; she is expected to be a straight-A student, polite, and eventually she is to marry a respectable Iranian boy. This isn’t who she is, though. It's 1996, and Rana Joon is nothing like this; she smokes weed, loves Tupac, and she has a secret that she’s been keeping from everyone: she likes girls.

What I Liked: While this book takes a bit to get into before any action happens for our characters, the buildup for this is important to the story. In the pages that come before things blow up for Rana and the story begins moving along, we get a chance to know her and the group of people she is surrounded by. During the first few chapters, we get to meet Rana’s brother, mom, dad, several of her friends, the bullies at her school, and the love interest of this book.

In these moments, we get to delve into what daily life looks like for Rana at school and at home. Through these moments, we see the complicated relationship she has with her mother and the even more layered relationship she has with her dad, who comes around once a year. These moments help us learn why Rana behaves the way that she does, and why she hides so much of who she is from her family. These pages also let us see the difference in how Rana and her brother are treated by her family, as well as the rest of the Iranian community.

While the main theme of this book is coming of age, there are other topics, such as grief, sexuality, familial pressure, and more, that are covered. Rana’s best friend passed away about a year ago, and there are still so many questions that she has and is unwilling to leave unanswered. This friend was also the only person who knew that Rana is interested in girls, and now she has to decide if she wants to let others into this part of her world. The book does a great job of exploring grief and how this shows up differently for people, regardless of their relationship with the person who has passed. We get to see Rana explore grief regarding her best friend’s death, and then again while she grieves the death of Tupac.

Final Verdict: Rana Joon and the One and Only Now is a fantastic book for young adults ages 14 and up who may be struggling to find who they are. This book does a great job of highlighting the struggle of wanting to make your parents happy but also wanting to remain authentic to yourself, and how sometimes we have to take risks to accomplish things. It’s fascinating to see how culture impacts someone’s coming of age and the way that they interact with others. It was also exciting to see Rana come into herself and learn to embrace the parts of herself that are different, and what that means to her and her family.