The Weight of Our Sky

Title: The Weight Of Our Sky

Author: Hanna Alkaf

Publisher: Salaam Reads

Genres: historical fiction, young adult, contemporary, mental illness, realistic fiction

Book purchase links: Iman Publication | Salaam Reads  | Book Depository 

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Book Blurb

A music-loving teen with OCD does everything she can to find her way back to her mother during the historic race riots in 1969 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in this heart-pounding literary debut.

Melati Ahmad looks like your typical moviegoing, Beatles-obsessed sixteen-year-old. Unlike most other sixteen-year-olds though, Mel also believes that she harbors a djinn inside her, one who threatens her with horrific images of her mother’s death unless she adheres to an elaborate ritual of counting and tapping to keep him satisfied.

But there are things that Melati can't protect her mother from. On the evening of May 13th, 1969, racial tensions in her home city of Kuala Lumpur boil over. The Chinese and Malays are at war, and Mel and her mother become separated by a city in flames.

With a 24-hour curfew in place and all lines of communication down, it will take the help of a Chinese boy named Vincent and all of the courage and grit in Melati’s arsenal to overcome the violence on the streets, her own prejudices, and her djinn’s surging power to make it back to the one person she can’t risk losing.

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**Content warnings: Racism, graphic violence, on-page death, OCD, and anxiety triggers.** 

My Review 

The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf successfully depicted the aftermath of the true event to its people. The true event itself was the D-Day that shall not be forgotten and repeated again for its truly harrowing tragedy. All's stemmed from the constant racial tension simmered between the Malays and the Chinese in the world of economic; Chinese tended to be more economically powerful than Malays thus from the beginning they'd harbored hatred towards each other. Unfortunately, the tension bordered on its line when the election on 10th May 1969 had officially declared that the Governing Alliance lost to the opposition. On Tuesday, 13th May 1969, Petaling Street erupted into a world of violence due to racial riots between those two races. 

     Particular on the same day, it was a normal day for Melati, a 16 yrs old girl who accompanied her bubbly best friend, Safiyah to the theater after the school's session ended.  It was, just, really, a normal day to her, the town was so peaceful, filled with her best friend's babbles about her favorite actor. Unbeknownst to them, racial riots occurred outside of the theatre and cornered them from all entrances. 

     About the depiction of the racial riots, I was truly taken in by some blood and gore scenes inflicted by Malays'  and Chinese's processions. How were these things being described made me think this story was indeed a fast-paced story. The violence incurred a huge number of deaths. You should be prepared for the incoming nightmares to taunt you along with Melati who's trying to find ways back to her mother during the emergency period or "Darurat" at the same time battling against the Djin that loved to torture her to no end. 

     Yup, that Djin lived inside her. For me, I was truly impressed by how the author would be able to relate the existence of Djin to the chronic mental illness possessed by Melati which was OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Order). In this story, the Djin constantly dominating her mind, persuading her to do things he loved--desired such as counting things that were deemed unthinkable and unnecessary to other people.

      

     The weird thing was that this djin loved her to count things in threes - or be it a whole number that could be divided by the number 3 itself. If she failed to abide by his rules, he would project a train of illusions into her head, depicting countless ways of how her mother could die. In a way that could force her to succumb to his dark games. 

"by the time school ends on Tuesday, my mother has died seventeen times."

Can you imagine how does this girl still live the day after seeing the illusions of her mother's death multiple times? And let us just acknowledge that it's just a half-day, what about the other days, weeks, months, and years?

     It's purely an eye-opener for me to read a book that tackles about mental health issues. And I liked how her character being made up into a realistic character arc. From the beginning to the end, I'd expect some changes made in her character or some resolution on how to encounter that demon inside her throughout the story but to no avail, the author just ended the story with her recovery remained mystery. But then I realised that the author probably wanted to make her character to be seen as realistic as possible. The impacts of her illness actually contributed to how forlorn the story was, with people being ignorant towards her illness, and the acts of violence on her surroundings did really tug on my heartstrings.

   Nevertheless, along the horrific journey, Melati would be able to meet the kindest people, Aunt Bee, Vince and what's more interesting these people were Chinese, an absolute contradiction to her kinds which was Malay. Clearly portrayed there were some remnants of humanity left whereby they just didn't go off killing each other based on race. This book, despite its gore depictions, there were some light-hearted contents. I loved the humor in one scene whereby a Malay man felt reluctant to go undercover as an Indian lady by wearing Indian's traditional Saree, just to avoid being killed by anti-Malays. All in all, I truly recommend this book for those who haven't heard or are in deep curiosity about what'd happened in the midst of the true incident that occurred in Malaysia on 13th May 1969. Malaysia is a multiracial county and I hope our country will continue flourishing its people with great peace and prosperity, especially during this on-going pandemic, take care and stay home everyone. We're in this together. #kitajagakita

About the Author

HANNAH ALKAF graduated with a degree in journalism from Northwestern University and now spends most of her time making things up as she goes along, both as a writer of fiction and as a mom. The Weight Of Our Sky is her first novel, she lives in Kuala Lumpur with her family.