This was a great YA contemporary novel. The romance was well done, but I liked that it was only part of the book. The book focuses equally on Shirin's relationship with her brother, Navid, their breakdancing crew, and her having to deal with living in white suburbia shortly after 9-11. I was worried it would be too traumatic or that it would try too hard to be poignant, but the book struck a good balance between dealing with heavy subject matter and not reveling in it. Shirin is very easy to sympathize with, but still you can see that she's (understandably) a little too tough on people and distant sometimes. But all the main characters learn a bit by the end.