Hail Mariam by Huda Al-Marashi

Every time I think parts of my Malaysian Muslim upbringing were strict, I run up against really weird shit from other Muslim cultural denominations and I’m all “wow.” Which isn’t to run them down at all! And perhaps nowhere is this sort of reflection more appropriate than in a book about a twelve year-old Muslim girl enrolled in a Catholic school, who has no idea how to navigate what feels like the religious minefield in front of her.

Mariam is an overachiever whose physician parents don’t think that the local California public schools are challenging enough for her. They enroll her instead in a nearby Catholic school, and tell her that it’s important for her to be a good ambassador for both Muslims and Iraqis (no pressure, kiddo!) while she’s there.

Mariam takes these words to heart, but is constantly and understandably anxious about whether she’s committing sins by even looking at icons (considered idolatrous by the Muslim faith) and, later, by accepting the role of Mary in the school nativity play. It doesn’t help that the curriculum is, indeed, challenging and that she’s behind the other students in certain key areas.

When her beloved younger sister Salma falls ill, Mariam begins to think that maybe if she’s more religious, Allah will cure her sister. But playing Mary is the only way she knows how to get the recognition she craves from her schoolmates. What will Mariam do to satisfy these warring desires in her soul, of wanting to please God (and heal her sister) and wanting to please the voice inside her that cries out for attention?

I’m going to be so for real with you when I say that I felt so bad for Mariam mostly because her mom kinda sucks. I know that Mama is a busy doctor who, if she’d stayed in Iraq, would have had a whole neighborhood to help her raise her kids. That’s still no excuse for treating your kid like an afterthought, especially in comparison to your younger child! And this isn’t to let her dad off the hook either: the number of things that Mariam’s parents just assume she should know is shocking and deeply unfair to a smart, sensitive young girl who is, again, only twelve years-old. Worse, she’s constantly shoved into the position of being her younger sister’s third and probably most involved parent.

That said, Mama and Baba do have several excellent things to say about religion, like how illness isn’t a punishment, how you can’t bargain with God, and how there’s definitely a difference between religion and culture. I also admired the commitment throughout this book to interfaith understanding, even as I was deeply irritated at how little time Mariam’s parents seemed to have for her even before Salma fell ill. If you’re not going to make a trusted teacher available to your kids about the religion you expect them to follow, then the least you can do is be available to answer their questions any time they have them.

I’m pleased that everyone comes out of this book knowing more than they did going in, even if I thought that Mariam realizing that Mama acted towards her the way Bibi (Mama’s own mother) treated Mama was still not the excuse Mariam might have thought it was for Mama’s behavior. It is always possible to make better parenting choices! I did also appreciate how Huda Al-Marashi points out in her Author’s Note that people of faith often have more in common than we do differences, and that how you approach both your own and others’ depends so much on the kind of person you are. This book really is the 21st century Muslim version of Judy Blume’s seminal Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. and is a worthy read for anyone of any faith this Ramadan and beyond.

Hail Mariam by Huda Al-Marashi was published February 24 2026 by Kokila and is available from all good booksellers, including