Rosemary Hayes' book, Mixing It * is a post-9/11young adult novel. Its main protagonists are Steve, a seventeen-year-old white, British student, and Fatimah, a sixteen-year-old British-Asian student from a devout Muslim family; the antagonists belong to a shadowy terrorist organization.
Supporting characters include Fatimah's parents and brother Hassan, Steve's parents Ben and Jackie, Fatimah's late friend Aisha's relatives Auntie Leila and Habib, and the church vicar and mosque imam who support interfaith dialogue. The story's events occur in an unnamed English town where Steve and Fatimah are from.
Basic Plot Of Novel Mixing It
The story literally begins with a bang when Steve and Fatimah, who never knew each other prior, despite attending the same school, are suddenly thrust into each other's lives through a domestic terrorist attack that kills Fatimah's friend Aisha. Fatimah successfully keeps Steve alive long enough for the ambulance to arrive.
When the Press puts out misleading stories about Fatimah having saved her "lover", threats to their families emerge. At the same time both the vicar and imam want Steve, Fatimah and their families to participate in an interfaith gathering broadcast live to millions. Now both Steve and Fatimah must decide whether breaking down social barriers is worth the possible risk to their lives.
Mixing It Doesn't Delve Too Deeply Into Issues
In terms of the issues brought up, Hayes falls short of clearly explaining what they entail. Regarding domestic terrorism, Hayes never explains what exactly motivates her fictional terror group to exist.
What is definitely known is that Hayes' group is not based on any real-life terrorist organizations. Its actions are not politically motivated towards protesting misguided Western foreign policies towards the Muslim world.
Instead Hayes develops a homegrown group with ambiguous purposes aimed towards preventing Muslim integration into Western society. Readers will rightfully wonder what Hayes' group hopes to accomplish by stopping integration.
Does it want Muslims to migrate from the West or can they remain there as long as they do not integrate? Why does it believe force is the only way to stop people from integrating? It is never made clear by Hayes what the group's exact purpose is.
Likewise Hayes does not clearly explain what communal interfaith dialogue entails. Is such dialogue meant for different faiths to simply discuss the commonalities found between their religious doctrines? Or is it to help disparate communities establish communication ties regarding security and welfare?
All we know is that both the local imam and vicar want to set up a televised conference involving families victimized by the terror attack. To her credit even though Hayes never shows what successful communal interfaith dialogue means, she does show how such dialogue can be productive on a personal level.
Character Relationships In Mixing It Are Nuanced
After experiencing their harrowing ordeal, Steve and Fatimah inevitably develop a relationship of sorts. It begins with both seeking each other out at the hospital, with Fatimah inquiring about Steve's health and Steve wanting to personally thank her for saving his life.
We soon witness the relationship blossom not only between Steve and Fatimah but also with her brother Hassan included. The trio become good friends as they help police prevent the perpetrators from striking again, this time in violently disrupting the upcoming interfaith conference, and engage in some personal interfaith dialogue. The dialogue mainly consists of both Hassan and Fatimah answering Steve's questions about Islam and correcting his stereotypes of it, such as when Fatimah corrects Steve about his belief that Islam favored males over females.
As if having a platonic relationship wasn't enough however, Hayes then tries to unconvincingly insert some romantic tension between Steve and Fatimah. It seems she was compelled to do this because of possibly believing that teenage readers would skip reading books containing no romance. Despite the tension the relationship never becomes too intimate, only involving a few awkward blush-worthy moments shared between the characters.
Character Of Fatimah Meant To Be Realistic
Hayes tries to depict Fatimah's character in a non-stereotypical fashion; to accomplish this she consulted with young, practicing, British Muslim women. Fatimah is thus shown as being a religious Muslim girl from a loving family who never forced Islam upon her.
She eagerly practices her religion and defends it from others' misconceptions. She resents the Press for publicly sullying her reputation and is careful not to let her new found feelings for Steve ruin their platonic relationship. At the same time she is depicted as a typical British student, whose ambitions include someday becoming a doctor.
Though Hayes generally did a good job realistically fleshing out this character, she seems to go overboard at times in describing Fatimah's physical appearance. From the beginning readers are made aware of the character's attractiveness, from the lustrous dark hair to the heart-shaped face accentuated by big brown eyes.
The character's good looks are emphasized repeatedly throughout the book, as if to say that Fatimah is still a looker underneath all that modest clothing. In comparison Hayes never mentions how attractive Steve actually is other than mentioning his blond hair and blue eyes (as though that alone is enough to mean he's good-looking).
Mixing It May Not Be A Satisfying Read For Young Readers
In Mixing It, author Rosemary Hayes tries to delve into contemporary social issues such as domestic terrorism and interfaith dialogue but fails to provide a deeper analysis of each, leaving readers with more questions than answers. The book's one positive quality is that Hayes provides realistic descriptions of the characters, particularly Fatimah, and their relationships to each other.
The book may not be satisfying enough for young readers (aged 12-18) to enjoy because its ending is abrupt and stale, robbing the characters of receiving a sense of closure. We never know for example what ever becomes of the characters' new found relationships. I would therefore advise parents and teachers to skip this book if they want kids to read good engaging books about contemporary Muslim/non-Muslim relations in the West.
*Hayes, R (Oct. 15, 2007). Mixing It. London, UK: Frances LIncoln.
Rahela Choudhury - Hello, I have always had a love for writing about various topics of interest. For my undergraduate studies, I attended Hunter College ...
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