REVIEW: “Plus One” by Karuna Riazi

Review of Karuna Riazi, “Plus One”, in Marieke Nijkamp, ed., Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2018): 104-131 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology).

Hafsah has received an invitation from God, for a once in a lifetime opportunity: To go on hajj. A wonderful opportunity, a blessed opportunity, a sacred opportunity…and one she doesn’t particularly want. Because this is the sort of invitation where a plus one is not expected, and Hafsah doesn’t know how she’ll go on hajj without bringing It along.

Everyone says that It is just a phase, that if she ignores It, if she names It, if she grows out of It, It will go away, but nothing she’s done has ever gotten rid of It. What “It” is in the story is not specified — it is both everything that burdens every teenager and also something unique, special, Hafsah’s alone, that no one else has. My heart ached for Hafsah as she tried to navigate a way forward to a life without It, but I also felt a sense of kinship with her, and I suspect many other readers will too…

Reading this story also made me reflect that I can probably count on two hands the number of stories with a Muslim MC that I’ve reviewed for this site since it started almost 3 years ago. This is something I’d like to change going forward! If only they can all be as good as this one was.