Saints and Misfits

Written by S.K. Ali, Saints and Misfits is young-adult novel that delves into the complex world of Janna Yusuf, a Muslim American teenager grappling with identity, faith, and the challenges of being a misfit in her community. This coming-of-age story takes readers on a poignant journey as Janna navigates the multiple intersections of her cultural heritage, personal experiences, and societal expectations. Through her authentic voice and compelling narrative, S.K. Ali explores themes of self-discovery, friendship, and the importance of speaking out against injustice. Saints and Misfits was a Morris Award finalist and an Entertainment Weekly Best YA Book of the Year.

This guide refers to the 2018 Salaam Reads/Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers paperback edition.

Content Warning: Both this guide and its source text address mature themes, including sexual assault, harassment, and cultural and religious expectations.

Plot Summary

As the novel opens, Janna Yusuf is on vacation with her father and stepmother, trying to distract herself from the emotional aftermath of a recent traumatic experience. During the incident, she was sexually assaulted by her friend Fizz’s cousin, Farooq, when he trapped her in the basement of Fizz’s house. Feeling an imbalance in power dynamics because Farooq is respected by the Muslim community for having memorized the entire Qur’an while Janna is the misfit child of divorced parents, she chooses to stay silent out of fear.

Janna’s daily life revolves around a core group of loved ones: her two close friends—Fizz from mosque and Tats from school; her mom; her brother Muhammad, who is recently home from college; and her elderly neighbor, Mr. Ram, with whom she has many conversations about books and poetry. She enjoys her time with Mr. Ram at the community center, where she meets another Muslim teenager named Nuah; both of them bring her joy.

However, her life becomes disturbed by carrying the secret of the assault. Farooq attends her mosque, and every time she sees him, she wants to run away. This problem intensifies as she runs into Farooq in other settings as well. For instance, at a birthday party for Fizz, she leaves early to get away from Farooq, and she encounters him again at the mosque’s open house, where to her horror she learns that Farooq has been selected to lead prayers on Ramadan. She also feels irritated that her brother Muhammad is pursuing a relationship with her study circle leader at mosque, a girl she thinks of as “Saint Sarah” because of her piety and perfect appearance. Further conflict arises when her mother and brother ask her to give up her room, since Muhammad will be dropping out of school for a year to earn money to pursue a doctorate in philosophy. Feeling a growing loss of control over her life, Janna refuses, despite her family’s attempts to bribe her by buying her a cell phone.

Additionally, Janna has a crush on a white boy named Jeremy and becomes acutely aware of his movements around the school. When she sees her friend Tats with Jeremy, she becomes suspicious and nervous that Tats has betrayed her and is pursuing a relationship with him. Muhammad also discovers pictures of Jeremy on her camera roll and blackmails her into supervising meetings between him and Sarah. In this way, she becomes involved in the Islamic Quiz Bowl that is hosted at their mosque and is drafted onto a team that includes Sarah, Nuah, and Sausun, a girl who wears a niqab. When their team progresses to the regionals, Janna and Muhammad’s dad insist that the entire team stay with him so that he can meet Sarah.Later, Janna discovers that Jeremy learned about her crush from Tats, and Jeremy is equally interested in Janna. She is excited to learn where this could go but keeps it a secret from Fizz, whom she fears will judge her for pursuing a romance with a non-Muslim. One day at gym class, Jeremy shows up to assist the teacher with softball. Janna is not wearing her hijab in gym class and panics at this oversight. But with Tats’s encouragement, she also goes without the hijab for the next gym class, styling her hair and hoping that Jeremy will find her attractive. However, the teacher makes a scene, calling her out for not wearing her hijab, and Janna leaves the class early, humiliated.

At school one day, Janna is put into a group with two girls, Sandra and Lauren. Although Lauren refuses to interact with Sandra, who has been bullied at school for having a birthmark on her face, Janna befriends Sandra and begins to spend more time with her. During the next gym class, she once more goes without the hijab but is sickened to see that Farooq is in the weight room with Jeremy. That evening, she decides to give up her room to her brother, hoping that this altruistic act will restore some order to her life.

One afternoon while she is looking after Mr. Ram, she gets a call from Tats who tells her that Lauren has posted a picture of her without her hijab on Facebook. She leaves Mr. Ram unattended to go check but is accidentally gone for over an hour. Mr. Ram’s family is very hurt by this neglect. The attention the photo receives begins to overwhelm Janna, and Fizz sends her a judgmental message, scolding her for removing her hijab.

On the way to Quiz Bowl practice, Janna runs into Tats and Jeremy and makes plans to go to the lake with Jeremy that Sunday. However, when Janna leaves for regionals at Islamic Quiz Bowl, she discovers that Farooq is driving her carpool. Although she knows the material, Janna cannot respond to any of the questions at regionals, and as a result, their team is disqualified. Later that evening, Farooq corners her in the basement of her father’s house insisting that she wants him, but Nuah interrupts them. Feeling upset, Janna confides in Sausun, who strongly urges her to take action against Farooq. After returning from Quiz Bowl, Janna discovers with horror that her mom has seen the notebook where she planned her date with Jeremy, so she lies in order to sneak out and meet up with him. Though the two have a romantic and enjoyable meeting, Janna’s mom becomes angry at her deception, and both Janna’s friends and her family express concern about what she is hiding from them.

She sees a video that Sausun posted with a thinly veiled rant about Janna’s situation with Farooq. Furious, she calls Sausun and accuses Sausun of using her for content; she proposes that in exchange, Sausun should help her take down Farooq. Sausun only agrees to do so if Janna appears in a video with her and meets with Farooq to openly denounce him. She also confronts Lauren and asks her to not post any more pictures of her online. However, Jeremy begins to avoid Janna, believing that she is romantically involved with Farooq because of Farooq’s false claims to that effect. After school one day, Janna sees an ambulance in front of her apartment building and learns that Mr. Ram passed away. Nuah and Tats help her during her grief. She creates a Facebook page in Mr. Ram’s honor, sharing the ways in which he impacted her life. Her grief also makes her decide to accept Sausun’s offer. She begins to admit to others what Farooq did, though not going into detail. When she confronts Fizz and her sister with the truth, the two girls claim she’s lying and leave.

Sausun proposes that they meet Farooq at a coffee shop, both wearing the niqab to protect their identities, and expose Farooq for what he has done. However, when they meet up, Janna feels a flood of emotion and begins yelling at him and chasing him away. Sausun says the filmed material is unusable because there is no evidence of Farooq’s crime, but Janna celebrates the incident as a victory, feeling that she has reclaimed her voice. When Janna sees Farooq at the mosque, she decides to tell her uncle everything. Her uncle calls a family meeting, and when they learn the truth of what happened, they embrace her and support her on her healing journey.