Leah Vernon

A searingly honest memoir of one young woman's journey toward self-acceptance as she comes to see her body as a symbol of rebellion and hope and chooses to live her life unapologetically. Ever since she was little, Leah Vernon was told what to believe and how to act. There wasn't any room for imperfection. Good Muslim girls listened more than they spoke. They didn't have a missing father or a mother with mental illness. They didn't have fat bodies or grow up wishing they could be like the white characters they saw on TV. They didn't have husbands who abused and cheated on them. They certainly didn't have secret abortions. In Unashamed, Vernon takes to task the myth of the perfect Muslim woman with frank dispatches on her love-hate relationship with her hijab and her faith, race, weight, mental illness, domestic violence, sexuality, the millennial world of dating, and the process of finding her voice. She opens up about her tumultuous adolescence living at the poverty line with her fiercely loving but troubled mother, her deadbeat dad, and her siblings, and the violent dissolution of her 10-year marriage. Tired of the constant policing of her clothing in the name of Islam and Western beauty standards, Vernon reflects on her experiences with hustling paycheck to paycheck, body-shaming, and redefining what it means to be a "good" Muslim. Irreverent, youthful, and funny, Unashamed gives anyone who is marginalized permission to live unapologetic, confident lives.

Under the rule of a tyrant, Americans were divided by race and class. Hate and inequality reigned. Hispanics and Blacks had no choice but to overthrow the government and exterminate the Caucasian “Europe” race. The few Europes who managed to survive are now classified as Lower Residents and are used as slaves to rebuild the New America—The Southern Region. Sixteen-year-old Saige, whose parents broke the “purity clause”, pays for their mistake far after their publicized executions. As an Impure, she now must escape the tyranny and sneak over the Border to freedom. Avi, who is destined to succeed her father as General, is conflicted by her loyalty to her authoritarian Elite family and her love for a Europe rebel. Leo, a Lower Resident worker who rebels believe God has sent, will lead them to salvation against the Union. These three teenage adversaries from different castes are forced to rely on one another to thwart a dictator’s plans for mass genocide. And they're about to start a revolution.