Fifteen-year-old Ilyas Mian wants to be a comic artist, but his traditionally Pakistani macho dad has other plans for him. Fifteen-year-old Ilyas is under pressure from everyone: GCSE's are looming and his teachers just won't let up, his dad wants him to join the family business and his mates don't care about any of it. You read this novel fearing for Ilyas and for his new friend Kelly as they are sucked into a nightmare of victimisation from which there seems no way back. The social media brings this right into the moment, and emotions will be stirred by the treatment of some young women here. The opening scenes of Kick the Moon look back at Ilyas as a nine-year-old proudly going to school in a Superman costume for a ‘dress as a book character’ day, but his hopes of winning the prize are knocked back by some unpleasant racism as a couple of his classmates point out cruelly that his skin is the wrong colour.

Kick The Moon was a fantastic book that dealt with a wide range of themes that affect teenagers today. Ilyas’s story is one that will shred you to pieces from when he’s spiralling out of control to when someone(s) start to believe in him. And the book refuses to either conform to the expected plot or shy away from some quite hard hitting threads - consent, double standards, teenage sex, toxic masculinity, exploitation, social media bullying. I had high expectations but was ultimately let down in more ways than one with a story that felt both hard to believe and largely unfinished. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review!A pre-teenage Ilyas, the story's unlikely hero (but only unlikely because we're conditioned to think that way), joins a gang as a way of being protected from bullies, only he finds himself in the hands of another bully. I understand that as a teen it can be frustrating when you feel like no adults will listen to you or take your side but the fact that Ilyas was shouting so loudly for help and no one was listening went beyond frustration and into the territory of annoyance. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously. It’s more than just a guy in a gang, but just like any teenager he has a future hen he’s given the chances, the break that he needs too.

But 'Kick The Moon' is about more than that: it allows that sometimes the self you find isn't always that great. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.As a non comic-reader, I still thoroughly enjoyed Ilyas's passion for his art and his medium, and watching the evolution of his own characters as he battles to be original and relevant. The impact of Muhammad’s writing really resonated with me, it really hit me, I felt emotionally kicked in the chest. Definitely a more mature piece than Attack the Gas Station, with potential to surpass it, but ATGS hangs together better and never loses its high. Kick the Moon is a YA masterpiece of finding your identity, standing up for what’s right and expressing yourself.

In this type of story, usually both parents are unreasonable, but the mother was fine and understanding. Not only his writing but the feelings you have for the characters runs deep, their own voices coming through the pages, like Ilyas’s Amma, who really reminds me of my own mum and one particular character I simply admired was Ms Mungal – what an inspiration to her students, everyone needs like a teacher like to believe in you and to get you to express yourself. He’s more interested in drawing than in the prospect of being the one to take over his father’s business in due course, but since his older brother went off to university in the States, that’s what Ilyas’ father is determined he is going to do, whether he likes it or not. I read Muhammad Khan's debut, I Am Thunder, last year and I enjoyed it but thought there were issues with stereotyping and dialogue.All things which are perfectly fine but he’s taught it’s not from his dad and his friends and the society around him. Ilyas is balancing the threat of a local gang and his creative future aspirations with parents who can’t decide on how to raise him and friends who don’t want the best for him. Of course, we all had those teachers at school who never seemed to smile for anyone, but there was literally only one decent teacher – Ms Mughal – whose class also happened to contain the only nice students at the school. To stay in with Imran, Ilyas has to use his artistic talents to spray-paint tags on fences and bridges.

He escapes into his art, developing his own Pakistani-British comic superhero despite his dad's scorn. Inclusivity is about celebrating both our differences and our similarities and saying it’s OK to be different and it doesn’t make you less of a person. Young-joon planned to make his trip to Gyeongju a short visit, but he extends his stay to win Ju-ran's heart and to get back at Gi-dong for old time's sake.Payments made using National Book Tokens are processed by National Book Tokens Ltd, and you can read their Terms and Conditions here. I loved how Muhammed Khan brought important and sensitive topics to light in this book without it becoming too heavy or offensive. Do you think there is a lack of representation and if so what do you think the affect is on the younger generation?