Like No Other at first glance

It's undeniable that from the front, this book appears to be just like every other teenage romance novel. Right off the bat, Devorah, a junior in high school, gets stuck in an elevator where she meets Jaxon, and "fate leaves them no choice but to make an otherwise forbidden connection". Soon, I started to realize this novel definitely has some differences.

Devorah is raised an extremely strict Hasidic Jew. Before reading this book, I truthfully had no idea Hasidism existed. I looked into it more and read an article called Hasidic Women in the United States. To me, Devorah, and many other Hasidic women, seem to be treated unfair. As her and Jaxon talk in the elevator, she thinks "I feel a flash of jealousy. Jaxon will graduate high school, just like me, but he'll get to decide where he wants to go and and what he wants to do with his life, while my parents will go to the shadchan to find me a husband, whether I'm ready or not" (LaMarche 50). A shadchan is a Jewish "professional" match maker or marriage broker. Devorah also thinks, "Forget that my grades are better than either of my older brothers' ever were. Forget that I study English and math and science, much more well-rounded than their almost entirely religious education. It is simply expected that my education will end when I am married" (LaMarche 50). Devorah is also not allowed to talk to strangers, or be alone with any man other than her father or brothers. "My parents would disown me if they knew we were talking" (LaMarche 51).

Jaxon, also a junior in high school, as well as the son of Caribbean immigrants, lives on the black side of the Eastern Parkway with four younger sisters in New York City, whereas Devorah lives on the Orthodox only park of the neighborhood. After being in the elevator with Devorah, he compares her to a girl he liked from school, Polly. "I've been trying to create chance encounters with Polly for more than a year, doing dumb shit like standing outside her physics so that I could 'pretend' to bump into her, or strategically positioning myself close to her at school danced so that I could be the one she turned to when a slow song started. But just now, with Devorah– that was the opposite of planned. That felt real. And suddenly, I'm filled with dread that I'll never feel it again" (LaMarche 56).

So far I think this book is definitely different from the cliche books I'm used to reading. It throws in a real life twist that has educated me about a different culture from what I'm used to living.

Does this book interest you? If so, why?