59 pages • 1 hour read
Samira AhmedLove, Hate and Other Filters
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 7-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary
Maya wakes up to find a note from Sofia reminding Maya to eat breakfast. She feels guilty for deceiving her mother about the swimming lesson, but she still plans to go through with it. Maya puts on a red bikini and feels self-conscious, so she dons a red sleeveless dress as a cover-up. Phil arrives to pick up Maya for the swimming lesson. They get into Phil’s car, and he takes her to a forest preserve. He shows Maya an abandoned cottage; it has no window panes, and Phil mentions that he likes to spend time in the cottage: “Sometimes I wish I lived there” (77). Maya assumes that he wishes he lived there with Lisa and imagines them sharing cozy evenings by the fireplace.
The preserve also has a pond, where Phil created his own beach with a few wheelbarrows of sand. He takes off his shirt, and Maya wonders how she can be seen in her bikini. She asks Phil to turn around while she takes off her dress. Phil begins the lesson by teaching Maya how to float; he teases Maya by taking his hand off her back. She is so frightened that she grabs his neck. As he holds her, Maya is aware of his “finger-tips embedding their whorls” into her skin (81). She imagines the moment as a movie shot, but she knows that the moment was only special to her, not to Phil. They wade ashore, and Phil offers Maya a sandwich without pork. He asks when the next lesson is, and they agree on the following morning.
Ethan is ready. He has spent the past week scouting the route. A police car passes him, and he waits for it to circle the block. It doesn’t.
Chapter 8 Summary
On the morning of the third swimming lesson, Sofia thinks Maya is in a good mood because of Kareem. Maya knows her skin seems tanner and hopes her mother does not notice and ask why. She muses to herself, “I don’t have a choice. […] The lies make life easier for everyone” (85). But she doesn’t feel good about lying, especially as she wonders how to tell her parents that she wishes to study at NYU.
Maya films at the forest preserve with Phil, but she slips and cuts her knee. Phil immediately helps her to her feet, finds a napkin to stop the blood, and swabs the cut with alcohol. He says he’s wanted to be an EMT since seventh grade, when his dad had a heart attack. Phil and Maya skip swimming and eat lunch in the cottage. Maya asks Phil why he hasn’t told anyone about his desire to be an EMT. He says his parents know, but they want him to attend college nearby instead of in Vermont, where he wants to study adventure recreation. He is too embarrassed to tell his football friends, and he has not told Lisa. He reveals that he has never brought Lisa to the cottage. In fact, Maya is the only non-family member he has told about his post-high school dreams and goals. “I like that I can be myself around you,” he says (96). They hold hands until it is time to leave.
Kamal Aziz’s mother recites the dawn prayer. She looks forward to seeing her son in a few days.
Chapter 9 Summary
The final day of break arrives, and so does the last swimming lesson. Maya can now swim a few strokes. Phil asks what she plans to do with all the camera footage she has shot. Maya replies, “It’s the documentary of my life, with an audience of one—me” (100). Phil points out that her face lights up whenever she talks about movies. Maya says she plans to tell her parents about NYU that weekend, but she is not looking forward to it. As the swimming lesson concludes, Phil leans close to her, and Maya hopes he will kiss her. Instead, he picks a leaf out of her hair. Disappointed and upset, she asks Phil to take her home. She sobs into her pillow: “He could have kissed me, but didn’t” (105). She imagines Phil and Lisa holding hands at prom.
Officer Evans is making his morning rounds. He looks forward to retirement in Florida. He sees a white truck parked near the state capitol; he goes to check on it.
Chapters 7-9 Analysis
Maya and Phil’s relationship unfolds through the swimming lessons. Maya learns that she is not the only one hiding from the expectations of others; Phil struggles with his parents’ expectations too. These similar life circumstances forge a special bond of understanding between Maya and Phil. Their shared physical space—the cottage and the pond—serves the same purpose, as the setting means something special to them. Here, Maya and Phil both feel free to be themselves. Maya’s tendency to blush, a demonstration of vulnerability, also makes itself known: “I quickly put my face back in the water to hide my reddening cheeks” (79).
Ethan’s intentions become clearer; he has spent a week watching his target. The text is still vague about the target’s exact location, but Ethan knows when the mail comes, when the parking lot is full, and when “the guards went on break and took lunch” (83). Later, one officer notices a white van parked outside and goes to check on it. This situation brings to mind the Oklahoma City bombing, where domestic terrorists used a truck laden with explosives to bomb a federal building, killing at least 168 and injuring hundreds more. Ahmed relies on this American memory to drive the plot and build suspense.
Ethan goes unnamed in these chapters. Ahmed describes him only with the pronouns “he” and “him,” which furthers erases his individual identity and reasserts his dedication to his cause. We know from previous chapters that he had dark hair before he shaved his head and that his mother prays. These descriptions seem to indicate he is a Muslim terrorist. The scene describing a mother waking for dawn prayer, using a prayer rug, ruminating on her immigrant experience, and looking forward to her son Kemal’s return for a holiday, appears to confirm these suspicions.
