The Ocean Would Paint Me Blue

Seventeen-year-old Jihad Dabbagh is a Syrian American girl living in Queens, New York, grieving the death of her mother, Mama. Since Mama's death over a year ago, Jihad has lost the ability to see color; everything appears in shades of gray. Before her loss, she possessed a family blessing passed down through the women of her Syrian family: She could see living colors that revealed people's inner emotions. Her great-grandmother grew sunflowers year-round, her grandmother could catch clouds, her great-aunt Nahla could speak to trees, and Mama could communicate with the creatures of the Mediterranean Sea. Now the colors are gone, and Jihad survives on emotional numbness and her single remaining dream of attending the Opus School of Art in San Francisco.

Jihad's father, Baba, has become emotionally absent, and their apartment remains unchanged since Mama's death. Despite Jihad's protests, he enrolls her at Braxton Academy, a prestigious private school, using money saved in case Mama's cancer returned. Her older sister, Amal, lives nearby with her husband, Marwan, but Jihad feels largely alone.

Jihad's only friend, Alexis Williams, attends Braxton. They have known each other since kindergarten, but their friendship is uneven: Jihad hides parts of herself around Alexis, never praying in front of her or speaking Arabic. Alexis repeatedly suggests Jihad would be more popular without her hijab (headscarf), comments Jihad never corrects.

Jihad's first day at Braxton is hostile. She orders the boys' uniform because the girls' skirt conflicts with her modest dress requirements, and an office worker loudly criticizes her appearance. When Alexis's friends learn Jihad's full name, Nicole grows upset because her uncle died in Afghanistan at the hands of jihadists, and Hayley compares the name to Hitler. Jamie Murphy, a transfer student from Wisconsin assigned as Jihad's school buddy, is the only one who defends her. Alexis tells Jihad to be nicer rather than confronting her friends.

Jamie becomes Jihad's most reliable support, sharing notes, becoming her chemistry partner, and respecting her boundaries instinctively. When a classmate targets Jihad to justify honor killings in Islam, Jamie intervenes with researched knowledge about women's rights in Islamic history. Meanwhile, Alexis's boyfriend, Mason, openly calls Jihad "the jihadist girl," and Adrian, one of Mason's friends, begins physically intimidating her, cornering her at her locker and later filming her while she prays.

A turning point arrives when Jihad discovers a hidden sketchbook in Mama's vanity, a bridal gift from Syria made from a tree her great-aunt once communed with. When Jihad paints a baby sleeping in a conch shell surrounded by jellyfish, she wakes able to see the color red. The painting has appeared as an enormous mural across New York City. The blessing in the sketchbook causes whatever Jihad draws to manifest as public murals. They go viral under the hashtag #MysteryMuralist, and Jihad resolves to keep drawing Mama's story.

Jihad and Jamie's bond deepens through shared vulnerability. He takes her to a Vietnamese restaurant where she eats a full meal for the first time in months and cries from the experience. They begin exchanging containers of their respective cultural foods daily. Jamie reveals he was raised by his Vietnamese grandmother on a farm in Wisconsin and moved to New York to be closer to parents he barely knows. When Jihad tells him about Mama, he responds with the Vietnamese expression "Xin chia buồn," meaning he wants to share her sadness. Meanwhile, Amal announces she is pregnant and moving to Qatar. Jihad feels abandoned and refuses to speak to her sister for weeks. Baba's gas station is vandalized with the word "terrorist," and the police take no action, reinforcing Jihad's sense that hostility toward her family extends beyond school.

Jamie discovers Jihad is behind the murals after recognizing her distinctive artistic motifs. He keeps her secret and believes in her family's blessings without hesitation. He then confides that he has been studying Islam for years and wants to convert. Jihad accompanies him to a mosque, where he says the shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith. In that moment, all of Jihad's colors return.

Jihad confronts a truth she has long avoided: Mama did not die of cancer. She was shot four times while waiting for a bus after her cancer went into remission, and the case was closed as a mugging. When Jihad tries to draw a peaceful ending for Mama, no mural appears; the blessing will not manifest a lie. She draws the truth instead, and the image trends citywide as #WomanInRed.

On Eid, the Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan, Jamie takes Jihad to visit Mama's grave and then to Coney Island. At the grave, he addresses Mama directly, telling her that Jihad embodies "all the colors of bravery."

The bullying escalates to a crisis during gym class. Nicole's group steals Jihad's uniform, her hijab, and the box containing her Opus application sketchbook, a collection she has been building since age nine. The hijab is raised on the school flagpole. At home, Jihad cuts her waist-length hair, hair she grew for Mama during cancer treatments. That night, she draws the Statue of Liberty as originally intended: a Muslim woman wearing the American flag as a hijab. The mural covers the entire school building, drawing reporters and police.

Alexis, who overheard Jihad and Jamie discussing the murals, threatens to report Jihad to the principal. Nicole, Mason, and Adrian then corner Jihad in an empty classroom. Mason jabs her shoulder and directs Nicole to attack; Nicole punches Jihad until her nose bleeds and she has a black eye. Mason photographs her while Alexis watches. Jamie tracks them to the school theater, destroys their phones, and overpowers them. Jamie receives an indefinite suspension; Mason and Adrian receive only three days.

Jihad tells Amal the full story and approaches Audrey, the school newspaper editor. Jihad reveals herself as the muralist and asks Audrey to write an article exposing Braxton's bullying culture without identifying Jihad directly. The article goes viral, forcing the board to lift the suspensions and allow Jihad and Jamie to take their exams.

Jamie suggests Jihad submit the magical sketchbook to Opus instead of the stolen one. She sends it, ending with a final drawing of Mama reunited with the jellyfish. Jihad tells Baba she never applied to New York University, as he expected, and urges him to move to Qatar. Baba resists but eventually agrees. Amal later gives birth to a son named Hisham.

Jihad receives her acceptance to Opus with a full scholarship. The dean's letter addresses her as "the Artist herself." On their last day together at Coney Island, Jamie confesses his love. Jihad does not deny her feelings but tells him they both need time to find themselves. They part without firm plans.

In the epilogue, set one year later, Jihad stands on a cliff on Arwad, the Syrian island her family comes from, now part of a free Syria. She is thriving at Opus and staying in Mama's childhood home in the nearby city of Tartus. She speaks to the Mediterranean, introducing herself as Mama's daughter, and jumps in. The water transforms to turquoise blue, a bloom of jellyfish surrounds her, and the family blessing is fulfilled.