Parents' Guide to Unbecoming

As UNBECOMING begins, Laylah Khan finds herself in a taco food truck that's been converted to a backstreet abortion clinic, hoping to get pills to end an unwanted pregnancy, after having sex for the very first time. This was not part of her Laylah Life Plan, in which she'll go to a prestigious college and then to medical school to become an ob-gyn. But that plan seems destined for failure when the clinic informs her that there are no pills available. Laylah never thought she'd be a girl who needed to use The Texas Teen's Guide to Safe Abortion she and her best friend Noor Awad are in the last stages of putting together. They've designed the guide to be a constantly updated website that helps girls find safe clinics and avoid being lured to fake clinics where they could be arrested. Laylah's life now revolves around trying to balance her increasingly desperate search for pills with going to prayers at the mosque, working on her college essay, volunteering at the mosque fundraiser, and working on the guide. Noor has a life plan of her own, becoming an investigative journalist. And along with Latif, another aspiring journalist, she's begun investigating whether Asma Khoury, wife of the imam at the mosque Laylah attends, is embezzling money. As the investigation unfolds, it leads them to Humairah Hilal, Texas' first and only Muslim congresswoman, and a long list of unanswered questions. Is Hilal pretending to be Asma's friend simply to get money for her campaign? Is Asma pretending to be a feminist but is actually using the money to fund a disinformation campaign about abortion that's targeting Muslim women? And as Noor and Latif uncover the surprising answers, Laylah discovers she's not the only one in her family keeping a secret.