Saints and Misfits: List 1

by S.K. Ali
Sophomore Janna Yusuf must navigate faith, family, and a complicated crush, all while struggling with a devastating secret.

This list covers pages 1–55 in the 2017 Simon and Schuster edition.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
40 words 23 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. flounce
    a strip of pleated material used as a decoration or a trim
    “Linda, you look great.” I smile at her, and she smooths out her flounces.
  2. gesticulate
    show, express, or direct through movement
    “At the beach? Even at the beach?” Dad’s gesticulating again and looking around—for what, I don’t know.
  3. intently
    with strained or eager attention
    The woman in the chair listens intently as Dad lectures.
  4. saunter
    walk leisurely and with no apparent aim
    I move to sit on the bleachers before I realize the beach girls are sauntering this way again.
  5. self-righteous
    excessively or hypocritically pious
    Flannery would take me away from here and deposit me into her fictitious world crawling with self-righteous saints and larger-than-life misfits.
  6. mosque
    a Muslim place of worship that usually has a minaret
    Just me, Janna Yusuf, insignificant nobody, daughter of the only divorced mother at the mosque, someone whose sole redeeming feature is being friends with Fidda Noor, aka Fizz, of the famously pious Noor family.
  7. pious
    having or showing or expressing reverence for a deity
    Just me, Janna Yusuf, insignificant nobody, daughter of the only divorced mother at the mosque, someone whose sole redeeming feature is being friends with Fidda Noor, aka Fizz, of the famously pious Noor family.
  8. regimen
    a systematic plan for therapy
    Muhammad is in front of the kitchen sink, chugging raw eggs from a carton for a new regimen he’s on.
  9. dainty
    affectedly refined
    Muhammad lunges forward for a hug that makes a bear hug look dainty.
  10. diaphanous
    so thin as to transmit light
    Saint Sarah: clear, glowing skin; perfectly proportioned, neat features with a big, ever-present smile flashing perfect teeth; a steely determined head; and a Mother Teresa heart. I forgot to add: The whole package is bow-tied in a billowy, diaphanous, organically grown hijab.
  11. hijab
    a headscarf worn by Muslim women
    Saint Sarah: clear, glowing skin; perfectly proportioned, neat features with a big, ever-present smile flashing perfect teeth; a steely determined head; and a Mother Teresa heart. I forgot to add: The whole package is bow-tied in a billowy, diaphanous, organically grown hijab.
  12. wreak
    cause to happen or to occur as a consequence
    I say she’s a kick-ass monster killer, wreaking justice on her pages.
    And who gets handed the worst of it in a Flannery world? Monsters hiding behind saint masks.
  13. requisite
    necessary for relief or supply
    My telephoto lens got the requisite shots of warm-ups and victory fists before it noticed someone packing away audio equipment at the announcer’s table.
  14. uncanny
    surpassing the ordinary or normal
    After a month, I developed this uncanny ability to sense his presence before I even saw him.
  15. dub
    give a nickname to
    I dubbed him Shazam! because he saunters over periodically to the foyer where Seniors Games Club takes place to shake hands again, deliver one-liners, and just like that—SHAZAM!—light up their faces before he walks back to his post.
  16. imam
    the person who leads prayers in a mosque
    Amu, “uncle” in Arabic, is Mom’s brother and the imam, or prayer leader, of the mosque here in town.
  17. oblivion
    the state of being disregarded or forgotten
    Those I zap into the trash bin of oblivion.
  18. banal
    repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse
    Why do you feel it is necessary to be so exceedingly exact (if a bit banal) in your description of the roomy attributes of this said cage?
  19. grandiloquent
    lofty in style
    I trim the grandiloquent excesses on this and the other answer before e-mailing them to Amu.
  20. respective
    considered individually
    BD was after-school snacks with Mom, the kind with smiley faces on them, Dad timing my math facts at the kitchen table, the guest bedroom where Muhammad and I had our respective corners to plot major pillow-fight campaigns.
  21. emulate
    strive to equal or match, especially by imitating
    He made it seem like I’d be emulating the greatness of the Mahabharata scribe if I finished it.
  22. tousle
    disarrange or rumple; dishevel
    He’s a pacifist, so he spends a lot of time on ethics, standing by the window with one hand on his hip and the other hand ready to tousle his own hair when his speech gets too tragic.
  23. tawny
    having the color of tanned leather
    Besides being artsy, Tats also has tawny hair.
  24. succumb
    be fatally overwhelmed
    And me? I’ve got hair. It’s just that since I started hijab, no guy other than Dad or Muhammad or Amu has seen it. So my hair has succumbed to the lack of maintenance that exists when the world doesn’t judge you by it.
  25. unrepentant
    not feeling or expressing remorse
    In eighth grade I even put in detention time for a week, unrepentantly, for unscrewing the valve stems on one really uncouth boy's bike tires myself and then painstakingly deflating them, for her.
  26. uncouth
    lacking refinement or cultivation or taste
    In eighth grade I even put in detention time for a week, unrepentantly, for unscrewing the valve stems on one really uncouth boys bike tires myself and then painstakingly deflating them, for her.
  27. painstaking
    characterized by extreme care and great effort
    In eighth grade I even put in detention time for a week, unrepentantly, for unscrewing the valve stems on one really uncouth boys bike tires myself and then painstakingly deflating them, for her.
  28. gingerly
    in a manner marked by extreme care or delicacy
    I copy her stealthy walk, following her down the hallway, lowering each foot gingerly before lifting the next one.
  29. sprawl
    sit or lie with one's limbs spread out
    Fizz’s younger sisters, Hana and Hadia, the twins, are sprawled on a love seat from the 1970s (pristine from being mummified in plastic wrap for most of its life), watching Project Runway.
  30. pristine
    immaculately clean and unused
    Fizz’s younger sisters, Hana and Hadia, the twins, are sprawled on a love seat from the 1970s (pristine from being mummified in plastic wrap for most of its life), watching Project Runway.
  31. sullen
    showing a brooding ill humor
    Someone tall and slim in a black gown is looking out the sliding doors to the patio, parting the vertical blinds to do so. She turns. It’s Sausun, a sullen girl from study circle.
  32. perpetually
    without interruption
    Saturday morning is prime exam-prep time, so I’m in bed studying when Muhammad knocks. He enters looking like a wombat. Not a cute one—one of those perpetually worried ones.
  33. beget
    have children
    I mean, I realize Saint Sarah’s parents are tough to crack. Imagine a Muslim version of the American Gothic couple, with a beard on the husband and a black hijab on the wife. I don’t know how they begat Saint Sarah and her bubbliciousness.
  34. veneer
    coating consisting of a thin layer of wood
    There are three folded screens leaning against the wall, really pretty ones. Muhammad bursts in as I’m fingering the wood veneer on them, his phone in the air.
  35. erratic
    having no fixed course
    Besides gliding along as though he’s being transported on clouds, he also moves erratically, unsure of what to do next.
  36. encroach
    impinge or infringe upon
    And, like I expect, my Ivy League brother stands still, a tiny sliver of fear encroaching on his face. Oh, I’m good at this.
  37. et al
    and others
    And right at the moment when the realization reaches his brain and numbs his body that he’s probably seen Fizz et al without hijabs, I reach over and grab my camera.
  38. modest
    following standards of propriety in conduct or appearance
    But then I remember Fizz posing in her spaghetti-strap dress at Aisha’s party last month. She would kill me if my brother saw her like that. She’s the most modest person I know.
  39. gall
    the trait of being rude and impertinent
    “Well, Sarah is fun. I’m fun,” he has the gall to say. “We want to know if we’re fun together.”
  40. confederacy
    a group of conspirators banded together
    I decide to never give up my room to Mom and Muhammad’s confederacy.
Created on Fri Mar 01 19:54:50 EST 2019 (updated Thu Mar 14 13:39:29 EDT 2019)

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