Reviews tagging 'Eating disorder'

Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar

5 reviews

lunep's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I want to make it clear that I don't think this is a bad book (bc I know I spend most of the review focused on what I didn't like, but it's not my intention to disuade anyone of reading this book).

Some of the positive things I got from the book: I liked the characters, I thought Hani and Ishu's relationship was cute, and I liked how they grew as characters. I also liked Hani's relationship with her mom, it was really nice to see how accepting and understanding she was with Hani, and I liked that it was mentioned that they did have to readjust their expectations a little when Hani came out, but it was a Them Problem, not a Hani-Being-Bisexual Problem, it made me feel really warm to read all their interactions. And I also liked the relationship that Ishu and her sister developed, I'm a big enjoyer of sibling and sibling-like relationships where the siblings know they can count on each other even if they sometimes argue or disagree. I also really liked learning more about bangladeshi culture and Islam through the book.

However, the book itself had some things (I don't wanna call them problems bc they might be subjective) that made me not love it. I went into the book thinking it was a stand-alone, then when I had finished it I saw on here it was part of a series, so I thought "oh ok, maybe some of my grievances come from the fact that I had some expectations that shouldn't have been there, and will be addressed in coming book(s)" but I looked it up and there's no sequel, just a novella, so I'm back to my grievances.

The book deals with some heavy topics (it even has a Content Warnings page, which I liked) mostly racism, biphobia and lesbophobia, islamophobia, toxic friendships, and parental abandonement. But I'm not sure if it's because I've read about these topics before (I'm not trying to say I'm an expert on them, but I'm acquainted with them) or what, but I felt it was...kind of on the nose? Or like, too obvious? I'm not sure how to explain it correctly, I'm not trying to say these things don't happen irl, but while reading Hani deal with her friends, for example, Aisling and Dee's actions felt a little weird to me, like over-simplified, in spanish there's this expression "dar masticado" which translates literally to "to be given [something] chewed", which means simplifying a hard topic for easier understanding. To me the friends characters and the principal felt very 2D, with little nuance, kind of like their only purpose was to show "what these characters do is bad", so maybe this was better suited for someone who is just starting to foray into racism and biphobia? (It is a YA book, tbf, and I'm 24) 

I also had some trouble with the ending of the book, and this is where the "oh, it makes sense if this is going to have a sequel" thing comes in. Because Hani and Ishu start fake dating so Hani's friends will take her seriously about being bisexual, and so Ishu can become Head Girl and thus prove to her parents that she's not going to "screw up" like her sister, whose shadow Ishu has felt she's been in her entire life, but towards the end something happens between Ishu and her parents, making her relationship with them more strained, and making her closer to her sister, and that plot-line, specially with the parents, doesn't get closed satisfactorily (I LOVED how Ishu and Nik's relationship grew tho); and the explanation we get for how Aisling acts since Hani tells them she's "dating" Ishu felt like BS quite honestly (which isn't to bash the author, because her intent might very well have been for it to sound like BS, because it also doesn't explain the biphobia and racism from before Ishu came into the picture), and Dee never grows as a character. So things seem to have been left open, and if it was intentional to make it open-ending, for me it didn't feel that way when I was reading. If you want the full explanation it's in the spoiler tag
First, Ishu's side: Ishu's sister Nik is studying medicine in London and her parents are super proud of her, until she comes back and tells them she wants to pause her studies a year to get married. Her parents don't like it because they feel she's throwing everything they did for her to the trash and basically cut her from the family. Ishu comes to find out that Nik just didn't like medicine and had been doing terribly because she hated it and she doesn't want to go back to studying medicine, and even tho she IS getting married, that was just an excuse. At the same time, Aisling, Hani's friend, accuses Ishu of copying off of her on a biology test, and when the school tells her parents, they get mad at her too, and even tho she tells them she didn't cheat (it actually was the other way around, Ishu let Aisling copy thinking Aisling had actually started to accept her as Hani's gf), they don't believe her, and it's Nik who confronts the principal and cleans Ishu's name (to the principal only, bc the principal doesn't want to tell the school the truth bc now it would affect the white student, yay racism /sarcasm), which makes Ishu realize that the idea of what "success" looks like for their parents is very narrow, and it's extremely easy to fall off it, and off their graces too, which makes her realize Nik is not her enemy and makes them closer. So with the scene set, Ishu tells her mom she wants to go to Nik's wedding, and her mom admits that she would like to too, but she's not going to go against her husband's wishes, but lets Ishu go. And that's how that plot-line ends. Ishu and Hani go to the wedding but nothing else happens with the parents. Also, Ishu never comes out to her parents either, even after she and Hani start to date for real.
And on Hani's side: After the cheating fiasco with Aisling, Hani is not sure who to believe, but ends up realizing it doesn't make sense that Ishu would copy off of Aisling, as Ishu always get stellar grades and Aisling doesn't, and confronts Aisling for being manipulative and a liar, and Aisling's only response is "ok I'm sorry I did that, are we friends again?", because apparently the whole reason she was a pos was that "she was jealous of Ishu because Hani has been friends with her and Dee all her life and she was changing", and when Hani tells her she needs time, Aisling throws a fit, Dee tries to defend her (saying "it was a mistake"), and finally Aisling tells Hani "Forgive me, don't forgive me. I'm definitely not apologizing to Ishita Dey" and leaves, and so does Dee. And while I don't expect a picture perfect ending where Aisling realizes she's a shitty friend, and gets over her biphobia and racism, we were shown a couple of times that Dee seemed to not always agree with Aisling, and sometimes go against her wishes in small ways, but like I said before, she doesn't get any development and she stays Aisling's follower until the end.

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gracemuelle's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

i really enjoyed this book and i was so sad it’s over, i totally fell in love with the main characters and loved to see how they developed and grew throughout the book 

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skiis's review

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emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

you know the book good when you wanna jump inside it and beat somebody up


i hate aisling and dee, i love ishu & nik's dynamic, watching hani get run over (toxic friendship wise) so many times and not being able to do something frustrated me, but then again i couldn't be mad at her because it was realistic

i feel like in the beginning, it was weird because the book started like i already knew these characters. it was jus a bit weird to me but by chap 5 i finally caught on

towards the part where hani didn't have an answer to whether or not she believed ishu, (killed me inside, yes, bc wtf girl) that's where it started to get a liiiittle slow but i guess it was to update us on head girl and the election, but we should've been updated while the book was going on yk? also plot twist when it turned out to be 6 weeks of this entire book??? it felt LONGER omg.

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jamespotterluv's review

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emotional funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

literally heart eyes for this book!! i ADORED hani and ishu omg. i think it had a realistic rep of biphobia n UFASGFUASF. it was 80% fluff but that 20%... there were a few terms that i didn't initially know bc i'm not bangladeshi but it did open a few convos w my bangladeshi friend n i learnt a lot about their culture so i think that was one of the positives abt this book, it incorporated the culture n made it an important aspect of their lives so well. im not a super big fan of fake dating tropes but this genuinely shocked me that i liked it sm?? it was executed PERFECTLY and literally am in love w this book. it's such a comfort apart from the ainsley/deidre characters. literally this book was perfection, and i loved the dynamic between hani and ishu. honestly i will always hold this book to my heart, its one of my favs. also i'd 100% watch this if it was adapted into a tv show so like j saying, it should be adapted. it's honestly just <333333 i love it so so much n i think it's a rlly important book for ppl to read regardless of sexuality n ethnicity bc it's also rlly informative n educational. i adore it sm.

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robyn_fenix's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0


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