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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
So slow and couldn't get on with the fake irish accents
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-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
I loved it and have no words. I seriously couldn't put this book down.
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
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
emotional
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:
Yes
Look, I hate romance. I don’t know what the crap the author put in this book to turn me into a romance novel lover but it worked. Just give the book a chance, it’s a (mostly) lighthearted book about a situation that causes these two pretty different girls to have to fake a relationship. Other notable themes in the book are people-pleasing and racism. So even if you don’t like romance you can still pick this up.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Toxic friendship, Abandonment
literally one of the worst books i've ever read, given it two stars just because it's about two lesbians (and yes. hani is a lesbian. not bi. she's only attracted to girls. she mentions several times she's only attracted to girls and not to literally any men. she's a lesbian. it's okay to be a lesbian. it's ironic that the cringe trigger tags at the front of the book talk about lesbophobia as if the whole book isn't an exercise in lesbophobia, but i digress.)
this book has serious alice oseman energy. not a single character is at all likeable - literally every single one of them is selfish at best and downright spiteful most of the time. hani is portrayed as this pushover with a heart of gold but she's literally so mean to everyone, shits on and ignores her "best friends" constantly, and doesn't think about anything but what's good for her. it's also oseman levels of boring - very much confusing "slice of life"/"contemporary" for "NOTHING FUCKING HAPPENS". ishu's single personality trait is that she's a bitch, so unsurprisingly she's slightly nicer than hani but not really.
the "plot" - and i use that word very very loosely - is complete nonsense. there absolutely could have been actual realistic conflict and i cannot for the life of me figure out why not! and i say this with all the authority that being a white person has given me - no white person working at/attending a school is going to believe that the "intelligent" "withdrawn" "studious" "antisocial" SE asian girl cheated off of the "dumb" "bimbo" "bitchy" "popular" "party" white girl's test. if jaigirdar knew how to write she might even have played into this with aisling trying to pull the cheating stunt - or even, shock horror, ishu actually cheating and no one believing that she did BECAUSE "brown people always do better at school", ygm? we could have had an interesting dilemma where she feels guilty and realises grades aren't everything, instead of having the nonsense double standards for no good reason thing.
that whole plotline is literally the last fifty pages though. the first 300? literally nothing happens. it really feels like a white author trying to write about bengali life as well, because both characters other themselves by constantly talking about how "strange and different" their home lives are from all the "normal" irish people's. you can write a second generation immigrant story without doing all that, but that would require actual plot, so....
i have so many notes and i'm not going to write them all up but quickfire: hani is evil and selfish and not a "sunshine cute kind girl", hani and ishu have zero chemistry, having characters break into bengali with no explanation or translation is a lazy way of portraying culture, these girls invent their own problems, why does hani not like or spend time with her "best friends", that's not how schools work, i'm white and even i've been to enough dawats to know that's not how dawats work, the bengali fathers are both insanely misogynistic and jaigirdar should have either pointed out that this is fucked up or had one as the foil to the other and not just shrugged it off as culture because holy shit, and i'm done. don't read this. can we please have some good lesbian fiction.
this book has serious alice oseman energy. not a single character is at all likeable - literally every single one of them is selfish at best and downright spiteful most of the time. hani is portrayed as this pushover with a heart of gold but she's literally so mean to everyone, shits on and ignores her "best friends" constantly, and doesn't think about anything but what's good for her. it's also oseman levels of boring - very much confusing "slice of life"/"contemporary" for "NOTHING FUCKING HAPPENS". ishu's single personality trait is that she's a bitch, so unsurprisingly she's slightly nicer than hani but not really.
the "plot" - and i use that word very very loosely - is complete nonsense. there absolutely could have been actual realistic conflict and i cannot for the life of me figure out why not! and i say this with all the authority that being a white person has given me - no white person working at/attending a school is going to believe that the "intelligent" "withdrawn" "studious" "antisocial" SE asian girl cheated off of the "dumb" "bimbo" "bitchy" "popular" "party" white girl's test. if jaigirdar knew how to write she might even have played into this with aisling trying to pull the cheating stunt - or even, shock horror, ishu actually cheating and no one believing that she did BECAUSE "brown people always do better at school", ygm? we could have had an interesting dilemma where she feels guilty and realises grades aren't everything, instead of having the nonsense double standards for no good reason thing.
that whole plotline is literally the last fifty pages though. the first 300? literally nothing happens. it really feels like a white author trying to write about bengali life as well, because both characters other themselves by constantly talking about how "strange and different" their home lives are from all the "normal" irish people's. you can write a second generation immigrant story without doing all that, but that would require actual plot, so....
i have so many notes and i'm not going to write them all up but quickfire: hani is evil and selfish and not a "sunshine cute kind girl", hani and ishu have zero chemistry, having characters break into bengali with no explanation or translation is a lazy way of portraying culture, these girls invent their own problems, why does hani not like or spend time with her "best friends", that's not how schools work, i'm white and even i've been to enough dawats to know that's not how dawats work, the bengali fathers are both insanely misogynistic and jaigirdar should have either pointed out that this is fucked up or had one as the foil to the other and not just shrugged it off as culture because holy shit, and i'm done. don't read this. can we please have some good lesbian fiction.
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-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:
Complicated
Normally I don't really like this style of writing (with multiple perspectives) cause it can be hard to follow but this book was very easy and a pretty quick read. I liked the story line and the topics they addressed a lot more than when reading henna wars.
funny
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:
Yes
It was adorable! 🥹🌈💜
There were a couple of loose threads that kind of bugged me, so that's why it's not 5 stars.
As a black girl who went to a majority white high school, it was so relatable. Just...omg so many feelings.
Beautiful story
There were a couple of loose threads that kind of bugged me, so that's why it's not 5 stars.
As a black girl who went to a majority white high school, it was so relatable. Just...omg so many feelings.
Beautiful story