Scan barcode
wardenred's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
“You know you’re going to have to pretend to like me, right?” I ask. “And… if you want to be Head Girl, you’ll also have to pretend that you like other people.”
This reminded me of She Gets the Girl by Rachael Lippincott & Alyson Derrick. The characters are younger and overall pretty different, the premise is almost the polar opposite, but something about the execution of the "opposites attract" trope and the overall vibe makes me want to put the books on the same shelf. I think if you (dis)liked one of these books, you are super likely to feel the same way about the other.
Speaking of tropes, I'm kind of surprised I've often seen this mentioned as "enemies to lovers," because like... I didn't notice a trace of that? Hani and Ishu are neither enemies nor rivals, they're simply not friends (until they are). They show up at the same Bengali gatherings and go to the same school, but they don't really know each other. Until, of course, roughly at the same time, each of them tells a spur-of-the-moment lie that snowballs into more lies in the form of a tenuous fake dating plan. It's slightly ridiculous from the get-go, but with the way it's presented, I found it weirdly relatable in that "teens meandering through life dramatically as teens do" way. I really liked watching these two get closer and catch genuine feelings, and I loved learning more about the Bengali culture along the way. The book actually prompted me to go look up a bunch of things for better understanding.
I also really liked the way the plotlines that prompted the girls to come up with that plan play out: Hani's relationship with her friends, Ishu's with her parents.
There were things that took a bit from my enjoyment, though. Such as the weird accidentally shared google doc plotline (how was that even supposed to happen?). Or how it was never quite explained why Hani kept clinging to her toxic friends for so long. Around absolutely everyone else, she doesn't seem like such a complete people-pleaser, but with those girls, she just let them stomp all over the things that were important to her—her culture, her religion, her family, her values—and constantly justified it with "but they're my friends, but we have fun together." Whereas never once in the entire book were Aisling and Dee shown as someone acting non-maliciously friendly or being fun to be around. Perhaps it's their portrayal that's the issue, actually. If there was more nuance to their behavior around Hani, this entire plotline would be more complex and interesting.
Graphic: Islamophobia, Biphobia, Bullying, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Homophobia and Racism
peskilanim's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Biphobia
Minor: Racism
olive_ia's review
- 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
Moderate: Biphobia
lunep's review against another edition
- 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
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
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.
Graphic: Bullying, Racism, Biphobia, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Islamophobia, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Gaslighting, Lesbophobia, Religious bigotry, and Abandonment
Minor: Alcohol, Misogyny, Colonisation, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Eating disorder, and Fatphobia
cocopom's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Homophobia and Biphobia
Minor: Islamophobia
pandemonicbaby's review against another edition
- 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
3.25
Also, the characters of Aisling and Dee seemed pretty one-dimensional to me, as in i didn't see why they ever had any, let's say, "friendship chemistry" with hani. They didn't really seem that believable as her friends - they didn't seem to share any interests or anything like that -, and it's like they were only put there to be the villains. I think it would've been more interesting if the book showed them being more fleshed-out characters, and show us why Hani was so scared of standing up to her friends. It might be scary to stand up to people you dislike, but it's scarier to stand up to people you like, and I think the book would've been able to take the reader through a deepet journey in Hani's mindset if it showed reasons as to why she had liked her friends in the first place.
Overall, it was a very interesting concept, but i just wish it had been executed better. It was still a nice read, and I like sweet sapphic stories.
Among Jaigirdar's work, though, I think I still prefer The Henna Wars.
Graphic: Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, Biphobia, and Islamophobia
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Bullying, Lesbophobia, and Racism
Minor: Alcohol
elliereadsthings's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
★★★★✩
"You made a mistake, and your Abba made a mistake too," she murmurs. "It doesn't make anybody the worst anything in the world. It just makes us human."
Graphic: Toxic friendship
Moderate: Racism, Lesbophobia, Biphobia, Xenophobia, and Islamophobia
Minor: Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Outing, and Bullying
manicpixiedreaming's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Racism, Biphobia, Toxic friendship, and Islamophobia
luxxltyd's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Homophobia, Islamophobia, Toxic friendship, Biphobia, and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Gaslighting
amberinpieces's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Toxic friendship, Xenophobia, Bullying, and Biphobia
Minor: Alcohol, Cursing, Islamophobia, and Racism