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nawarafra's review against another edition
emotional
funny
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
5.0
What a difference a year can make! I want to preface this by saying that I absolutely adore The Henna Wars, but there was a significant change in Adiba Jaigirdar’s writing in this book that I was very very happy about. I thought that the pacing of the story was much better and I think that it definitely stands on its own. I was a little worried about the stories in both books being too similar when that was most certainly not the case. There are similar themes for sure, but as someone who read both books back-to-back and in one sitting, I can assure you Hani and Ishu’s story is very different from Nishat (and Flávia’s).
Before I start gushing over how cute Hani and Ishu are, I want to take a second to talk about them individually.
=>Hani
- I love Humaira ‘Hani’ Khan with all my heart! I connected to both Hani and Ishu on a very deep and personal level, but Hani especially as a fellow Bangali. Obviously, there were little things like the no sleepovers rule (which yeah Hani lied about, but it’s very much so a thing that to this day I still don’t understand). Or dawats! Most of my family friends and I are adults now, so we unfortunately don’t have dawats the way we used to when we were younger, so this little tidbit definitely had me reminiscing a little. There was this one part in the book where I think Hani said something about there not being an Irish equivalent to a dawat and my dumb brain immediately thought of doing the Irish goodbye at a dawat. I put the book down and laughed about this for at least half an hour because if you know anything about desi parties, then you would know that a South Asian goodbye is probably the polar opposite of the Irish goodbye.
- Okay, wait, I need to like rant about Hani’s name because I don’t even think that Nishat or Priti were given dak naams. Ishu’s frustration about the nickname Hani’s friends gave her is so fucking real y’all. Yes, it’s cute when friends have nicknames for each other, but you shouldn’t be using a nickname as an excuse to not properly pronounce your childhood best-friend’s name like what the actual fuck. And it’s like, because they call her that, so do most if not all of the other students. Like Ishu said, it’s literally one extra syllable. If Hani can learn how to pronounce Aisling and Dierdre, they can learn how to say Humaira. Also, I don’t know about other Bangalis who read the book, but there is a certain way that I was pronouncing Hani in my head, so I felt incredibly vindicated when we learned that Hani’s family is in fact Sylheti.
- I absolutely loved Hani’s relationship with her parents! I personally thought her off-screen coming-out story (not a spoiler, I swear!) was executed better than Nishat’s, and not really because Hani’s parents were so supportive from the get-go, but because of the conversation between Hani and her mom specifically where she explains what their thought process was when Hani first came out. We never really got that with Nishat’s parents, it was more like they were very unhappy about their daughter’s sexuality for like 80% of the book and then suddenly changed their minds with absolutely no context. Hani’s parents were so supportive and made her feel comfortable enough to share her problems with them, while also being firm when she was in the wrong. I think that’s why they were such a good foil to Ishu’s parents, but more about them later.
- I was actually very surprised by how prominent Hani’s relationship to Islam was in the book. My own relationship with Islam is obviously very different from hers. Even when I lived in Bangladesh, I saw very few people around me actually pray or insist that I do the same, so I’ve never been connected to religion the way Hani is. To me, it’s almost like it’s the one thing she can always depend on. Hani’s religion is the safest constant in her life, so it hurt every time she would mention having to hide that part of herself away from her friends.
- Now, we all know Hani is a bit pushover and throughout the book, she unfortunately let her friends and others get away with a lot of bullshit (which was totally understandable, albeit heartbreaking). But the little moments that let you see that she’s got a little bite to her made me so happy! Like at Dee’s birthday party when everyone was being so shitty to her and someone said something like “Do you need a special kind of pizza?” and she hit back immediately with, “So do you, you’re a vegetarian” and then she said that she’d ask Dee to provide an alternative. Like, my girl said kill ‘em with kindness and she was so real for that. Or when Aisling said something about ‘heterophobia’ and Hani snapped at her? Brilliant, amazing, fantastic, no notes.
- Okay, let’s talk about Hani’s shitty ass friends. One of these days, Aisling and Deirdre will get punched in the throat and it might not be by Hani or even Ishu, but it sure as hell will be me or Nik. This felt so much worse than Chyna’s betrayal to Nishat when they were younger because Hani was friends with these girls her entire life and all she’s ever done is try to stay friends with them. They’ve known each other since they were kids and that’s definitely hard to let go of, but in some situations, it’s just inevitable. When Adiba Jaigirdar said ‘toxic friendships’ in the trigger warning, maybe I should’ve taken her more seriously because it was so hard to have to see Hani go through what she did with those two. The joy I felt when she finally stood up for herself and got away from that situation was just unreal.
=>Ishu
- Ishita Dey - my sun, my stars, my long-lost twin! Ishu and I have almost the exact same personality in that we’re both very angry all the time. I was surprised to see us start off with her point of view because in my head, since Hani was the one to suggest fake dating, we’d get her perspective first to build up to that point, but I do see why we started off with Ishu. But anyway, back to Ishu. I love that her grumpy, take no shit, almost antagonistic personality is set up from the get-go. And so much of that starts to make more sense once we meet her family.
- Let’s talk about Ishu’s parents.
Fuck them.They’re not good parents at all because the expectations they put on their daughters is very much so one of the more extreme examples of desi parents. They’re so neglectful of their daughters’ emotional needs and the fact that their egos were bruised is a good enough reason for them to completely write Nik off the way they did was infuriating. Ishu absolutely has second-child syndrome because of them, and it’s only heightened when her parents set their sights on her as their new golden child. Their parenting not only fucked with both Ishu and Nik as people, but it damaged their relationship when they were young as well. - Okay, now let’s talk about one of my favourite supporting characters ever - Nikhita Dey aka Nik aka she eldest daughtered so hard that now she’s come back with a vengeance to save her little sister before their parents can do any more damage than they already have. Not gonna lie, I was lowkey wary of Nik just because of how Ishu had described their relationship, but she surprised me in the best way possible. Also, there was this quote from her - “A PowerPoint of why Aisling is a bitch.” (icon behaviour)
=>Hani & Ishu
- I love everything about them! I knew going in this was enemies-to-lovers adjacent along with fake dating, but nobody told me it was grumpyxsunshine?!
- Hani was so down bad for Ishu, it was the cutest thing! Her dressing up for Ishu and then Ishu not even noticing will never stop being funny to me. But Ishu’s also crushing so hard, as seen in this moment specifically from one of their “dates” - Ishu literally staring at Hani eat and then saying “Okay, don’t have a fucking orgasm from that hot chocolate.” Like, Ishu please she’s fragile.
- I think something else I appreciated was Ishu doing what she thought were simple, practically bare minimum things like looking up Halal places to go eat for Hani, which Hani was literally floored by. It is so clear that she’s such a people pleaser that no one had ever thought to put her needs first, and then Ishu’s love language is just being aggressively accommodating.
- Their sleepover/sharing a bed scene was super cute, albeit brief.
I have a lot more that I think I want to say about this book, but it’s hard for me to put into words because these characters and their relationship mean so much to me.
remmslupin's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
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
4.5
claudianhi's review against another edition
lighthearted
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
3.25
lesbean's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
tense
fast-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
5.0
xwritingstoriesx's review against another edition
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
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
4.5
This book was brilliant. I loved the ways in which the teenage characters were portrayed realistically. Most books never seem to get younger characters right but this author aced it.
It was also really interesting reading from the perspective of Asian characters with references to culture, food and clothing that I hadn't encountered before. Even though it was so unfamiliar for me it felt really comforting to read.
My favourite aspect overall is how the main conflict of this book wasn't the issue of being outed. Though being outed is a very real issue for many and is quite frightening for a lot of people in the lgbt community, I feel as though this kind of conflict has been played out enough in lgbt fiction, so I'm glad I didn't have to read it again. Last but not least, Hani and Ishu made such an adorable couple and I loved the ending they got together.
It was also really interesting reading from the perspective of Asian characters with references to culture, food and clothing that I hadn't encountered before. Even though it was so unfamiliar for me it felt really comforting to read.
My favourite aspect overall is how the main conflict of this book wasn't the issue of being outed. Though being outed is a very real issue for many and is quite frightening for a lot of people in the lgbt community, I feel as though this kind of conflict has been played out enough in lgbt fiction, so I'm glad I didn't have to read it again. Last but not least, Hani and Ishu made such an adorable couple and I loved the ending they got together.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Religious bigotry, Islamophobia, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Racism
callieju's review against another edition
5.0
This book was amazing. I loved the character driven plot and how real everything that happened felt. This review is gonna be very short but all I have to say is f Hani’s asshole friends. I just wanna
raichou's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
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
4.0
It was such a sweet story of growing up und having to learn who your real friends are.
I'm so glad Hani was able to finally be herself l, not having to pretend to be someone else just to keep her friends who didn't really like her for herself.
Ishu as well, though I would have liked to see more of the aftermath of her not running for head girl anymore. I think that conflict was skipped.
All in all I'm really happy for them and there wasn't too much miscommunication. At least it didn't drag on forever.
Ishu as well, though I would have liked to see more of the aftermath of her not running for head girl anymore. I think that conflict was skipped.
All in all I'm really happy for them and there wasn't too much miscommunication. At least it didn't drag on forever.
naviscorner's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5