Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar

45 reviews

cheesepuppy's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Wow. What a book. I love it. Very cute story about Nishat. Her little love story is so cuuuuute. Love how Nishat is so close with her sister. I also like the way this book shows appropriation and racism in every day life. I think that’s a great thing to show our teens so they understand the implications of their actions.

Note, I do wish the deadnaming in Chapter 33 could be fixed for future prints of this book. For now, I scribbled it out and fixed the name.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Racism, Cultural appropriation, Lesbophobia, Xenophobia, and Outing

Moderate: Gaslighting and Islamophobia

Minor: Deadnaming

sophie42's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Racism, Outing, Bullying, and Cultural appropriation

Moderate: Toxic friendship and Xenophobia

rhysecakes's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing and Cultural appropriation

Moderate: Xenophobia and Racism

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders

zombiezami's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring 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

Heartwarming story. Wish the grandma had been in the end in some way to wrap things up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Outing

Moderate: Islamophobia, Racism, Xenophobia, and Cultural appropriation

Minor: Biphobia, Chronic illness, Hate crime, and Medical content

cantfindmybookmark's review against another edition

challenging funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Xenophobia, Cultural appropriation, and Homophobia

rubydagger's review against another edition

funny inspiring 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Religious bigotry, Outing, and Homophobia

Moderate: Bullying, Racism, and Xenophobia

alina_h's review

emotional informative inspiring 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing

Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Homophobia, Racism, and Xenophobia

flameoflareon's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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

An ultimately hopeful story that touches not only romance, but family, friendship, culture, and religion. I loved the protagonist, and this story puts her through the ringer in so many ways that left me sad and angry and tense. Each character feels like a real person caught up in their own stuff. There are a few plotholes, but these are made up for by the cute story, the classic school drama plots and tropes used, and the loving ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Islamophobia, Lesbophobia, Outing, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Xenophobia

The main character is

very publicly outed to her entire school

. This is after her family

tries to convince her to stop being lesbian because it's "shameful"

. She is regularly bullied for being South Asian and lesbian with both macroaggressions and microaggressions.

School administration never stops or prevents this

. There are cute, fluffy parts, but it's not a fluff book.

princessapplecore's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

OMG, THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE THIS BOOK!!
I could go on and on about this book. I love this book into the depths of my soul. This book has my heart.
1. Plot- The plot of this book was... I guess different is the word I want, than other LGBTQIA+ novels. There were the elements of race and religion. Most YA LGBTQIA+ books are only centered around sexualities. Because this book added bits of Muslim and Catholic views, as well as the "But Bangladeshis are not gay." and the homophobia from her parents, made this book seem a bit more real.
2. Characters- I love Nishat. She is so strong-willed, she knows who she is and doesn't hide it. Flávia is so careful with others. I love their relationship, it's so cute.
3. The Humor- The little description on the inside of the book says that this is a rom-com, it's not. The only time I actually laughed was at the very end when Nishat's parents are watching The Ellen Show.
As I've said before, I really like this book. 10/10, won't read again, because I'm like that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Islamophobia, Outing, Racism, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Emotional abuse

Minor: Biphobia, Child abuse, and Cursing

emilyeehaw's review against another edition

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

overall, i enjoyed this book! for the most part, i flew through it and found the writing, while a little simple at times, to help with moving through the story quickly. there were a couple things i struggled with in the plot, for example feeling like nishat was almost too forgiving of some the shenanigans she had to deal with, but in a weird way....same, sometimes we don't get perfect apologies and still choose to forgive and move on...but in the story i wanted her to just go apeshit on all the people being shitty to her. chyna...especially...ma'am i have my eye on you...choke!

i thought this was such an interesting and accessible approach to the discussion around cultural appropriation. 

i did tear up a little bit throughout this book, just due to all the awful situations nishat was dealing with, in addition to when her parents slowly started coming around to her being a lesbian. the scene where they were watching ellen....made me so emotional bc that's the exact thing my mom did when i first came out to her. WHICH reminds me!! love some good lesbian rep in books, it made me happy to see nishat so sure of herself and her sexuality. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, and Xenophobia