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mareijo's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
corsetedfeminist's review against another edition
hopeful
lighthearted
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
3.75
raine_rki's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
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
4.0
majaekre's review against another edition
3.5
Så gullig rakt igenom, allt gick jävligt hastigt om man säger så men fortfarande så wholesome. Blev extremt arg av Hanis kompisar och allt dom gjorde. Kändes bara så gulligt, lättsamt och oskyldigt.
laoise_obrien's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
mariahistryingtoread's review against another edition
4.0
Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating is a sapphic romance worthy of the praise it gets. It's cute, it’s got a lot of heart, and there’s a really important message about being yourself underscoring the whole thing.
What I liked most about this book was the way it presented the duality of the minority experience.
Hani has an extremely privileged home life. Her parents are abundantly supportive of her. She is so close to her parents she came out to them with absolutely no friction whatsoever - in fact she’s stunned by the revelation later that her parents did have some struggles initially. That’s how strong their relationship is: they shield her entirely from their personal hang ups because they are 1000% committed to ensuring she never questions their love for a second. I was beyond jealous at this show of devotion.
Outside of her home she perpetually walks on eggshells around her childhood friends, popular mean girl Ashleen and spineless enabler Deidre, whose bigotry is becoming increasingly more pronounced with each passing day.
Ishu has grown up in a strict, traditionalist household where her entire self worth has been measured against her perfect older sister. When Nik finally screws up - in a life changing way at that - Ishu is poised to take the top spot as apple of her parents' eye. Her family is painfully authoritarian as well as hierarchical.
Unlike Hani, outside of her household Ishu is remarkably self assured. She refuses to temper her personality or desires for anyone. Other people believe her to be standoffish - which admittedly she can be - however, she’s comfortable in her own skin and culture in a way Hani does not yet have the fortitude for.
Each is uniquely equipped to offer aid to the other in regards to their circumstances, thus laying a great foundation for each to not only grow as individuals, but form a special bond together as well. The romance is believable because their relationship progression mirrors their personal development. As the two get closer you can literally see them becoming better people for it. It makes the connection all the more authentic. Regardless of the relationship trajectory you know for a fact that what the two of them have shared will stick with them forever.
(If you’ve ever heard that song For Good in Wicked, it’s exactly like that.)
As someone who has been guilty of holding onto a friendship that has absolutely run its course before, I sympathized immensely with Hani’s struggle to let hers go. It’s difficult in average circumstances to recognize how harmful a close relationship has become. The racial dynamic at play on top of it can make it all the more stressful especially if you’re a people pleaser. One of the hardest parts of breaking out of this mentality is overcoming the fear of the loss. Humans will go to extreme lengths to avoid pain and unsurprisingly, grief is one of the most painful there is. Consciously pulling the trigger to purposely initiate this feeling takes an indefinable amount of strength.
I was frustrated beyond belief when Hani would capitulate to the whims of such obviously undeserving people. That being said, it was an exceedingly well written, thoughtful look at what that kind of toxic friendship looks like and how hard it is to disengage, despite the mounting warning signs, when you’re in the thick of it. The very premise of the book - virulent biphobia from Ashleen plus tacit support from Deidre - is built on a disrespect so egregious it should be enough for her to kick them to the curb. And that’s only the premise. I have no words for the cruelty these two go on to further inflict on Hani.
Ishu, having no friends nor being particularly inclined to gain any, had to fight stifling cultural expectations to find her own actual desires underneath. I am not Bengali, however, I am Black which has its own set of implicit rules to follow so to a point I understand exactly how suffocating it can be. You bear the weight of an entire complicated, somewhat if not entirely tragic history on your back - you are the culmination of years of sacrifice, indescribable misery, backbreaking work. Why shouldn’t you pay that back by trying to live by a higher standard even if it is outdated or not quite what you want? After all you wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for those before you.
It also can feel like you need to justify your existence by doing something ‘worthy’ - an arbitrary metric if there ever was one - of great praise to offset all the years where your people were not allowed such opportunities so easily, if at all. If you’re not a grand success then you’ve squandered a lifetime spent elevating you to your current advantageous position. A lot of this is touched on to varying degrees in Ishu’s arc.
Once again, I’m Black so I can only speak to my own experiences, which aren’t universal by any means anyways, so there are definitely differences to how this compulsion plays out in my culture compared to Bengali culture. Still there is a lot of overlap that made it easy for me to tap into Ishu’s headspace. It's not exclusive to minorities to feel this pressure to excel nor do all minorities fall victim to it in the first place so there’s room for a reader of any background to relate on some level.
The most awful yet realistic part is that in choosing to break the cycle Ishu has most likely severed her relationship to her parents permanently. While there is the possibility of change in the future nothing that is seen in this book gives any indication it will happen any time soon if ever. And even if they can reach an accord it’s likely the relationship will never be what it once was. It’s a very bittersweet victory.
My one major criticism would be that the political plot involving Hani’s father is underdeveloped. Her father is running for a role in the local government - do not ask me what it is, this book takes place in England, I do not know any of their government positions - and it would be a huge deal for him to win since he’s not a white man. It’s running underneath the rest of the story for a majority of the book which is fine as a kind of background set dressing. When it suddenly becomes relevant as part of the third act conflict it’s much too abrupt given its previous comparative irrelevance. It was apparently meant to be a parallel to Hani’s storyline, but the lack of attention undercut its significance. Instead it felt like it was a cheap way of partially absolving Hani for the big mistake she makes in regards to his campaign by making her father out to be a hypocrite out of nowhere.
I appreciated that this was a queer story where the closeted queer kid - Ishu - was never in any way pushed to come out. It was implicitly communicated how unsafe that would be for her and it never became a point of contention. I’m not completely against coming out stories where the person comes out in less than stellar situations as those stories have their place too. But, the execution is key. Promoting the idea that a person is living a lie or somehow a ‘bad’ queer person for not meeting some random standard of queerness by not being unabashedly out no matter the environment is dangerous, naive, and ignorant. I like that this story did not engage in that kind of harmful messaging.
I have not read many WLW stories nor have I seen many that center women of color receive nearly as much buzz as the ones featuring white characters in the predominant roles. For that alone I would say this book is special. There are definitely some bumps along the way, but I promise you it’s all worth it in the end. A happy ending is guaranteed.
What I liked most about this book was the way it presented the duality of the minority experience.
Hani has an extremely privileged home life. Her parents are abundantly supportive of her. She is so close to her parents she came out to them with absolutely no friction whatsoever - in fact she’s stunned by the revelation later that her parents did have some struggles initially. That’s how strong their relationship is: they shield her entirely from their personal hang ups because they are 1000% committed to ensuring she never questions their love for a second. I was beyond jealous at this show of devotion.
Outside of her home she perpetually walks on eggshells around her childhood friends, popular mean girl Ashleen and spineless enabler Deidre, whose bigotry is becoming increasingly more pronounced with each passing day.
Ishu has grown up in a strict, traditionalist household where her entire self worth has been measured against her perfect older sister. When Nik finally screws up - in a life changing way at that - Ishu is poised to take the top spot as apple of her parents' eye. Her family is painfully authoritarian as well as hierarchical.
Unlike Hani, outside of her household Ishu is remarkably self assured. She refuses to temper her personality or desires for anyone. Other people believe her to be standoffish - which admittedly she can be - however, she’s comfortable in her own skin and culture in a way Hani does not yet have the fortitude for.
Each is uniquely equipped to offer aid to the other in regards to their circumstances, thus laying a great foundation for each to not only grow as individuals, but form a special bond together as well. The romance is believable because their relationship progression mirrors their personal development. As the two get closer you can literally see them becoming better people for it. It makes the connection all the more authentic. Regardless of the relationship trajectory you know for a fact that what the two of them have shared will stick with them forever.
(If you’ve ever heard that song For Good in Wicked, it’s exactly like that.)
As someone who has been guilty of holding onto a friendship that has absolutely run its course before, I sympathized immensely with Hani’s struggle to let hers go. It’s difficult in average circumstances to recognize how harmful a close relationship has become. The racial dynamic at play on top of it can make it all the more stressful especially if you’re a people pleaser. One of the hardest parts of breaking out of this mentality is overcoming the fear of the loss. Humans will go to extreme lengths to avoid pain and unsurprisingly, grief is one of the most painful there is. Consciously pulling the trigger to purposely initiate this feeling takes an indefinable amount of strength.
I was frustrated beyond belief when Hani would capitulate to the whims of such obviously undeserving people. That being said, it was an exceedingly well written, thoughtful look at what that kind of toxic friendship looks like and how hard it is to disengage, despite the mounting warning signs, when you’re in the thick of it. The very premise of the book - virulent biphobia from Ashleen plus tacit support from Deidre - is built on a disrespect so egregious it should be enough for her to kick them to the curb. And that’s only the premise. I have no words for the cruelty these two go on to further inflict on Hani.
Ishu, having no friends nor being particularly inclined to gain any, had to fight stifling cultural expectations to find her own actual desires underneath. I am not Bengali, however, I am Black which has its own set of implicit rules to follow so to a point I understand exactly how suffocating it can be. You bear the weight of an entire complicated, somewhat if not entirely tragic history on your back - you are the culmination of years of sacrifice, indescribable misery, backbreaking work. Why shouldn’t you pay that back by trying to live by a higher standard even if it is outdated or not quite what you want? After all you wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for those before you.
It also can feel like you need to justify your existence by doing something ‘worthy’ - an arbitrary metric if there ever was one - of great praise to offset all the years where your people were not allowed such opportunities so easily, if at all. If you’re not a grand success then you’ve squandered a lifetime spent elevating you to your current advantageous position. A lot of this is touched on to varying degrees in Ishu’s arc.
Once again, I’m Black so I can only speak to my own experiences, which aren’t universal by any means anyways, so there are definitely differences to how this compulsion plays out in my culture compared to Bengali culture. Still there is a lot of overlap that made it easy for me to tap into Ishu’s headspace. It's not exclusive to minorities to feel this pressure to excel nor do all minorities fall victim to it in the first place so there’s room for a reader of any background to relate on some level.
The most awful yet realistic part is that in choosing to break the cycle Ishu has most likely severed her relationship to her parents permanently. While there is the possibility of change in the future nothing that is seen in this book gives any indication it will happen any time soon if ever. And even if they can reach an accord it’s likely the relationship will never be what it once was. It’s a very bittersweet victory.
My one major criticism would be that the political plot involving Hani’s father is underdeveloped. Her father is running for a role in the local government - do not ask me what it is, this book takes place in England, I do not know any of their government positions - and it would be a huge deal for him to win since he’s not a white man. It’s running underneath the rest of the story for a majority of the book which is fine as a kind of background set dressing. When it suddenly becomes relevant as part of the third act conflict it’s much too abrupt given its previous comparative irrelevance. It was apparently meant to be a parallel to Hani’s storyline, but the lack of attention undercut its significance. Instead it felt like it was a cheap way of partially absolving Hani for the big mistake she makes in regards to his campaign by making her father out to be a hypocrite out of nowhere.
I appreciated that this was a queer story where the closeted queer kid - Ishu - was never in any way pushed to come out. It was implicitly communicated how unsafe that would be for her and it never became a point of contention. I’m not completely against coming out stories where the person comes out in less than stellar situations as those stories have their place too. But, the execution is key. Promoting the idea that a person is living a lie or somehow a ‘bad’ queer person for not meeting some random standard of queerness by not being unabashedly out no matter the environment is dangerous, naive, and ignorant. I like that this story did not engage in that kind of harmful messaging.
I have not read many WLW stories nor have I seen many that center women of color receive nearly as much buzz as the ones featuring white characters in the predominant roles. For that alone I would say this book is special. There are definitely some bumps along the way, but I promise you it’s all worth it in the end. A happy ending is guaranteed.
shoham's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
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.