Reviews tagging 'Lesbophobia'

Zara Hossain Is Here by Sabina Khan

5 reviews

zombiezami's review against another edition

3.75

What I most liked about this book were Zara as a character and her loving and mutually supportive relationship with her parents. I really loved how they were written. I also especially enjoy books where I can't predict what's going to happen next, and that was definitely the case with this one.

As far as my critiques, most of the characters did not feel especially developed. What activities does Priya enjoy? Why does Zara like Claire other than that Zara finds her pretty and they are both queer? At the end of the book, I didn't have a clear idea of how to answer those questions. Even with Zara, we open the book with her training in martial arts, but that barely gets brought up again after that first scene, despite the fact that she's been involved with it for most of her life.

Moreover, there were some plot points that were introduced but never really went anywhere. For example,

what happened with Maria after Zara intervened in the bullying and intimidation that was happening? It's implied that she might talk to the principal about how she was bullied, but we never hear about her after that incident. I was thinking she might become friends with Zara and her crew

. The ending felt rather abrupt, too.

There were also several instances where the characters acted as mouthpieces for the author's beliefs, sounding like they were reading Wikipedia pages about the DREAM Act and immigration reform. Although I agreed with what they were saying (fuck borders), I imagine there could have been a more organic way to present these ideas in the characters' own voices. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Racism, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Grief, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, Islamophobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Homophobia, and Biphobia

Moderate: Gun violence, Vomit, Death, and Outing

Minor: Death of parent, Cursing, Deportation, Colonisation, and Car accident

bitterseason's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Islamophobia, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Gun violence, Bullying, and Hate crime

Minor: Lesbophobia, Transphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Cursing, Homophobia, and Blood

amberinpieces's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Hate crime, Racism, and Islamophobia

Minor: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Racial slurs, and Gun violence

clakyn's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful 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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Biphobia, Xenophobia, Bullying, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Lesbophobia, Racism, and Religious bigotry

starryorbit12's review against another edition

emotional informative tense 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? No

4.75

Zara Hossain is Here in a short, fast-paced novel filled with intention on every page. The struggle and injustice that Zara and her family go through are core of this novel showing how government processes can often further victimize already hurt and marginalized people. It shows just how much immigrants have to fight no mater how many years they have been in the country and how fight rarely every ends.Zara, her friends, and family shine and the book never shies away from the ugly true of what they have been through and continue to go through waiting 14 years for their green cards to finish processing. The social commentary is spot on, and this a short read that could be finished in one to two sitting making it work the read if your on the fence. I do appreciate the optimistic but not perfect ending as well. It felt realistic without use realistic as way to be overly grim-dark or angsty.

 This is also F/F romance with a bisexual lead and lesbian love interest. While the representation is great, the conversation on homophobia is a little shallow in places.

The novel focus more on Chloe, the love interests, homophobic Christian family than the implication of what could happen to Zara if she moves back to Pakistan and is outed. I do like the Zara family was supportive though. Not even Zara thinks about to as debates going with her family, she thinks more on not being with Chloe than the implication of what being with women could mean for her there. It only briefly touched on that although her parents may miss their family that they may lose by them anyways if they find out Zara is bisexual.

In comparison to the other themes, the homophobia and romance felt tacked on. Zara and Chloe were cute, and I love the way they are able to communicate and be each other's rocks when bad things happen. It just the harder LGBTQ+ topics the book approached fell flat.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Hate crime, Islamophobia, Medical content, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Religious bigotry

Zara locker is defaced with racist slurs. When the student who did it faces consequences, they defaced more islamophobic slurs on her house. Her father goes to report the behavior to the student father. The father shoots him, and he ends up in the hospital with internal bleeding and brain swelling that force the hospital to put him into an induced coma. Chloe parents are homophobic, and the use their religion to justify their rejection of her lesbianism. In addition, Zara faces racist comments and aggressions throughout.