Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Mismatch by Sara Jafari

5 reviews

alfalky's review

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emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

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lennie_reads's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective tense 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

Thanks to Netgalley & Random House UK,  Cornerstone, Arrow for my ARC. 

This book hurt my heart. 
It hurt for both Soraya and her mum, Neda, as well as Soraya's siblings and Magnus. 

Whilst romance is a part of this book, there is a Lot more to it than that. 

The book is a dual pov and also a dual timeline. We have Soraya in 2014 fresh out of university and Neda, her mother, at around the same age in 1970's Iran. 

This book was a lot heavier than I expected and features struggles around identity, societal expectations, cultural differences, religious expectations, being a person of colour growing up in britian, living as an immigrant in Britain, sexism, harassment, domestic abuse, drug addiction and more. 

Even though it was heartbreaking I really appreciated the dual timelines and seeing how Soraya's parents came to be the way they were. 

I'm a white woman who doesn't come from a strict religious background so I can't speak to the authenticity of the representation but it was a harrowing tale nonetheless. All I know is I just wanted to hug Soraya and Neda. 
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allisonwonderlandreads's review

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challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • 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

3.0

"Now, her future lay ahead of her, with no plan, no time line of what was to come, and she realized she was falling facefirst, ungracefully, into adulthood."

I'm not sure I would categorize this book as a romance because it limits the scope and focus of all this book is. It's a poignant look at the transition from college to "adulthood," such that that means anything. It's nerve-wracking, overwhelming, and portrayed with astute detail here.  British-Iranian Soraya is our protagonist. We join her as she struggles with finding a job and a passion (separate but related questions), feels crushed by family secrets and expectations, and experiments with her first romantic relationship. The story also draws attention to racist and xenophobic experiences and sexist encounters that bombard Soraya's journey.

In terms of the romance, I appreciated the acknowledgment of pre-dating stress and the feeling you need to hit certain landmarks. Soraya and I are motivated by different things, but I appreciated the similar anxieties around not fitting the commonly expected dating mold. While I think there's a burgeoning conversation among millennials about how unhealthy it is to compare milestones with others, I often feel dating expectations are still somewhat assumed. On the other hand, I'm with Soraya's friends that I still wasn't completely Team Magnus by the end of the book. There are still some unresolved red flags with him that I would ideally want addressed. I felt the author skimmed through the relationship for overall effect rather than building up ooey-gooey romantic feelings in the readers. That's part of the reason that I think this works more as a general fiction piece.

Another layer of the story is the background chapters following Soraya's mother Neda, starting in 1970s Tehran. It builds up intrigue by contrasting a bright, young academic and romantic finding her future husband to a future where she can't stand him. There's also the specter of Soraya's older sister Laleh in the 1990s. Cut off from the family under secretive circumstances, her absence is mysterious and lingering, suspicious and upsetting.

 We do get a lot of Soraya's thoughts and struggles with internalized guilt and shame, and I think those portions were striking. It covers weighty topics from anxiety to the ramifications of domestic abuse and addiction in the family. There were many quotes I highlighted for their insightfulness so I could consider them again in future. 
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kates_books's review

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emotional hopeful 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

5.0

This book is so much more than a romance. It covers such a wide variety of topics that I have never seen in a book before, from religious guilt to struggling with post grad life to the inside of a broken marriage but divorce not being on the table. I loved that despite the cultures represented in the book not being my own (this is an own voices book) I was still able to deeply relate to the characters and their struggles. The authors voice is unique and refreshing and authentic and profound in a unpretentious way. 
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lnzava's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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