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atsundarsingh's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I loved this book so much. It does light-hearted family drama. It does humour. It does mystery. It does feminism. It does upending cultural scripts. I think the mystery and character development were good, and hey! a story where older ladies are frank about sex? Hilarious and delightful.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny
Moderate: Emotional abuse
Minor: Suicide, Sexual violence, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Rape, Mental illness, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse
amachattie's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I love this book. I love anything that gives older women room to be full, sexual human beings. I loved that it was a romance novel and a mystery novel at the same time. I can't really assess whether the representation of violence against women within the Punjabi community was accurate or nuanced, but I felt like the author handled the topic in a way that was not just sensational or a plot device.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny and Violence
Moderate: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Death, Suicide, and Child death
Minor: Child abuse
missbear's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
The weird thing about this book is that it's made up a bunch of opposites. I keep wanting to describe it as cute and lighthearted, which it is, but there are also sections of it that are quite dark, including a reference to a very violent suicide scene. This contrast is reflected throughout much of the book because this story is really two stories: one is a largely lighthearted and heartwarming story about a young woman figuring out her place in the world and a group of Punjabi widows who are reacquainting themselves with their sexualities through storytelling, and the other is a pretty dark mystery about misogyny and honor killings in a conservative community. As you can imagine, it's not as though these stories have nothing to do with each other in content - the reason these two stories are being told together makes perfect sense to me. The switches in tone, however, could be somewhat jarring for me, although I suspect that they're partly what makes this book popular: it's got the romance, it's got the mystery/thriller, it's got the contemporary social justice, it's got the own-voices look into a particular community, hell, it's even got the erotica!
Although I did learn a fair amount about the community of Southall and Sikh culture (my favorite being the explanation of how Sikh naming works - I can't believe I didn't know that Kaur and Singh are not family names), I think this book would have made a larger impact on me if it had picked one or two of the many things it was going for and delved into them more deeply.
Although I did learn a fair amount about the community of Southall and Sikh culture (my favorite being the explanation of how Sikh naming works - I can't believe I didn't know that Kaur and Singh are not family names), I think this book would have made a larger impact on me if it had picked one or two of the many things it was going for and delved into them more deeply.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Sexual violence
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