Reviews with content warning for Hate crime - The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali

This is one of the best books I have read this year.

Rukhsana is a high school senior, looking forward to heading off to college in California with her girlfriend. The problem is being gay is against her family's Muslim beliefs, and when her parents catch her with her girlfriend, all hell breaks loose.

Rukhsana's story really resonated with me, and I feel like anyone who is has experienced or is anticipating religious backlash when coming out could relate to this book.

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atrkula's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad tense fast-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? No

3.75

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redbookpanda's review against another edition

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challenging emotional 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? No

So this was a pretty difficult book. It took me a while to get into it, because the friends of the MC as well as her girlfriend were just so annoying. I honestly couldn't wait for her to get to Bangladesh, because that meant that I wouldn't have to see these three girls all the time.

While I did like a lot of the other relationships in the book (the cousin, the grandma and the brother were some of my favourite characters and of course we can't forget the new friends the MC makes along the way) I really wished that the girlfriend did not exist. Their whole relationship just did not work for me.

I also kinda hated the ending because it was way too over the top?? The parents really went from calling a djinn catcher on their daughter to trying to set her up with other girls in like 20 pages and I was not here for that

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siyak_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-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

4.5

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karlsmariels's review

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challenging tense 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? No

3.75

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emilyvf's review against another edition

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challenging emotional inspiring reflective 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? No

4.0

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katselvocki's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful 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

3.5

The good:

Queer South Asian rep
Rukhsana and her brother Aamir’s relationship
Rukhsana’s relationship with her grandmother
Rukhsana’s friendships with Irfan and Sohail
Rukhsana and Ariana’s relationship felt very much like a teenage love story

The less good:

HOLY HECK this got much darker than I’d anticipated
Pacing felt off—things dragged for a bit in the middle, but then wrapped up VERY quickly and rather tidily after the darker plot points
Not much character development of Ariana or of Rukhsana’s best friends in Seattle
Rukhsana and Ariana’s relationship felt very much like a teenage love story
I am very much not over Sohail’s death even though all of the characters seem to be

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