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A review by themargherita_s
Courting Samira by Amal Awad
3.0
There's many scenes that feel more like filler content, which made the story a bit boring for me.
The way everyone (both friends and family) keep calling Samira "innocent", "too trusting", and "naive" feels very infantilizing after a while. Maybe she’s a bit of a pushover, but they all treat her like a child and I'm pretty sure they are part of the reason why she has internalized it.
This book was marketed as having a love triangle, and I'm aware that the rules would be a bit different from the usual execution of this trope since the element of religion has been added to the mix, but for most of the story Samira is told by other people that one of the two supposed suitors (Hakeem) has feelings for her, but that is all said by others and never shown through actions. Hakeem doesn't even do anything real to show that he likes her, and only at precisely the 87% mark he shows up to tell her he wants to marry her (but only because he sees he could actually lose her to someone else now). This doesn't look like a love triangle at all to me.
Side plot detail that bothered me: Samira has colleague that she call a friend, and who she spends time with outside of work as well. This friend starts dating the guy who’s constantly throwing racist microaggressions at her at work (and let's be honest, she says pretty ignorant things too). In that case, can you even call her a friend?
The way everyone (both friends and family) keep calling Samira "innocent", "too trusting", and "naive" feels very infantilizing after a while. Maybe she’s a bit of a pushover, but they all treat her like a child and I'm pretty sure they are part of the reason why she has internalized it.
This book was marketed as having a love triangle, and I'm aware that the rules would be a bit different from the usual execution of this trope since the element of religion has been added to the mix, but for most of the story Samira is told by other people that one of the two supposed suitors (Hakeem) has feelings for her, but that is all said by others and never shown through actions. Hakeem doesn't even do anything real to show that he likes her, and only at precisely the 87% mark he shows up to tell her he wants to marry her (but only because he sees he could actually lose her to someone else now). This doesn't look like a love triangle at all to me.
Side plot detail that bothered me: Samira has colleague that she call a friend, and who she spends time with outside of work as well. This friend starts dating the guy who’s constantly throwing racist microaggressions at her at work (and let's be honest, she says pretty ignorant things too). In that case, can you even call her a friend?