A review by dumb_
The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar

2.5

I love Jaigirdar's other books, Hani and Ishu's guide to fake dating and the do and donuts of love, but this one was not it. The MC felt so weak, not vulnerable but weakly written, she failed to be a believable character for me. The people around her also felt weakly written, especially their relationships with the MC, and especially especially with her friends who barely acted like they knew her. The love interest and MC did not have enough chemistry for me to be invested and I felt like I was at the end of the book before it had begun. Some of the discussions of homophobia, racism, etc. are so good and make the book so interesting and sometimes even hard to read but in a good way, this is what ups my rating but the characters, the world, just range from mediocre to bad. Will still be reading any more books Jaigirdar releases but this was unfortunely a miss in a potentially really nice trio. Ranking: 1. Hani and Ishu. 2. Do and Donuts. 3. Henna Wars