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A review by chapterfern
Good Intentions by Kasim Ali
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Kasim Ali's Good Intentions is a story about a 4-year relationship, and relationships as a whole: romantic, platonic, familial. The conversations–of love, of race, of cultural duty and tradition–in this book are so important. My copy is filled with annotations and tearstains as a result.
Nur is a character whose thoughts get to him, and who dwells on the possibility, the act, and the consequences of saying the wrong things.
His girlfriend, Yasmina, has only ever wanted for Nur to love her wholly as she is. The only caveat to this is that Yasmina is black, and subsequently, Nur has yet to reveal her to his Pakistani family in fear of what they will think.
While a good book, boy does it feel slow. Reading this book singlehandedly put me into a reading slump so hard that I had to read other books in conjunction to fight out of it. I feel this book would benefit from being chronological instead of time-hopping, so we can feel slowly as the book goes along Nur's back-and-forth actions and Yasmina's growing resentment. That's only my opinion as a reader though.
This was originally supposed to be a 3.5 star review, but after the 65% mark of the book, it gripped me. It is an understatement that I was brought to tears. I believe I am just destined to only read about romance that is doomed by the narrative. What an incredible debut novel.
Nur is a character whose thoughts get to him, and who dwells on the possibility, the act, and the consequences of saying the wrong things.
His girlfriend, Yasmina, has only ever wanted for Nur to love her wholly as she is. The only caveat to this is that Yasmina is black, and subsequently, Nur has yet to reveal her to his Pakistani family in fear of what they will think.
While a good book, boy does it feel slow. Reading this book singlehandedly put me into a reading slump so hard that I had to read other books in conjunction to fight out of it. I feel this book would benefit from being chronological instead of time-hopping, so we can feel slowly as the book goes along Nur's back-and-forth actions and Yasmina's growing resentment. That's only my opinion as a reader though.
This was originally supposed to be a 3.5 star review, but after the 65% mark of the book, it gripped me. It is an understatement that I was brought to tears. I believe I am just destined to only read about romance that is doomed by the narrative. What an incredible debut novel.
Content Warnings
Minor: Racism, Self harm, and Suicide attempt