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A review by kasey_reads
Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
slow-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? Yes
3.75
I have a lot of feelings about this book. My reading experience was a true rollercoaster. So here we go:
What I Liked:
- The setting, particularly setting the book both in the restaurant world and the audio broadcasting world.
- The ensemble cast!! Hana's family were so fun to read about and spend time with!!
- The food descriptions (specifically, in the beginning, they kind of fell off at the end).
- The representation!!! This is not my lived experience, but I think Jalaluddin did an awesome job describing the nuances of being a child of immigrants, as well as incorporating the very real microaggressions and aggressions that South Asian Muslims face every day in Canada and the US.
What I Didn't Like:
- First, I think the romance plotline should be removed from this book entirely. It's very strong as a Women's Fiction piece, but there are so many plotlines that are hard to keep track of and the romance doesn't really add very much. It felt very shoe-horned in. And plus also, I was actively rooting against this romance for most of the book!!! I usually love enemies-to-lovers, but in this case, Aydin was so cruel in the beginning and had such terrible intentions that I just couldn't get over it. (I think this is a me issue, by the way, I think I just hate this trope of a man being absolutely terrible save for "the attraction to a good woman". Because the fact is that if Hana wasn't there, or he'd picked a different business to target, he would have done it anyway.) I just wish this was more of an unlikely friendship than a romance.
- A You've Got Mail retelling does not work if one of the people runs a podcast.
- The pace of this book. The last 25% of this book does a LOT of heavy lifting and is very unbalanced from the extremely exposition-heavy first 50% of the book.
Overall, I think this is a good book, but not a great one. I think people should read it. The representation and the difficult topics this story covers are important and the cast of characters (minus Aydin) makes this an overall enjoyable read!!
What I Liked:
- The setting, particularly setting the book both in the restaurant world and the audio broadcasting world.
- The ensemble cast!! Hana's family were so fun to read about and spend time with!!
- The food descriptions (specifically, in the beginning, they kind of fell off at the end).
- The representation!!! This is not my lived experience, but I think Jalaluddin did an awesome job describing the nuances of being a child of immigrants, as well as incorporating the very real microaggressions and aggressions that South Asian Muslims face every day in Canada and the US.
What I Didn't Like:
- First, I think the romance plotline should be removed from this book entirely. It's very strong as a Women's Fiction piece, but there are so many plotlines that are hard to keep track of and the romance doesn't really add very much. It felt very shoe-horned in. And plus also, I was actively rooting against this romance for most of the book!!! I usually love enemies-to-lovers, but in this case, Aydin was so cruel in the beginning and had such terrible intentions that I just couldn't get over it. (I think this is a me issue, by the way, I think I just hate this trope of a man being absolutely terrible save for "the attraction to a good woman". Because the fact is that if Hana wasn't there, or he'd picked a different business to target, he would have done it anyway.) I just wish this was more of an unlikely friendship than a romance.
- A You've Got Mail retelling does not work if one of the people runs a podcast.
- The pace of this book. The last 25% of this book does a LOT of heavy lifting and is very unbalanced from the extremely exposition-heavy first 50% of the book.
Overall, I think this is a good book, but not a great one. I think people should read it. The representation and the difficult topics this story covers are important and the cast of characters (minus Aydin) makes this an overall enjoyable read!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Islamophobia and Hate crime