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A review by nashwa017
Rafina by Shandana Minhas
3.0
I was a little nervous about reading this book because of the rating - which stands at less than three stars but I thought it was a pretty solid book, right until the last page. The last page alone lowered my overall rating.
This is the story of Rafina, a young girl who works at a beauty parlour and spends her day slaving away with big dreams to become a model. That's not unrealistic, a lot of girls who work over 10 hours a day want a better life for themselves and their families. This book discusses important themes - poverty, income disparity, classism and most importantly, the thing that our society is absolutely obsessed with - fair skin. Rafina - the main character, has all the potential to be a model, she's tall and she's skinny but her skin is too dark - she shouldn't dream too big.
This book also looks at the endless beauty routines women have to maintain to look presentable. I think the social commentary and the whole “beauty parlour culture” is portrayed well. One of the things that I loved about this novel that was Rafina was supposed to be 17 and she actually sounded like a young character. Her voice was authentic and so were her thoughts - which 17-year-old hasn't been obsessed with boys, and thinks too highly of herself. Over and over, Rafina compares herself to girls around her, and comes to the conclusion that she’s much better looking than all her coworkers - a thought, which sounds very legit to me.
My major dislike of this book was the fact that the last paragraph cheapened the story for me. The sexual content didn't really make sense since it came out of nowhere. The ending was a bit underdeveloped as well but overall, pretty entertaining.
This is the story of Rafina, a young girl who works at a beauty parlour and spends her day slaving away with big dreams to become a model. That's not unrealistic, a lot of girls who work over 10 hours a day want a better life for themselves and their families. This book discusses important themes - poverty, income disparity, classism and most importantly, the thing that our society is absolutely obsessed with - fair skin. Rafina - the main character, has all the potential to be a model, she's tall and she's skinny but her skin is too dark - she shouldn't dream too big.
This book also looks at the endless beauty routines women have to maintain to look presentable. I think the social commentary and the whole “beauty parlour culture” is portrayed well. One of the things that I loved about this novel that was Rafina was supposed to be 17 and she actually sounded like a young character. Her voice was authentic and so were her thoughts - which 17-year-old hasn't been obsessed with boys, and thinks too highly of herself. Over and over, Rafina compares herself to girls around her, and comes to the conclusion that she’s much better looking than all her coworkers - a thought, which sounds very legit to me.
My major dislike of this book was the fact that the last paragraph cheapened the story for me. The sexual content didn't really make sense since it came out of nowhere. The ending was a bit underdeveloped as well but overall, pretty entertaining.