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A review by boisdelaire
The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar
3.0
★★★ ─── 3 stars.
very light spoilers?
this might honestly be a case of "it's not you, it's me". and i wanted to love this book so badly like so many people did, and in a certain way i enjoyed it but it wasn't enough. i needed something more, maybe something more mature at my age now, but i feel like it's not the only problem i had with certain subplots?
i won't be criticizing the foundations of the plot and what it aspired to speak about because it's not my place to do so, but there were so many repetitions and it got me bored around 50% and it never peaked up after that... repetitions in the messages without diving in the issues and confronting the people creating them, in the inner monologues "she hadn't talked to me this much these past few days" for example, we get that nishat and her mother aren't on the best terms, but it never got more deep. we never had a fight, a conversation to make the reader THINK about it, and not only through nishat's eyes. it was the author's choice, of course, but it left me unsatisfied.. everytime a subject was brought up, it stayed at surface level and that was it. maybe the writing style had a part in that? i expected more from the main relationship as well, i clearly didn't see any of the tension and the attraction between the two girls, it seemed a bit forced to be honest.
nishat's was a very selfish character, she was going through a lot and he kept on getting worse unfortunately for her and she had to think about herself before anyone else, but one of the sentences truly shocked me, it went along the lines like she hadn't seen how bad her sister was hurting, and then flávia comes in the room and nishat's thinks that it was worth it anyway to not think about that. GIRL. if you want people to actually care about you, you've got to be there for them as well. and i mean, you went through A LOT, this high school should be banned because they weren't doing anything during the bullying scandal but your sister was.. come on.
i feel so bad for writing all of this because there's definitely a need for these books in the book landscape. more diversity overall !! please !! the themes were so deep i can't SAY i enjoyed the ride, but it was easy to read and fast-paced and you root for the main character because she claims her difference unapologetically and proudly and it's beautiful to read about that and her culture. :)
very light spoilers?
this might honestly be a case of "it's not you, it's me". and i wanted to love this book so badly like so many people did, and in a certain way i enjoyed it but it wasn't enough. i needed something more, maybe something more mature at my age now, but i feel like it's not the only problem i had with certain subplots?
i won't be criticizing the foundations of the plot and what it aspired to speak about because it's not my place to do so, but there were so many repetitions and it got me bored around 50% and it never peaked up after that... repetitions in the messages without diving in the issues and confronting the people creating them, in the inner monologues "she hadn't talked to me this much these past few days" for example, we get that nishat and her mother aren't on the best terms, but it never got more deep. we never had a fight, a conversation to make the reader THINK about it, and not only through nishat's eyes. it was the author's choice, of course, but it left me unsatisfied.. everytime a subject was brought up, it stayed at surface level and that was it. maybe the writing style had a part in that? i expected more from the main relationship as well, i clearly didn't see any of the tension and the attraction between the two girls, it seemed a bit forced to be honest.
nishat's was a very selfish character, she was going through a lot and he kept on getting worse unfortunately for her and she had to think about herself before anyone else, but one of the sentences truly shocked me, it went along the lines like she hadn't seen how bad her sister was hurting, and then flávia comes in the room and nishat's thinks that it was worth it anyway to not think about that. GIRL. if you want people to actually care about you, you've got to be there for them as well. and i mean, you went through A LOT, this high school should be banned because they weren't doing anything during the bullying scandal but your sister was.. come on.
i feel so bad for writing all of this because there's definitely a need for these books in the book landscape. more diversity overall !! please !! the themes were so deep i can't SAY i enjoyed the ride, but it was easy to read and fast-paced and you root for the main character because she claims her difference unapologetically and proudly and it's beautiful to read about that and her culture. :)