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A review by hellwurld
A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhathena
5.0
i first read this book at twelve years old, my era of rushing to the local library after school everyday and taking out two, three, four books. it was the peak of my interest in grabbing any YA book that sounded vaguely feminist, but a description like that doesn't give this book the credit it deserves. i spent years looking for this book after i read it, having forgotten the name about a week after i read it in all my unmedicated ADHD glory and it seemingly being removed from the library. a girl like that is the kind of book that sticks with you, sticks with you long enough to go through the work of finding it to put on christmas lists. i got the book last christmas, but put off reading it until now. i understand now, at sixteen, why i spent so long looking for this book.
a girl like that isn't the most well written book. the word choices can feel clunky and out of place and it isn't a timeless book, dating itself with the references and the slang. but a girl like that has the unique quality of discovery. on every new read, you learn more about zarin, about the world she lives in and the people she knows. zarin and i live in completely different worlds, lead different lives in different ages in different cultures, and i worry my interpretation of her story will not do her justice. i will say this though: through zarin, tanaz bhathena shows her intelligence and her deep talent. her writing deals with incredibly heavy topics, and she handles it realistically. zarin, along with many other characters, has trauma that stretches back in her lineage and trauma that is fresh and new for her and only her. bhathena integrates these traumas into the story seamlessly, her characters the model image for showing how trauma shapes you and changes you and breaks you without flattening her characters into their trauma, into a stereotype or a plot device or a puppet for whatever criticism she is trying to make. a girl like that is a book with human characters, for better or for worse.
a praise often directed at books that deal with problematic themes and problematic characters is that "there are no good people and there are no bad people, only people." it's a sentiment that i don't mind and have even said myself. but, something i love about this book is that some characters are good people, are bad people. bhathena dabbles in the morally gray, but this book has good people and it has bad people and bhathena does not let that stop her from writing them as people. her writing is an example of how to write good/bad people without depriving them of character, of nuance or complexity. tanaz bhathena has mastered emotion and morality and character, and she has mastered the art of making me happy and sad and angry at the same time. levity is what makes tragedy worth it, and bhathena is walking gracefully on the line between the two.
this is too long of a review for me to be able to say my point in just a few sentences, but i can: a girl like that is a book that is also a human life, complicated and tragic and loving, where the characters grow up and let go and you do it with them. a girl like that starts and ends with death, and somehow, i'm not as sad as i thought i would be.
i fell in love with this book at twelve and it stuck with my whole life. a girl like that is a book about love, despite everything and in spite of everything.
a girl like that isn't the most well written book. the word choices can feel clunky and out of place and it isn't a timeless book, dating itself with the references and the slang. but a girl like that has the unique quality of discovery. on every new read, you learn more about zarin, about the world she lives in and the people she knows. zarin and i live in completely different worlds, lead different lives in different ages in different cultures, and i worry my interpretation of her story will not do her justice. i will say this though: through zarin, tanaz bhathena shows her intelligence and her deep talent. her writing deals with incredibly heavy topics, and she handles it realistically. zarin, along with many other characters, has trauma that stretches back in her lineage and trauma that is fresh and new for her and only her. bhathena integrates these traumas into the story seamlessly, her characters the model image for showing how trauma shapes you and changes you and breaks you without flattening her characters into their trauma, into a stereotype or a plot device or a puppet for whatever criticism she is trying to make. a girl like that is a book with human characters, for better or for worse.
a praise often directed at books that deal with problematic themes and problematic characters is that "there are no good people and there are no bad people, only people." it's a sentiment that i don't mind and have even said myself. but, something i love about this book is that some characters are good people, are bad people. bhathena dabbles in the morally gray, but this book has good people and it has bad people and bhathena does not let that stop her from writing them as people. her writing is an example of how to write good/bad people without depriving them of character, of nuance or complexity. tanaz bhathena has mastered emotion and morality and character, and she has mastered the art of making me happy and sad and angry at the same time. levity is what makes tragedy worth it, and bhathena is walking gracefully on the line between the two.
this is too long of a review for me to be able to say my point in just a few sentences, but i can: a girl like that is a book that is also a human life, complicated and tragic and loving, where the characters grow up and let go and you do it with them. a girl like that starts and ends with death, and somehow, i'm not as sad as i thought i would be.
i fell in love with this book at twelve and it stuck with my whole life. a girl like that is a book about love, despite everything and in spite of everything.