A review by littlesmaug
Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar

funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Is there anything truly better than a book that starts off with the content warnings? As someone who is trauma-informed (and struggles with PTSD), I personally would say that there is not anything better. Instead of coming up with my own list of content warnings, I will instead quote directly from the book:

This book contains instances of racism, homophobia (specifically biphobia and lesbophobia), Islamophobia, toxic friendship, gaslighting, and parental abandonment.

It’s all so neatly summed up right from the start of the story and without spoiling a single moment of it for you. But you’re able to say to yourself “okay these are things I can handle right now” or perhaps you can say “I can’t do this right now.” This is something I absolutely love and hope to see more of in books.

Not only is this book following the fake dating plot, it also has my favorite type of relationship: absolute ray of sunshine (Hani) and total grump (Ishu). I loved that they didn’t get along initially not because of these personality differences! As they become friends, we do see how well these personalities work together. Instead, they avoided friendship because they didn’t want to be pushed into a friendship as the only two brown girls in an all-white Catholic school. 
 
I really loved how this book showed the variety of Bengali culture. There’s a very important moment when the two characters are being compared to one another. Hani goes into talking about how Ishu is not Muslim and how Ishu is Indian. Their families speak different languages, they believe in different things. I will be the first to admit that I don’t know much about Bengali culture. It’s why I want to be reading books by authors like Adiba Jaigirdar; why I want to be reading books that feature characters like Hani and Ishu. This is why I want books like these in classrooms. I want my students to be exposed to cultures they would otherwise be unfamiliar with.

Overall, I really enjoyed the story. I did strongly struggle with Hani’s friendships. The way her friends treated her made me very angry and it only got worse and worse as the story went on. I think I can handle outright bad friends but… the sneakiness of it is what really got to me.

This book does an amazing job with showing just how powerful microaggressions can be. It portrayed the casual racism that is often shown in education systems, politics, and everyday culture. It showed what it can be like to grate under the pressure of over-bearing parents, as well. 

Full review here: https://littlesmaug.wordpress.com/2022/02/23/review-hani-and-ishus-guide-to-fake-dating-by-adiba-jaigirdar/
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