A review by dhrish
The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar

4.0

C/W: Racism, micro-aggressions, homophobia, outing, bulling

Nishat was probably the kind of character I needed to see as a 16-year-old. While I am not Bangladeshi, I could relate to a lot of Nishat's experiences. Although I definitely wasn't as proud of my South Asian roots at her age.

Adiba does a wonderful job of capturing the nuances and hypocrisy of both the South Asian community and cultural appropriation. While I didn't care too much for the side-plots, I will emphasise that this story gave me hope about love, acceptance and family, and, for now, all those things are enough.