A review by starryorbit12
Zara Hossain Is Here by Sabina Khan

emotional informative tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Zara Hossain is Here in a short, fast-paced novel filled with intention on every page. The struggle and injustice that Zara and her family go through are core of this novel showing how government processes can often further victimize already hurt and marginalized people. It shows just how much immigrants have to fight no mater how many years they have been in the country and how fight rarely every ends.Zara, her friends, and family shine and the book never shies away from the ugly true of what they have been through and continue to go through waiting 14 years for their green cards to finish processing. The social commentary is spot on, and this a short read that could be finished in one to two sitting making it work the read if your on the fence. I do appreciate the optimistic but not perfect ending as well. It felt realistic without use realistic as way to be overly grim-dark or angsty.

 This is also F/F romance with a bisexual lead and lesbian love interest. While the representation is great, the conversation on homophobia is a little shallow in places.

The novel focus more on Chloe, the love interests, homophobic Christian family than the implication of what could happen to Zara if she moves back to Pakistan and is outed. I do like the Zara family was supportive though. Not even Zara thinks about to as debates going with her family, she thinks more on not being with Chloe than the implication of what being with women could mean for her there. It only briefly touched on that although her parents may miss their family that they may lose by them anyways if they find out Zara is bisexual.

In comparison to the other themes, the homophobia and romance felt tacked on. Zara and Chloe were cute, and I love the way they are able to communicate and be each other's rocks when bad things happen. It just the harder LGBTQ+ topics the book approached fell flat.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Hate crime, Islamophobia, Medical content, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Religious bigotry

Zara locker is defaced with racist slurs. When the student who did it faces consequences, they defaced more islamophobic slurs on her house. Her father goes to report the behavior to the student father. The father shoots him, and he ends up in the hospital with internal bleeding and brain swelling that force the hospital to put him into an induced coma. Chloe parents are homophobic, and the use their religion to justify their rejection of her lesbianism. In addition, Zara faces racist comments and aggressions throughout.