_inge 's review for:

Four Eids and a Funeral by Adiba Jaigirdar, Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

DID NOT FINISH: 15%

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Thought I’d leave this overnight to see if I’d feel like getting back into it. But nah. The central conflict doesn’t make much sense (someone left to go study and apparently that’s ’leaving everyone behind’?) and the way they meet up again - through a funeral - is skipped over really quickly when a bigger event happens. The Eid flashbacks about them as kids are an attempt at making the romance fatalistic, but I just found it a bit… forced? Apparently Muslims dislike this because it’s haram and not a halal romance, because the characters date, hug and - God forbid - there’s a lesbian in there (see the top comment on Goodreads…) But non-Muslims dislike it because it’s vanilla and the plot doesn’t make much sense.