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A review by caseythecanadianlesbrarian
Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier
5.0
This is a knock-out coming of age YA novel about identity, belonging, friendship, and romance. It's the story of Dimple finding out who she is as a person, discovering what her passions are, (re)connecting with her culture and family, reimagining an old friendship, and falling in love for the first time. There's a lot in here about feeling stuck between cultures: too Indian to really be American, and too American to really be Indian.
I loved the characterization and I loved the writing. I thought Hidier did a great job at having the voice feel very teenagery but also write beautiful descriptions. Her writing is both profound and very funny as she details Dimple's journey. I especially loved the mom's dialogue (so funny) and how photography and music were described. The scene where Dimple smokes pot for the first time and the narrative is following the funny directions her mind was going was also spot-on and hilarious. That scene, and actually most of the hangout scenes with the teenagers, really put me back in the mindset of being a teenager, which has honestly only happened to me a very few times reading YA.
Dimple's cousin Kavita, who is a secondary but important character is one of the first (first?) South Asian queer characters in YA. She was one of a few family members, including both Dimple's parents, that Dimples gets to know all over again as individuals separate from her preconceptions. Dimple slowly starts to see her parents as real people, and not just her parents, learning about their lives in India before they moved to the US. Kavita becomes more than Dimple's annoying Indian cousin who called her "cowgirl" because she lived in the States and becomes a good friend who knows what it's like to be in between
I wasn't sure about Dimple's BFF Gwyn who annoyed the crap out of me for most of the novel, meaning that her redemption at the end fell a little flat (or more like, I wasn't really invested in Dimple repairing her relationship with her and so when it happened, I was like, meh). I felt like I was supposed to feel sympathetic to her--especially after her WASPy parents-ignore-her home life was really explained. But I dunno, maybe I've just seen the rich white girl whose parents are divorced and don't care about her and who is amazingly beautiful and charismatic but is actually lonely story too many times by now. But she was awful for so much of the book! I get that she's searching for belonging just like Dimple is, but she did that through: a) ditching and ignoring Dimple more than once throughout the course of the book for a boyfriend / boy she liked: b) appropriating Indian cultural stuff over and over and arguing with people who tell her to think about why she thinks this stuff is open to her, and c) generally being very selfish and clueless about Dimple's feelings, down from small things like eating all of Dimple's pile of kinda burnt fries, which are her favourite and that she's meticulously picked out of the pile of regular fries to big things like not realizing Dimple obviously likes Karsh. What kind of BFF is she!
Okay, all this to say I loved this book!! It's a prime example of the genre and something for YA writers to aspire to. Which is especially a big deal considering this is a debut novel.
I loved the characterization and I loved the writing. I thought Hidier did a great job at having the voice feel very teenagery but also write beautiful descriptions. Her writing is both profound and very funny as she details Dimple's journey. I especially loved the mom's dialogue (so funny) and how photography and music were described. The scene where Dimple smokes pot for the first time and the narrative is following the funny directions her mind was going was also spot-on and hilarious. That scene, and actually most of the hangout scenes with the teenagers, really put me back in the mindset of being a teenager, which has honestly only happened to me a very few times reading YA.
Dimple's cousin Kavita, who is a secondary but important character is one of the first (first?) South Asian queer characters in YA. She was one of a few family members, including both Dimple's parents, that Dimples gets to know all over again as individuals separate from her preconceptions. Dimple slowly starts to see her parents as real people, and not just her parents, learning about their lives in India before they moved to the US. Kavita becomes more than Dimple's annoying Indian cousin who called her "cowgirl" because she lived in the States and becomes a good friend who knows what it's like to be in between
I wasn't sure about Dimple's BFF Gwyn who annoyed the crap out of me for most of the novel, meaning that her redemption at the end fell a little flat (or more like, I wasn't really invested in Dimple repairing her relationship with her and so when it happened, I was like, meh). I felt like I was supposed to feel sympathetic to her--especially after her WASPy parents-ignore-her home life was really explained. But I dunno, maybe I've just seen the rich white girl whose parents are divorced and don't care about her and who is amazingly beautiful and charismatic but is actually lonely story too many times by now. But she was awful for so much of the book! I get that she's searching for belonging just like Dimple is, but she did that through: a) ditching and ignoring Dimple more than once throughout the course of the book for a boyfriend / boy she liked: b) appropriating Indian cultural stuff over and over and arguing with people who tell her to think about why she thinks this stuff is open to her, and c) generally being very selfish and clueless about Dimple's feelings, down from small things like eating all of Dimple's pile of kinda burnt fries, which are her favourite and that she's meticulously picked out of the pile of regular fries to big things like not realizing Dimple obviously likes Karsh. What kind of BFF is she!
Okay, all this to say I loved this book!! It's a prime example of the genre and something for YA writers to aspire to. Which is especially a big deal considering this is a debut novel.