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A review by thatotherjlo
Sunny G's Series of Rash Decisions by Navdeep Singh Dhillon
emotional
hopeful
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? It's complicated
3.25
The premise of this book is deceptively simple: in the wake of his brother's death, Sunny decides to make more rash decisions, starting with shaving off his beard and choosing to go to his school's prom instead of going to a fandom party with his friends. The entire story plays out over the course of that one night, on the anniversary of his brother's death. As the night develops, though, the story transforms into a young man's journey through grief and his attempts to make sense of his own faith and place in the world while in the diaspora.
I don't often read one-night or one-day stories, as I find they are difficult to pull of; there is just a very limited amount of character development that can realistically take place in such a short window. This novel suffers from that same issue, which it resolves by subordinating all other aspects of the narrative to Sunny's character study. If the transitions between activities throughout the night seem choppy or frenetic, or if Mindii seems to play the role of the manic pixie dream girl, it's because they are just there to carry Sunny from one thought, experience, or epiphany to the next.
It was these moments of introspection, where we saw the complexity of Sunny's thoughts and experiences through his journey in grief, that I found most enjoyable, especially when Dhillon brings in memories of the past to help create the arc of Sunny's character development. Sunny's memory of how Goldy (his brother) was obsessed with etymology, for instance, which frustrated Sunny at the time (it made prayer take forever!), becomes a source of connection on this night, when Sunny uses etymology to impress Mistii during one discussion. I found that moment a striking parallel to Sunny's reflection of his parents' own experiences with Goldy's death early in the novel, when Sunny recalls with frustration how Goldy "volunteered one time to serve food at the community kitchen, and Mamma and Papa won't stop bringing it up, like he cured world hunger or something and didn't relapse a couple weeks later." At the beginning of the novel, Sunny can't understand why his parents can find solace in a memory that he found infuriating, yet by the end of the novel he goes through the same experience himself.
I think Sunny's realization that his parents, too, are struggling with the complex journey through grieving Goldy (as compared to his claim earlier in the book that "maybe that's why we never talk about Goldy, because for Mama and Papa, it's over, he's just gone") is a beautiful close to the evening. I appreciated that the novel did not wrap up with a perfect resolution, which would have felt unearned and a bit of a deus ex machina moment for a one-night story; Sunny's relationship with Goldy's memory and death are still complicated, and he is still contemplating how Sikh beliefs on death do not seem to align with his own experiences with it. But Sunny no longer feels alone in those experiences, as he learns to lean on his parents and friends through them, and to not be in such a hurry to make sense of it all.
This novel is not subtle and you can predict fairly easily what the beats of the story will be (as a result, I really struggled with what to mark as a spoiler!). But is that not generally true of coming-of-age stories? This is a young adult book, after all, and it gladdens me to know that young adults now have this story in their shelves, to help them make sense of their journeys, too.
I don't often read one-night or one-day stories, as I find they are difficult to pull of; there is just a very limited amount of character development that can realistically take place in such a short window. This novel suffers from that same issue, which it resolves by subordinating all other aspects of the narrative to Sunny's character study. If the transitions between activities throughout the night seem choppy or frenetic, or if Mindii seems to play the role of the manic pixie dream girl, it's because they are just there to carry Sunny from one thought, experience, or epiphany to the next.
It was these moments of introspection, where we saw the complexity of Sunny's thoughts and experiences through his journey in grief, that I found most enjoyable, especially when Dhillon brings in memories of the past to help create the arc of Sunny's character development. Sunny's memory of how Goldy (his brother) was obsessed with etymology, for instance, which frustrated Sunny at the time (it made prayer take forever!), becomes a source of connection on this night, when Sunny uses etymology to impress Mistii during one discussion. I found that moment a striking parallel to Sunny's reflection of his parents' own experiences with Goldy's death early in the novel, when Sunny recalls with frustration how Goldy "volunteered one time to serve food at the community kitchen, and Mamma and Papa won't stop bringing it up, like he cured world hunger or something and didn't relapse a couple weeks later." At the beginning of the novel, Sunny can't understand why his parents can find solace in a memory that he found infuriating, yet by the end of the novel he goes through the same experience himself.
This novel is not subtle and you can predict fairly easily what the beats of the story will be (as a result, I really struggled with what to mark as a spoiler!). But is that not generally true of coming-of-age stories? This is a young adult book, after all, and it gladdens me to know that young adults now have this story in their shelves, to help them make sense of their journeys, too.