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A review by astravars
Bend It Like Beckham by Narinder Dhami
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.0
I wanted to like this book, I really did.
I had to read Bend it Like Beckham for english class and I really enjoyed it when I first started reading it. I especially like Jules and I think the topics the book wanted to talk about were handled well. What really bothered me though was the queerbaiting. Now, I don't know if it was intentional so I don't know if it actually was queerbaiting or if it just felt like it for me but either way there was obvious chemistry between Jess and Jules and that combined with the random mention of "she has a crush on that boy" felt really unnecessary and was nothing but annoying. (Plus in the beginning of the book it seemed like there really might be a love story between the two and I as a queer person got my hopes up so when that didn't happen I felt kind of betrayed.)
That alone wouldn't make me rate it 2 stars though so here are some other things I didn't love about the book:
1. The pacing felt a bit off. This might be because the book is so short but the majority of the scenes felt rushed.
2. The characters and the plot both could have been developed a little more in my opinion.
I think adding a few more pages would have made the book a lot better.
I had to read Bend it Like Beckham for english class and I really enjoyed it when I first started reading it. I especially like Jules and I think the topics the book wanted to talk about were handled well. What really bothered me though was the queerbaiting. Now, I don't know if it was intentional so I don't know if it actually was queerbaiting or if it just felt like it for me but either way there was obvious chemistry between Jess and Jules and that combined with the random mention of "she has a crush on that boy" felt really unnecessary and was nothing but annoying. (Plus in the beginning of the book it seemed like there really might be a love story between the two and I as a queer person got my hopes up so when that didn't happen I felt kind of betrayed.)
That alone wouldn't make me rate it 2 stars though so here are some other things I didn't love about the book:
1. The pacing felt a bit off. This might be because the book is so short but the majority of the scenes felt rushed.
2. The characters and the plot both could have been developed a little more in my opinion.
I think adding a few more pages would have made the book a lot better.