A review by emilyeehaw
The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar

  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
overall, i enjoyed this book! for the most part, i flew through it and found the writing, while a little simple at times, to help with moving through the story quickly. there were a couple things i struggled with in the plot, for example feeling like nishat was almost too forgiving of some the shenanigans she had to deal with, but in a weird way....same, sometimes we don't get perfect apologies and still choose to forgive and move on...but in the story i wanted her to just go apeshit on all the people being shitty to her. chyna...especially...ma'am i have my eye on you...choke!

i thought this was such an interesting and accessible approach to the discussion around cultural appropriation. 

i did tear up a little bit throughout this book, just due to all the awful situations nishat was dealing with, in addition to when her parents slowly started coming around to her being a lesbian. the scene where they were watching ellen....made me so emotional bc that's the exact thing my mom did when i first came out to her. WHICH reminds me!! love some good lesbian rep in books, it made me happy to see nishat so sure of herself and her sexuality. 
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