A review by fatimak
Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin

fast-paced

3.5

 This book combined so many things I love reading about: food, radio/podcasts and the Muslim experience. 

Overall, my thoughts on this book were mixed – on the one hand, I thought the Muslim representation was really well done (which is the thing I’m always the most hesitant about when reading books with Muslim characters, as unfortunately more often and not they play into stereotypes and end up disappointing). I also really liked the main character, Hana, who is a part-time intern at a radio station, a part-time podcaster and also works part time at her family’s halal Indian food restaurant. Hana is driven, not afraid to stand up for her beliefs and witty (her sense of humour was one of the highlights of this book for me; her banter with some of the other characters was brilliant). The rest of the cast of characters were varied and interesting, and I thought the author did a brilliant job of showcasing different relationships, such as the strong, individual relationships Hana has with each of her family members and friends, as well as the wide variety of healthy, happy Muslim couples depicted throughout this book (the bar is so low with Muslim representation that this felt like a pleasant surprise to come across). A short aside: on the topic of the characters in this book, this feels like such a minor and insignificant point to make, but I found it really weird how Hana almost always refers to her friend as “Beautiful Yusuf” – was that just me?! 

However, where this book fell short for me was in the execution of the various “plot twists” throughout this book. First is the plotline of the mysterious identity of Hana’s internet friend, StanleyP. I really enjoyed the portrayal of internet friendships in this book. Hana and Stanley have such a strong connection and I think many people these days can relate to the experience of getting to know someone online, sharing so much with them and feeling so close and yet not knowing some very basic things about them. In this case, Hana and Stanley do not know any personal details, such as real names, jobs, and where they live, about each other but as their relationship grows stronger, they start to wonder about each other’s identity. All of this, I thought, was tackled really well – except for the fact that pretty much from the very first chapter it’s very predictable who Stanley is going to end up being, which becomes more and more obvious as the book progresses. I started to get quite frustrated at the way the author kept stringing this “mystery” along and Hana remained completely oblivious until the reveal, which we don’t get until the very end of the book and is severely underwhelming. I really wish Stanley had been somebody more unexpected, or even that some red herrings had been thrown in to make us suspect it was somebody else. 

The other main issue I had with the book is the same as the issue I had with the author’s debut book, Ayesha At Last. The author seems to favour big, dramatic scenes at the end of the book, which personally I’m not a fan of. Honestly, the last 20% of the book felt like it went from 0 to 100 really quickly, with completely overdramatic revelations and a few good-old info dumps knocking off at least half a star from my rating. I imagine, though, that some readers will enjoy those kinds of scenes and so by all means don’t let this put you off reading this book. Personally, I would prefer if the author didn’t overdo it with the dramatic endings, but overall, I did enjoy this book and the way it touched on so many important and relevant topics and tackled them well, from the struggles of second generation immigrants to standing up for your values and beliefs to experiencing Islamophobic attacks. I feel like there was a lot of improvement in this book compared to the author’s debut novel, so I’m excited to read any future work of theirs and see how they continue to grow as a writer and the stories they decide to share. 

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings