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A review by whitneymouse
American Betiya by Anuradha D. Rajurkar
Did not finish book.
**Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's/Knopf Books for Young Readers for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. This in no way changed my opinions of the book**
I tried so hard to like this book. I wanted to like it. A friend who's opinion I respect quite a bit told me I would love it.
I didn't. I've been trying for the better part of a year to finish this and have just lost interest every time I go back in to finish it. The main protagonist, Rani, is a photographer who falls for what feels like literally the first boy to look at her some type of way. We barely meet Oliver before she's falling all over him. And he's not anything special. He's suuuuuuper boring. They begin secretly dating because her parents don't want her to date. He also is very clueless about her ethnic background, which leads to some tension and some issues (even early on in the book). The exploration of interracial relationships and that cultural tension and identity should be themes I identify with as the biracial child of an interracial relationship who had figure out along the way where I fit into the cultures I was born into. But when the protagonist AND the love interest are both as interesting as watching paint dry, I can't. There are other books that explore these themes that are also engaging. I don't care enough about either of these characters to continue to force myself to finish their story for the book's sake, unfortunately.
I tried so hard to like this book. I wanted to like it. A friend who's opinion I respect quite a bit told me I would love it.
I didn't. I've been trying for the better part of a year to finish this and have just lost interest every time I go back in to finish it. The main protagonist, Rani, is a photographer who falls for what feels like literally the first boy to look at her some type of way. We barely meet Oliver before she's falling all over him. And he's not anything special. He's suuuuuuper boring. They begin secretly dating because her parents don't want her to date. He also is very clueless about her ethnic background, which leads to some tension and some issues (even early on in the book). The exploration of interracial relationships and that cultural tension and identity should be themes I identify with as the biracial child of an interracial relationship who had figure out along the way where I fit into the cultures I was born into. But when the protagonist AND the love interest are both as interesting as watching paint dry, I can't. There are other books that explore these themes that are also engaging. I don't care enough about either of these characters to continue to force myself to finish their story for the book's sake, unfortunately.