This book was one of my most anticipated books of the year, and while it didn't completely live up to all my expectations (they may have been a bit too high) it was still a really great book and an impressive debut.
This follows our main character Nishat, who lived in Bangladesh until she was 10 but then her family moved to Dublin, Ireland. At the beginning of this book, Nishat decides to come out as a lesbian to her parents and it doesn't go to plan. She decides to set up a henna business as part of her school project, and then to her dismay, her crush, Flavia, decides to go into competitive business with her by creating her own henna business despite it not being part of her culture. So we follow a confused and frustrated Nishat as she tries to navigate this difficult year of her life.
What I Liked:
-Female/Female enemies to lovers? Yes please. At first Flavia wasn't totally likeable, and I was worried that I wouldn't root for their relationship but I think it developed really well and I ended up loving their romance. It definitely had a natural progression and was a learning experience for both the girls and it was amazing.
-The writing was amazing. For a debut author, this was even more impressive. The dialogue was natural, the prose felt personal and engaging, and at no point did it feel forced or like the author was trying too hard to "relate" to teenagers.
-I loved the relationship between Nishat and her sister, Priti. It was such a supportive sibling relationship, and I always love books with sisters who have a really strong bond. They loved each other, and even though they argued, they were there for each other as much as they could be and it was so lovely to see.
-I loved how much culture was included in this book. I didn't know all that much about Bengali culture and I appreciated that it didn't seem 'watered down'. I am white so I don't feel like it's my place to talk too much about this, but it was really nice to see a f/f romance between two WOC and I really did learn a lot from this book.
What I Didn't Like:
-My main issue with this book was that this was another queer book with a public and non consensual outing. I get really fed up with so many outings that the characters didn't want, and it just feels very tiring to have the same terrible thing happen to so many queer people in books. This also was just quite generally full of homophobia, and while this did have a 'happy' ending, it was quite difficult to read. I just wanted things to go well for Nishat.
-My other problem was that I don't feel like we got to know Nishat enough. Despite this being told in first person, I just don't feel Nishat's personality came through fully. If you asked me to describe her personality, pretty much all I could say is that she's resilient and loves her family and culture. I just think she needed a bit more depth.
Overall, this was a very impressive debut that was an extremely solid read. It was great to see more lesbian representation, and I really loved the romance. I would definitely recommend picking it up in May when it's released.