The Henna Wars, by Adiba Jaigirdar

Hey guys, this is Abi here,

And I think I see a pattern forming.

Last year, I did little to no reviews. Compared to when I first started this blog, the amount of reviews I used to do, like most of what I posted were reviews, even for books I'd already read.

And I think I got sick of them, and I got bored of planning to post reviews.

Now, I'm on my fourth spontaneous review in three reviews.

And that's what I'm going to do:

For the time being, I'm just going to post reviews for books that I want to review, spontaneously.

Okay, epiphany over.

Today I'm writing my review for The Henna Wars, by Adiba Jaigirdar!

Enjoy!

Title: The Henna Wars

Author: Adiba Jaigirdar

Genre: LGBT Romance

Status: Standalone

Pages: 383

Blurb: "Nishat's parents say

she can be anyone

she wants- as long as

she isn't a lesbian.

Nishat's doesn't want to lose her family,

but she also doesn't want to hide who

she is, and it only gets harder once a

childhood friend walks back into her

life. Flavia is beautiful and charismatic,

and Nishat falls for her instantly. But

when a school competition invites students

to create their own businesses,

both Flavia and Nishat decides to show-

case their talents as henna artists. In a

fight to prove who is best, their lives

become more tangled- but Nishat can't

quite get rid of her crush, especially

since Flavia seems to like her back.

As the competition heats up, Nishat

has a decision to make: stay in the

closet for her family, or put aside her

differences with Flavia and give their

relationship a chance."

My Thoughts

I had thoughts on this book before I even read the first page of The Henna Wars. Two thoughts in particular: 1) The cover is beautiful, incredibly simple, yet it very accurately shows what it's all about to any potential readers, and I love that. 2) The message before the story books, forewarning readers about what's included (content warnings are: racism, homophobia, bullying, a character being outed.) It's great to know that it's at the start of the book, so people are forewarned, in case any of those themes are sensitive to them. 

 But when I heard about this novel I was all for it. I was excited to pick up a book that I had heard discusses the issues surrounding being black and gay, especially in our current circumstances. So I was all too eager to pick it up.

Having finished it, I can say that there's a lot to love about this book. The Henna Wars follows a Bengali girl named Nishat, who has to juggle her family's shame and denial to her coming out as a lesbian to them at the start of the novel, as well as the racism and homophobia constantly at school.

Nishat's character was my favourite part of the book honestly. She felt like a very fleshed out character, not rushed at all. All she wants is to be accepted by her parents, and not feel like she has to hide her sexuality like some shameful secret.

Although I don't have a personal experience similar to Nishat's, it was easy to gauge and sympathise with what she was having to deal with. What I liked was that she didn't seem to have just one emotion throughout the entire book, it felt like I was reading the story of a real person, not just a character. She was nervous at social situations, got butterflies at the thought of her crush, and stood up for herself when confronted about her sexuality.

Other than totally falling in love with Nishat's character, the best part for me was the relationships she shared with her sister, Priti, and her crush, Flavia.  I don't know whether I'm just reading the wrong books or what, but one thing I don't see a lot is that sibling love, particularly sisters.

But I love how Priti is always Nishat's cheerleader, it was so dear to see.

Although we didn't see Flavia and Nishat together as much, their romance was a nice relief between all the shite Nishat had to put up with. I liked how for the whole book there was a question of will they kiss, or won't they? As for whether Flavia felt the same as Nishat did? I was on tenterhooks as for what would happen, whether they'd get together, or Nishat would end up without Flavia.

Although there were a lot of heavy issues discussed in The Henna Wars, I feel like the sweet and the shite moments were very well balanced out, and very well-written. I liked how Jaigirdar was able to address social issues whilst keeping it lightweight, not too heavy.

I'm not saying The Henna Wars didn't discuss heavy topics, far from it. I was impressed by how she was also able to incorporate the beliefs of Bangladesh in a critical manner, whilst also showing Nishat's love for her culture.

The only critique I would have for this is that the writing was a bit simple, which is why I rated this 4 stars, instead of 5. There were just a couple of sentences that didn't sit well.

Overall, a wonderful novel, I can't wait to read more of her work, because I thoroughly enjoyed this. I can't wait to see this get the hype it deserves, because it was amazing. I highly recommend to anyone who likes Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda because this read very similar to that.

Right! Those are my thoughts on The Henna Wars, by Adiba Jaigirdar! I hope you enjoyed it, and I feel free to comment down below.

I hope you have a wonderful day and I'll see you all soon.

Byeeeee!

-Abi xxxx