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zinelib 's review for:
The Henna Wars
by Adiba Jaigirdar
The protagonist in this queer brown girl YA, Nishat is Bengali-Irish. Her family is Bengali, and they live in Dublin. The love interest, Flávia, is Brazilian-Irish--Brazilian mom and Irish dad. As a side note, it is interesting to learn that Ireland is not the red-headed monoculture an ignorant American might think it is.
I just read an angry zine about being a lesbian in Ireland, which apparently is not the most enlightened country, so I expected more societal issues about Nishat's coming out journey. Instead the judgment comes from her family, and a cur of a competitive, bigoted schoolmate named Chyna.
In Nishat's corner is her younger sister, Priti and her friends Jess and Chaewon, the latter Korean-Irish. All the white kids disappoint the brown kids at one point or another, but they mostly come around. Although the characters are mostly 16, the story reads a little middle-gradesy, so if MG is your jam and YA isn't, give The Henna Wars a try.
I just read an angry zine about being a lesbian in Ireland, which apparently is not the most enlightened country, so I expected more societal issues about Nishat's coming out journey. Instead the judgment comes from her family, and a cur of a competitive, bigoted schoolmate named Chyna.
In Nishat's corner is her younger sister, Priti and her friends Jess and Chaewon, the latter Korean-Irish. All the white kids disappoint the brown kids at one point or another, but they mostly come around. Although the characters are mostly 16, the story reads a little middle-gradesy, so if MG is your jam and YA isn't, give The Henna Wars a try.