Take a photo of a barcode or cover
wordsofclover 's review for:
The Other Half of Happiness
by Ayisha Malik
I received a free digital copy from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
I’m not even sure where to start with this book because I just feel so disappointed in it and I’m still working through my feelings and trying to accept how flat and downright depressed I was after finishing this book.
The Other Half of Happiness is the second book in the Sofia Khan series and starts off with Sofia in Karachi, Pakistan, and dealing with a whole load of new changes in her life.
This book started to feel off to me from the very start when we find out that Sofia is staying around a dingy apartment all day while Conall is off doing humanitarian work. At the end of the first book, Sofia left to get involved in this and I couldn’t figure out why she no longer helped out, or had she ever helped out with this or when she reconnected with Conall, all those plans fell to the wayside.
Then immediately, things start becoming really tense and frustrating. I was frustrated with multiple characters in this book for about 98% of it, mostly Sofia for just NOT USING HER WORDS. She lets people make decisions for her all the time, and then she will let others let her make the wrong decisions for herself and dictate her life at times and I hate it. She was guilty of this in the first book but I felt by the end she had grown but she went five steps backwards in this book.
The tension between Conall and Sofia from the start was just forced and annoying. There seemed to be a lot of problems for them made up in thin air. Conall not taking time off to attend his own damn wedding was just insane, and I couldn’t figure out his logical reasons for being so obstinate and infuriating. I also hated the Hamida thing thrown in, and there was obvious tension between her and Conall and then of course she ends up being gay?! But she still follows him around, butts into his business with his wife and acts like she’s in love with him and wants Sofia out of the picture. AND then she has the tenacity to blackmail Sofia into divorcing Conall? This is not a nice person people.
In book one, there was a few mentions of Muslim radicals and ‘fundos’ but they were often brought up in a humorous way and in a way that made it clear that this is something an average, normal Muslim family worry about and discuss. I liked the honesty about this but i liked that Ayisha Malik was also able to include it in a comedic way. However, in this book there was so much emphasis on the possibility of Conall becoming a “fundo”and while part of this was used to show how people can misunderstand what it is to be openly religious and talk about your faith and still be a normal person, I just felt like it was brought up way too much and it just became irritating. As was the times Sofia was told that Conall only converted for her - because she never asked him to do that, and she shouldn’t have to deal with guilt of ‘changing’ someone when all he did was find a faith he could connect with and something that could help heal him.
Conall’s character was just completely off for me. He was not the Conall I fell in love with in the first book. Nothing in the first book about him made the fact he had a secret family make sense. And come on, the kid having cancer? Total overload.
When Sakib entered the story in literally the first chapter, I knew what was coming down the road. It was so predictable and annoying. While he wasn’t necessarily a bad character and perhaps in the long run he would be good for Sofia, he’s not Conall. And he’s so serious too. I also didn’t like the way he was so quick to tell Sofia she had to give up the business if she was thinking of finding Conall.
The few things I did like in this book: Her mom’s storyline was great and I loved how she shrugged off people’s opinions and finally focused on her own happiness. Sofia’s interactions with Conall’s dad, particularly when he walked in on her ablutions and was very concerned that she dry her feet properly. I also like that Sofia helped create a publishing company that was focused on publishing Muslim authors.
Side note: Would have liked to have had some kind of detail about how Sofia’s first book did in sales? It was published and then we literally heard nothing about it.
The end of this book just felt like a bit of a kick in the teeth to be honest.
I’m not even sure where to start with this book because I just feel so disappointed in it and I’m still working through my feelings and trying to accept how flat and downright depressed I was after finishing this book.
The Other Half of Happiness is the second book in the Sofia Khan series and starts off with Sofia in Karachi, Pakistan, and dealing with a whole load of new changes in her life.
This book started to feel off to me from the very start when we find out that Sofia is staying around a dingy apartment all day while Conall is off doing humanitarian work. At the end of the first book, Sofia left to get involved in this and I couldn’t figure out why she no longer helped out, or had she ever helped out with this or when she reconnected with Conall, all those plans fell to the wayside.
Then immediately, things start becoming really tense and frustrating. I was frustrated with multiple characters in this book for about 98% of it, mostly Sofia for just NOT USING HER WORDS. She lets people make decisions for her all the time, and then she will let others let her make the wrong decisions for herself and dictate her life at times and I hate it. She was guilty of this in the first book but I felt by the end she had grown but she went five steps backwards in this book.
The tension between Conall and Sofia from the start was just forced and annoying. There seemed to be a lot of problems for them made up in thin air. Conall not taking time off to attend his own damn wedding was just insane, and I couldn’t figure out his logical reasons for being so obstinate and infuriating. I also hated the Hamida thing thrown in, and there was obvious tension between her and Conall and then of course she ends up being gay?! But she still follows him around, butts into his business with his wife and acts like she’s in love with him and wants Sofia out of the picture. AND then she has the tenacity to blackmail Sofia into divorcing Conall? This is not a nice person people.
In book one, there was a few mentions of Muslim radicals and ‘fundos’ but they were often brought up in a humorous way and in a way that made it clear that this is something an average, normal Muslim family worry about and discuss. I liked the honesty about this but i liked that Ayisha Malik was also able to include it in a comedic way. However, in this book there was so much emphasis on the possibility of Conall becoming a “fundo”and while part of this was used to show how people can misunderstand what it is to be openly religious and talk about your faith and still be a normal person, I just felt like it was brought up way too much and it just became irritating. As was the times Sofia was told that Conall only converted for her - because she never asked him to do that, and she shouldn’t have to deal with guilt of ‘changing’ someone when all he did was find a faith he could connect with and something that could help heal him.
Conall’s character was just completely off for me. He was not the Conall I fell in love with in the first book. Nothing in the first book about him made the fact he had a secret family make sense. And come on, the kid having cancer? Total overload.
When Sakib entered the story in literally the first chapter, I knew what was coming down the road. It was so predictable and annoying. While he wasn’t necessarily a bad character and perhaps in the long run he would be good for Sofia, he’s not Conall. And he’s so serious too. I also didn’t like the way he was so quick to tell Sofia she had to give up the business if she was thinking of finding Conall.
The few things I did like in this book: Her mom’s storyline was great and I loved how she shrugged off people’s opinions and finally focused on her own happiness. Sofia’s interactions with Conall’s dad, particularly when he walked in on her ablutions and was very concerned that she dry her feet properly. I also like that Sofia helped create a publishing company that was focused on publishing Muslim authors.
Side note: Would have liked to have had some kind of detail about how Sofia’s first book did in sales? It was published and then we literally heard nothing about it.
The end of this book just felt like a bit of a kick in the teeth to be honest.