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bookish_selkie 's review for:
Your Driver Is Waiting
by Priya Guns
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Your Driver is Waiting is a fierce and powerful read that is absolutely invigorating. This is a book that isn’t afraid to tackle racism, twisted politics, and performative allyship. Damani is a Sri Lankan driver for a rideshare app that is predatory and inflicts terrible demands on its drivers. As protests rock the city, Damani meets a beautiful rider named Jolene. Yet when the heat turns up and the protests become personal, Damani is left struggling to deal with the fallout from one pivotal night.
This book is an intense whirlwind. The writing feels gritty and realistic; Damani felt like a relatable and genuine character. I really enjoyed the writing style; it was darkly sarcastic and poignant. Damani is in a losing battle and she knows it; she must fight every day simply for the right to exist. She doesn’t even have time to properly mourn her father, who died suddenly while working at his job. This was heartbreaking, especially when another character compared Damani’s loss to the loss of her dog. And yet, we all know someone like this! Jolene is performative, narcissistic, and relates everything to her own pain. There was such bitter irony when Jolene organized protests for the rideshare drivers and yet Damani was unable to attend. She literally could not stop driving in order to take care of herself and her mom!
Priya Guns did an excellent job of weaving in Damani’s relationship struggles with her mother. They often fight due to her mother’s disapproval for LGBTQ+ people and Damani's choices, yet find themselves united in bottomless grief. Damani must take care of her mother when her mother struggles to leave the apartment and perform daily tasks such as feeding herself. Despite these intense struggles (caretaking is a second job), Damani always does her best to take care of her mother at serious cost to her own well-being. I enjoyed how Damani came to terms with and explored her relationship with queerness (especially her haircut!).
Your Driver is Waiting is a fervent and passionate shout into the world. This would be such a good book club pick; I definitely found myself wanting to discuss it and wondered what happened next to the characters. Thank you to Priya Guns, Doubleday, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This book is an intense whirlwind. The writing feels gritty and realistic; Damani felt like a relatable and genuine character. I really enjoyed the writing style; it was darkly sarcastic and poignant. Damani is in a losing battle and she knows it; she must fight every day simply for the right to exist. She doesn’t even have time to properly mourn her father, who died suddenly while working at his job. This was heartbreaking, especially when another character compared Damani’s loss to the loss of her dog. And yet, we all know someone like this! Jolene is performative, narcissistic, and relates everything to her own pain. There was such bitter irony when Jolene organized protests for the rideshare drivers and yet Damani was unable to attend. She literally could not stop driving in order to take care of herself and her mom!
Priya Guns did an excellent job of weaving in Damani’s relationship struggles with her mother. They often fight due to her mother’s disapproval for LGBTQ+ people and Damani's choices, yet find themselves united in bottomless grief. Damani must take care of her mother when her mother struggles to leave the apartment and perform daily tasks such as feeding herself. Despite these intense struggles (caretaking is a second job), Damani always does her best to take care of her mother at serious cost to her own well-being. I enjoyed how Damani came to terms with and explored her relationship with queerness (especially her haircut!).
Your Driver is Waiting is a fervent and passionate shout into the world. This would be such a good book club pick; I definitely found myself wanting to discuss it and wondered what happened next to the characters. Thank you to Priya Guns, Doubleday, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.