The Henna Wars

by Adiba Jaigirdar

Paperback, 2021

Status

Available

Call number

813.6

Genres

Publication

Hodder Children's Books (2021), 400 pages

Description

Romance. Humor (Fiction.) Young Adult Fiction. LGBTQIA+ (Fiction.) HTML:When Dimple Met Rishi meets Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda in this romantic comedy about two teen girls with rival henna businesses. Nishat 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. Flávia is beautiful and charismatic, and Nishat falls for her instantly. But when a school competition invites students to create their own businesses, both Flávia and Nishat decide to showcase their talent as henna artists. In a fight to prove who is the best, their lives become more tangled-but Nishat can't quite get rid of her crush, especially since Flávia 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 Flávia and give their relationship a… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member deslivres5

High school drama revolving around one semester of high school life of Nishat, a Bangladesh born, Dublin-based junior year student, her family, friends, enemies and a school business course.

Nishat comes out to her parents who grapple with the information, while Nishat has her hands full wih trying

her best at winning the business course competition with her henna design business. The competition puts her at odds with her best friends and a potential romantic interest.

I found it strange that the novel was based in Ireland, but the narrator did the Irish voices with an American accent.

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LibraryThing member banjo123

This is a young adult novel with lots of sweetness to it, but as I am not the target audience, I got bored, and wished that it had been more heavily edited.

Nishat is a 16 year old Bangladeshi living in Dublin. The book covers her coming out to her parents, an initial negative reaction; her first

love interest; a close relationship with her sister; peer relationships; and a myriad of cultural issues with a big focus on cultural appropriation.

I think it would be a good book for a LGBTQ teen, especially one from an immigrant or refugee family.

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LibraryThing member electrascaife

Nishat is entering her Transition Year in her Irish high school, has just come out to her parents with unhappy results, and has a crush on her worst enemy's cousin. So when a business project is announced as also a competition for a nice cash prize at school, she dives into it with a distracting

passion for winning with her henna designing business plan. Her crush and her enemy team up and decide also to offer a henna business, though, (one of them unaware of the tone deafness of the gesture and the other very maliciously aware of it) and Nishat's short-lived happiness comes crashing down in a spiral of cultural appropriation mixed with homophobia and racism, and she worries whether her friendships, her crush, and her family ties will survive. This one was slightly rough going for me at first - I found the actions of the bully almost too frustrating to keep reading - but it smooths out in the end and turns out to be a fair YA novel on the subjects. Not a favorite, but I'm certainly not unhappy that I read it.

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LibraryThing member Vanessa_Menezes

An amazing debut book which is a light read but also covers some serious important issues!

LibraryThing member ToniFGMAMTC

This story is made for younger readers than me, but I liked it way more than most books for younger readers. Also it is so diverse without taking away from the plot of the story. Sometimes it feels like stories are trying so hard they forget to have a good plot. That didn't happen here. The setting

is Ireland, but it has characters from Korea, Brazil and Bangladesh. The school where much of the story takes place is a Catholic school, but the main character is Muslim. Also the story works in the importance of respecting someone's culture in a way that adds to the storyline instead of being preachy. Nishat's family is from Southern Asia but live in Ireland. She comes out as a lesbian. It's tough for her parents to accept but they do love her. The relationship she and her sister have is a real plus also. I love how close they were. Nishat likes a girl named Flávia. Flávia's mother is from Brazil and black. Her father is from Ireland and white. Flávia's white cousin has made Nishat's school life difficult. I recommend this for middle school up to adult. It helps show ways to respect everyone's differences while also showing how alike growing up can be for everyone.

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LibraryThing member wyvernfriend

Nishat is going into Transition Year. Trying to deal with her lesbianism and family and cultural issues. She's also dealing with the changes of moving from Junior Certificate to Leaving Certificate and where she wants to be in the future. She fully knows that coming out to her parents will cause

issues but she does need to do this for herself. As part of her transition year she does a project about creating a business. Flavia is back in Nishat's life, and the attraction is palpable. However Flavia is the cousin of Nishat's school rival Chyna, which adds to the tension. Nishat has a great idea about using henna art and ends up finding love and going up against racism and prejudice and a chunk of cultural appropriation.
It's an interesting look at growing up other in Ireland and having to deal with layered predujice and with life lessons. It was a good read.

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LibraryThing member Dairyqueen84

This is probably more of a 3.5 stars. This is a solid addition to LGBTQIA literature because of its cultural perspective. Nishat is a Muslim, Bangladeshi going to an all girls, Irish, Catholic school who has just come out to her immigrant parents. I like how Jaigirdar wove in Bangladeshi traditions

like wedding rites, mendi, family traditions, and more. A couple of things niggled at me that were no fault of the author but of the editing. I listened to this and the narrator was pretty good.

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LibraryThing member MiserableFlower

Cute story, would have preferred this as book rather than audio book simply so I would know how to spell the words I needed to look up. I like the enemies to friends trope, I just find Nishat a little overly dramatic. A bit of a younger age reading demographic than intended for me, but its nice for

its variety.

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