The Henna Wars

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Sapphic romance that starts with an instant crush and grows through competing henna businesses disguised as a war. The Henna Wars is a slight tug at one's heartstrings with a sapphic romance budding through the fields of authentic cultural and religious representation along with an excellent portrayal of a young desi lesbian girl challenging the evident cultural appropriation around her. Time included The Henna Wars on their list of the 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time, alongside novels such as Little Women, Lord of the Flies, and The Catcher in the Rye. [17] It was listed as one of the best young adult books of 2020 and 2021 by Teen Vogue, American Library Association, The Irish Times and NPR. [11] [18] [19] [20] The LGBT magazine Autostraddle included it on their list of the "67 Best Queer Books of 2020". [21] Awards [ edit ] Awards and honors for The Henna Wars Year

Muslims aren't gay," she whispers, like this is a hard and fast rule. She's still turned away from me, looking out the window like the outside world will have some solution to my lesbian problem. Bussel, Rachel Kramer. "5 LGBTQ Authors On The Inspiration Behind Their Young Adult And Middle Grade Books". Forbes . Retrieved 30 January 2022. Jaigirdar sets her story in a Catholic Girls' High School in Dublin. Nishat is Bangladeshi, Muslim and gay; she just came out to her parents and was met with an uncomfortable silence, so she is understandably heartbroken at their reaction. This tension at home is in addition to already feeling like a pariah at school, after the most popular girl in her year decided to spread racist rumours about her. It feels like her sister, Priti, is the only one on her side. Enter Flávia. At the start of this book, Flávia blatantly doesn’t understand cultural appropriation, and takes and profits off of the parts of Nishat’s culture she deems cool. This is kind of resolved (?), but not really. It’s more glossed over.i don't really want to go in-depth about this book's discussion about cultural appropriation because I'll probably be like, burned at the stake, but to put it simply, the conversation is extremely repetitive, surface-level and is not productive in any way. like you're not bringing any important discussions to the table if your book is just saying "CULTURAL APPROPRIATION IS BAD!!" over and over again. where's the nuance?? where's the depth? (spoiler: no where to be found)

I am truly in awe of how many faces and layers of racism this book explored very efficiently and tactfully. We have examples of how easily it is for people to turn on you and how even you friends won’t necessarily defend you, we see how people do not like when POC voice their pain and concerns, forever trying to silence us by telling us we are overreacting and when they get uncomfortable, we’re “playing the race card.” Paxson, Caitlyn (30 June 2020). "Mermaids, Werewolves And Witches: Welcome Summer With These 6 New YA Novels". NPR . Retrieved 30 January 2022.i'm not kidding you when i say i was genuinely so excited to read this. the premise sounded so beautiful - a hate-to-love romance between two girls of colour who have a competing henna business... I still have a thing for Taylor Swift, after all- even though I hate all of her white feminism nonsense." Now, I know that sounds heavy - and it was at times - but I have to say that this was a super successful, cute, funny and romantic contemporary. And there is a very happy ending! I laughed a lot and while I think the romance aspect could have been even better by smoothing out a few scenes, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. I enjoyed seeing two girls of colour falling in love. I enjoyed seeing Nishat's parents come around and be supportive. I really enjoyed the queer, Muslim, and overall diverse representation. The Henna Wars is already one of my all-time favourite books and I encourage everyone to read this. and god forbid i offend anyone, but the desperate, and quite frankly, bad, attempts at this book to be politically aware, made this for even more of a difficult read.

One good thing to come out of this is the character development and Flávia’s realisation that her views are flawed, and that she’s also been distancing herself from her own culture due to trying to fit in with her white family members. It also turns out that Flávia’s cousin, whether she realises it or not, has been racist towards Nishat and others – for example, she constantly jokes about Nishat’s Bangladeshi heritage, especially the food she eats, and this leads to others bullying her too. On top of dealing with her parents’ rejection of her sexuality and her new crush, Nishat is challenged with taking part in a school business project. She decides to set up a henna business — but when she discovers Flávia is setting up a henna business too, it throws a spanner in the works. What can Nishat do when she realises Flávia is appropriating her culture? And that she’s also related to — and is working with — a girl that has bullied Nishat for years? How can you feel fully loved and accepted when there’s a part of you that’s different and unwanted in both your homes? How can you feel whole when the separate parts of your identity are supposed to somehow cancel each other out? How can you be Bengali, and lesbian, and Muslim, and not feel like all those things are tearing at you? These are the questions Nishat has to find the answers to, and exactly why ownvoices stories are needed—I’m not sure a queer author or author of color may have captured the nuances of the QPOC experience as well as this. Well, regardless, she's said some stuff and now she's going around with henna on her hands. That's cultural appropriation." Homophobia throughout the story I feel. And that too from family and relatives. Seriously. It made me so angry.Before writing The Henna Wars, Jaigirdar worked on a manuscript for an adult literary novel about grief, but pivoted to the young adult genre after being inspired by writers such as Jenny Han and Sandhya Menon, who wrote young adult fiction about Asian characters. She wrote the manuscript for The Henna Wars in the span of three months, [1] rewriting the ending a total of six times before publication. [2] Als, Amal (26 June 2020). "Navigating queerness & tradition in YA fiction with Adiba Jaigirdar, author of "The Henna Wars" ". The Tempest . Retrieved 30 January 2022.