Happy Alison Bechdel’s birthday!
If you’re not sure how to celebrate (and you’ve already read Fun Home), why not read a sapphic YA novel that passes the Bechdel test with flying colors?
I’m not sure if books like this existed when I was a YA reader, but reading it made me wish that someone had given me this one when I was 14.
I would’ve learned about bisexuality almost a decade earlier, which would’ve saved me a lot of time down the road. I also would’ve been introduced to a 16-year-old lesbian protagonist who’s so sure of who she is and unafraid to stand up for her beliefs that you can’t help but root for her.
If I had any teenagers in my life, I’d absolutely be giving them this book.
But even as an adult, I enjoyed reading it and being all 🥺 for a few hundred pages.
— Becca
The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar
Fiction, May 2020
Going into this book, I expected a classic rivals to lovers story.
And while the trope is sort of there, there’s a lot more to the story—like cultural appropriation, homophobia, racism, sisterly love, and lots and lots of Bengali culture.
Here’s the basic premise:
Nishat is Bangladeshi and decides to start a henna business for a business competition at school. Her crush, Flávia, who is not Bangladeshi (she’s Brazilian and Irish), also decides to start a henna business with her awful cousin, and claims that it’s okay because “it’s just a type of art.”
Around the same time, Nishat comes out to her parents. Their reaction is a full-on silent treatment, followed by a conversation in which she’s told that “Muslims aren’t gay.”
Her sister, Priti, has her back through all of it and their relationship was one of the highlights of the book for me. It’s so sweet and supportive, with just a dash of sisterly bickering thrown in to keep things realistic.
Given that this is YA, I appreciated how clearly the issues with cultural appropriation are laid out. Even younger readers who might be learning about it for the first time will be seething on Nishat’s behalf.
They’ll also be seething on every page that involves Flávia’s cousin, Chyna. She’s white and was given her name solely because her parents met in China, which is the perfect origin story for this particular villain.
I loved how big of a role Bengali culture plays in the story, beyond serving as a plot point for Nishat’s conflict with Flávia. There’s a gorgeous Bengali wedding, tons of delicious-sounding food, and a few pop culture references I was happy to Google.
At the same time, the book also tackles the homophobia in Bangladesh, which is so pervasive that Nishat’s parents tell her to not “choose” to be a lesbian because it would bring shame on the family. Jaigirdar takes a nuanced approach to this, and the end result is a character who’s able to love and feel connected to her culture while still recognizing its flaws.
Of course, Nishat is a lesbian, and she has a gigantic crush on Flávia.
The book does a phenomenal job of capturing how all-consuming it is to be a 16 year old with a crush. The sweaty palms, that heart-in-your-throat feeling, the complete inability to string sentences together in that person’s presence... it’s all here.
My only real complaint is that some parts of the story tie up a little too neatly at the end, while others are left unresolved entirely. But ultimately, I was still left going 🥺—and for that reason, I will let the other details slide.
Queer points:
+4 for the line “holding hands with her is better than biryani”
+5 for two characters watching Ellen DeGeneres interview Ellen Page to learn about lesbians
Buy it from Cafe con Libros