Reviews with content warning for Racial slurs - Sofia Khan is Not Obliged

This book is absolutely what it claims to be - the Muslim Bridget Jones.

I probably wouldn't have picked this book up if I'd known it was written in diary format, as I usually find this style of narrative quite cringeworthy and frustrating, but that's not the case here. Sofia has a lively, funny, and engaging voice, and this book is a delight to read.

The book captures so many issues beautifully - it's filled with female friendship, dealing with family and work pressures, multicultural living, handling racism, and developing your own faith in a way that feels right and comfortable to you. It's much more than just a romcom - although I did very much enjoy the romance arc of the book. Sometimes it can feel like the major themes aren't dipped into very deeply, and it's more of a surface-level skim, but that feels completely well suited to the genre and the tone of the book. It's not designed to be heavy hitting, just to encourage a little extra consideration in the reader.

Plotwise, things are pretty predictable. The writing is good, but occasionally short sections don't make an awful lot of sense, something which feels like it could've been rectified during editing, but it's not a major problem.

As some other reviewers have mentioned, there's a fair amount of fat-shaming, which is one aspect of the Bridget Jones-esque writing mode that I really could have lived without. It would have been good to see the book engage critically with how fat shaming culture exists within Sofia's community, but instead it feels very internalised, and she just comes across as self-loathing in this particular respect, with a frustrating lack of character development.

The insights into Muslim faith are particularly excellent, because the book focuses so closely on Sofia's own, personal faith. The author does an excellent job of reminding the reader that everyone's religious experience is a highly individual thing, and that you can't learn well through stereotyping and generalisms.

The characters absolutely drive this book. I particularly loved Sofia, her family, and her girl gang. Her work circle and her final love interest feel a little underdeveloped, but I have hope that we might find out more about them in the next book, which I started immediately after finishing this one!

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foreverbookwandering's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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hatterell's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Sofia's perspective is a great one to read from, but the level of interest I had in her story fluctuated throughout the novel. The diary format seemed unnecessary to me and was consistently confusing. However, I liked her interactions at work and particularly the humorous way her family was portrayed - I think those were some of my favourite scenes.

Sofia's colleague Katie was a nice character, but beyond that none of her friends felt fleshed out much beyond their boy troubles. As I reader I felt that I came to conclusions long before Sofia did, for example realising that Naim wasn't good for her, which was frustrating as she is a much older protagonist than me.

I'd read other books by this author in the future, as I enjoyed the perspective and reading about Muslim families in Britain, especially the dating/marriage scene, but I don't think I'll go any further in this series. I loved Conall, but he wasn't in it enough to justify me picking up the next one.

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fayereadsbooks's review against another edition

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funny informative lighthearted medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was great. It is one of my reading goals for 2021 to read a wider range of diverse books and this book fulfilled this perfectly. I didn't know very much about Muslim relationships and dating before and now have some base knowledge on this topic. As expected with a book following Muslim characters, i also know more about what religion means to Muslims and how it effects their daily life (Sofia's decision to wear the hijab and praying five times daily etc.). This book is a perfect example of an Own Voices (a book about Muslims written by a Muslim author).

This book was funny, light-hearted and just lovely. My favourite character was Connell. I also love how family and friendship was represented in this book. I really enjoyed it and stayed up late to continue reading as I really wanted to know what would happen next.

I liked that this book was written in a diary-like format, as it meant I could read it in manageable small chunks, rather than pages and pages of solid text.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes funny books, anyone who would like to learn more about Muslim life and relationships and anyone who loves contemporary books.

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helendipietro's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

I was really looking forward to reading this but unfortunately it didn’t live up to my expectations. It is light hearted and funny in places but I found it to be quite boring. I’ve read some absolute crackers this past year so could be that I’m comparing it to them. The mix of writing formats throughout (letters, notes, texts, thoughts etc) made it quite jolted to read. However, I did enjoy learning about the experiences of a young Muslim woman in today’s world and can see why other people would enjoy it.

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