Scan barcode
A review by arayofreading
More Than Just a Pretty Face by Syed M. Masood
3.0
*3 Stars*
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me this e-arc for review!
I have had such a hard time rating this. I noticed many flaws while reading but I won't lie and say I didn't enjoy it. I think it came down to I loved many of the ideas that the author was going for but wasn't completely sold on the execution.
A big portion of this novel deals with Danyal learning about the dark side of Winston Churchill's history (namely the Bengal Famine) and deciding whether he should paint Churchill in a positive light and appease his history teacher, or discuss the truth and risk his grade and thus upset his family. I thought this was a really interesting conflict and I loved how it related to what was going on in Danyal's personal life.
The romance in this book is so sweet, albeit it does a back seat to the other conflicts going on. I didn't mind this, and I liked how slow and subtle it developed. Bisma and Danyal were so supportive of each other and brought out the best in the other. I also liked how Danyal's long-time crush, Kaval, who is very pretty and comes from a rich family, fit into the story. I love when books deconstruct the fantasies and idealizations that come with infatuation, and I thought the story had a really good message about how compromises can only go so far until a relationship becomes toxic.
I also surprisingly liked the messiness of Danyal's friend group and the struggle that comes with trying to maintain friendships when people have grown and changed. It was very realistic but not discouraging, which I appreciated.
The flaws I have with the book mainly stem from the writing style, which I thought was pretty hit or miss. It was funny a lot of times and there were definitely scenes where I found myself smiling. However, sometimes things that were supposed to be jovial just came across as weirdly cruel, and some of the explanations for Islamic/cultural practices were trying to be funny but just didn't land for me. Perhaps this is a me problem but the dialogue also often lacked notes on intonation which made what could have been fun encounters monotonous or awkward.
I was annoyed at some of the seemingly random philosophical moments we would get from side characters that we barely knew, like the head chef of the restaurant Danyal works at. Even some moments between the main characters felt out of place, and those took me out of the story.
For the most part I liked Danyal's characterization but sometimes I think the author went a little heavy-handed with trying to show how not smart he was. I was under the impression that he was just not book smart but could excel at things he was passionate about like cooking, but he wouldn't know common words or phrases like "progress" or "break a leg" which felt a little inconsistent. (I also didn't like how many times people called him stupid in one way or another, it felt so unnecessarily cruel at times).
I was a little annoyed with the characterization of Sohrab, Danyal's friend, because it fell into this stereotype of practicing Muslims not being able to have fun and judging others. For example, at one point he questions why anyone would read for fun instead reading to learn and educate, but I mean,
you can choose to read religious texts in your free time but still understand why some people don't? The story does actually give him a little more depth later on into understanding why he acts the way he does, but it was still a little upsetting to see this stereotype.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me this e-arc for review!
I have had such a hard time rating this. I noticed many flaws while reading but I won't lie and say I didn't enjoy it. I think it came down to I loved many of the ideas that the author was going for but wasn't completely sold on the execution.
A big portion of this novel deals with Danyal learning about the dark side of Winston Churchill's history (namely the Bengal Famine) and deciding whether he should paint Churchill in a positive light and appease his history teacher, or discuss the truth and risk his grade and thus upset his family. I thought this was a really interesting conflict and I loved how it related to what was going on in Danyal's personal life.
The romance in this book is so sweet, albeit it does a back seat to the other conflicts going on. I didn't mind this, and I liked how slow and subtle it developed. Bisma and Danyal were so supportive of each other and brought out the best in the other. I also liked how Danyal's long-time crush, Kaval, who is very pretty and comes from a rich family, fit into the story. I love when books deconstruct the fantasies and idealizations that come with infatuation, and I thought the story had a really good message about how compromises can only go so far until a relationship becomes toxic.
I also surprisingly liked the messiness of Danyal's friend group and the struggle that comes with trying to maintain friendships when people have grown and changed. It was very realistic but not discouraging, which I appreciated.
The flaws I have with the book mainly stem from the writing style, which I thought was pretty hit or miss. It was funny a lot of times and there were definitely scenes where I found myself smiling. However, sometimes things that were supposed to be jovial just came across as weirdly cruel, and some of the explanations for Islamic/cultural practices were trying to be funny but just didn't land for me. Perhaps this is a me problem but the dialogue also often lacked notes on intonation which made what could have been fun encounters monotonous or awkward.
I was annoyed at some of the seemingly random philosophical moments we would get from side characters that we barely knew, like the head chef of the restaurant Danyal works at. Even some moments between the main characters felt out of place, and those took me out of the story.
For the most part I liked Danyal's characterization but sometimes I think the author went a little heavy-handed with trying to show how not smart he was. I was under the impression that he was just not book smart but could excel at things he was passionate about like cooking, but he wouldn't know common words or phrases like "progress" or "break a leg" which felt a little inconsistent. (I also didn't like how many times people called him stupid in one way or another, it felt so unnecessarily cruel at times).
I was a little annoyed with the characterization of Sohrab, Danyal's friend, because it fell into this stereotype of practicing Muslims not being able to have fun and judging others. For example, at one point he questions why anyone would read for fun instead reading to learn and educate, but I mean,
you can choose to read religious texts in your free time but still understand why some people don't? The story does actually give him a little more depth later on into understanding why he acts the way he does, but it was still a little upsetting to see this stereotype.