A review by the_tea_collector22
The Marvelous Mirza Girls by Sheba Karim
2.0
CW: discussion of sexual assault & harassment, MeToo, victim blaming, mention of hate crimes based off people's faith, mention of Islamophobia
I wanted to like this book because it's posed as a girl going through grief and getting to travel to India as a way of honoring her late aunt, and maybe just falling for a local boy. However the plot felt a bit too unfocused, and there were moments where it seemed to lose it's main thread of healing through grief (which is at least what I thought the main thread would be).
While I didn't mind the meandering plot at times, because grief and healing aren't linear, the MeToo sections just felt out of place. And while it is certainty a topic worth covering, I don't think the characters' choices to stand aside and not make any clear comments condemning that behavior was necessarily the best choice. Maybe it's just that there wasn't much nuance in the discussion, but having a character basically run away to be upset over his family's image & publicly abstain from commenting & condemning it, just felt like a negative choice to include if discussing sexual harassments & abuse.
Additionally I was bothered by the age gap between the main character and the love interest. The MC is 18, and the LI, we learn about half way into the book, is 24. Personally, as someone who is 23, having the characters have a 6 yr age gap just took me out of the story and I no longer wanted the romance element. While the LI didn't do anything "wrong" (except his handling of the MeToo situation IMO), I still could not get over how he was so much older than her and it just bothered me. If he would have been like 20 I doubt their relationship would be bothered me, but having him be 6 years older just really made me want to stop reading any romantic scenes between them. That being said, none of the other characters, include the adults/ parents, find the age gap odd so maybe it's just me? Either way it bothered me.
I also think the narrator did a good job giving the characters pretty distinct voices and inflection. Some voices were kind of similar and took a second to distinguish, but most were different enough it was easy to keep the characters straight while listening to it.
All that being said, this book just wasn't what I was expecting about a healing journey of grief, and just wasn't for me based off those expectations. Additionally I'm not Indian, Pakistani nor Muslim, so I can't personally comment on the representation in the book.
I wanted to like this book because it's posed as a girl going through grief and getting to travel to India as a way of honoring her late aunt, and maybe just falling for a local boy. However the plot felt a bit too unfocused, and there were moments where it seemed to lose it's main thread of healing through grief (which is at least what I thought the main thread would be).
While I didn't mind the meandering plot at times, because grief and healing aren't linear, the MeToo sections just felt out of place. And while it is certainty a topic worth covering, I don't think the characters' choices to stand aside and not make any clear comments condemning that behavior was necessarily the best choice. Maybe it's just that there wasn't much nuance in the discussion, but having a character basically run away to be upset over his family's image & publicly abstain from commenting & condemning it, just felt like a negative choice to include if discussing sexual harassments & abuse.
Additionally I was bothered by the age gap between the main character and the love interest. The MC is 18, and the LI, we learn about half way into the book, is 24. Personally, as someone who is 23, having the characters have a 6 yr age gap just took me out of the story and I no longer wanted the romance element. While the LI didn't do anything "wrong" (except his handling of the MeToo situation IMO), I still could not get over how he was so much older than her and it just bothered me. If he would have been like 20 I doubt their relationship would be bothered me, but having him be 6 years older just really made me want to stop reading any romantic scenes between them. That being said, none of the other characters, include the adults/ parents, find the age gap odd so maybe it's just me? Either way it bothered me.
I also think the narrator did a good job giving the characters pretty distinct voices and inflection. Some voices were kind of similar and took a second to distinguish, but most were different enough it was easy to keep the characters straight while listening to it.
All that being said, this book just wasn't what I was expecting about a healing journey of grief, and just wasn't for me based off those expectations. Additionally I'm not Indian, Pakistani nor Muslim, so I can't personally comment on the representation in the book.