A review by inkyyy
Jaya and Rasa. a Love Story by Sonia Patel
4.0
This young adult novel was gritty, dark, unfiltered, and incredibly intense. I loved it. I cherished the sweet moments in between the dark moments. The characters were brought to life and I was not only in love with them but the landscape as well.
Jaya is an Indian rich kid growing up in Hawaii. His father is a real estate man who cheats on his wife, cares about nothing else but his money. Jaya is also trans, with a family who insists that he be a true Indian woman and marry a man who will make Jaya's life easier. Jaya loves grunge and he hopes to be a sweet gentleman and find his true love.
Rasa is what she calls a black widow. With a tumultuous childhood, Rasa is forced to sell her body in order to support herself and her younger siblings. When she is taken away by CPS she is spiraled into the seedy underbelly of Hawaii, turning tricks to keep herself and her siblings safe.
Jaya and Rasa meet. And they fall in love.
I think this book was great, the way that all of the characters were brought to life kept me engaged. Even though it says I read this book for several days, I only read it for the two days--so it probably took me 5-6 hours total to finish the near 300 page book. Chapters are between 3-4 pages long and you can breeze through them. I'm brought back to my old 15 year old self loving Nirvana and Audioslave and other gritty 90's grunge (heck, I still listen to them now).
I don't think I could give this book 5 stars because the ending was rather lackluster. It kind of fell flat. It just kinda...ends. There's no real resolution. The back of the book advertises itself as a "Romeo and Juliet" book but it's nowhere close to that. It's just a dark story in which two teenagers find solace in each other. Maybe I was unhappy with the end because I wanted more of it. I don't think it should've ended the way it did. While I'm glad I read it, I don't feel satisfied. I need an epilogue, or something.
Jaya is an Indian rich kid growing up in Hawaii. His father is a real estate man who cheats on his wife, cares about nothing else but his money. Jaya is also trans, with a family who insists that he be a true Indian woman and marry a man who will make Jaya's life easier. Jaya loves grunge and he hopes to be a sweet gentleman and find his true love.
Rasa is what she calls a black widow. With a tumultuous childhood, Rasa is forced to sell her body in order to support herself and her younger siblings. When she is taken away by CPS she is spiraled into the seedy underbelly of Hawaii, turning tricks to keep herself and her siblings safe.
Jaya and Rasa meet. And they fall in love.
I think this book was great, the way that all of the characters were brought to life kept me engaged. Even though it says I read this book for several days, I only read it for the two days--so it probably took me 5-6 hours total to finish the near 300 page book. Chapters are between 3-4 pages long and you can breeze through them. I'm brought back to my old 15 year old self loving Nirvana and Audioslave and other gritty 90's grunge (heck, I still listen to them now).
I don't think I could give this book 5 stars because the ending was rather lackluster. It kind of fell flat. It just kinda...ends. There's no real resolution. The back of the book advertises itself as a "Romeo and Juliet" book but it's nowhere close to that. It's just a dark story in which two teenagers find solace in each other. Maybe I was unhappy with the end because I wanted more of it. I don't think it should've ended the way it did. While I'm glad I read it, I don't feel satisfied. I need an epilogue, or something.