Throughout this review I will be including quotes from the book as well and some quotes from goodreads reviewers whose reviews I found to be informational in educating me and others on how deep the issues contained in this book go.
So, beginning with Robert, the father. He is a super smart computer whiz who was adopted by Canadian parents. I think that the author could have given Robert a different career than one which Indians are stereotyped to be involved in/having. As part Indian myself I find this mildly offensive because I may be a large part Indian but I in no way am a computer or tech genius and it's this kind of stereotyping that still annoys me. That's not to disregard the fact that some people do have jobs similar to this but that doesn't mean everyone involved in a computer/tech job is Indian. I just feel as if the author was generalizing in a vaguely racist way.There is one scene in the book where three of the characters are going shopping for dresses and one of the characters says, and I quote,
"'Less expensive and less slutty options' she declared"(page 202).
Just because someone chooses to wear revealing clothing does not mean it is okay to criticize them or make them feel less than another person who isn't wearing anything revealing. It's their choice to wear what they want and they should not be criticized or objectified for dressing a certain way.
But wait, it gets worse. Since you have context from the previous paragraphs, read this quote,
"Emma pulled a bunch of things and brought them to the dressing room. Sasha took a navy-blue-and-white-striped maxidress to humor her. 'Does it come with a burqa?' Mattie asked through the curtain"(pages 202-203).
So right after reading the quote slut-shaming girls, the author included a quote that is harmful to Muslim women everywhere. The author completely disregarded the significance of a burqa to Muslims. I have a few Muslim friends and I was horrified to know that if any of them picked this book up they would see such a cruel "joke" within the pages. This "joke" is definitely not funny. It's disgusting and makes me sick. Another goodreads reviewer put this perfectly and I want to include their quote,
"It's just yet another example of white people using ethnicity and religion as the brunt of their ignorant jokes." This quote was taken from the review from the account linked here.
I couldn't have put it better myself. There are honestly so many other racist quotes within the book, but let's move on to the sexism displayed throughout the book before I pull out all of my hair. So, earlier in the book Ray and Sasha see each other and meet for the first time. After Ray sees Sasha he says,
"She was the kind of pretty only someone as deep as him understood. He laughed at himself for this thought and continued to think it anyway, as though her loveliness was something he'd invented" (page 82).
He's essentially congratulating himself on being the only guy to notice how attractive she is. WHAT? This really makes me angry. To top it off three pages later the author writes,
"He didn't mean to look down at her chest, but what could he do?" (page 85).
Gee, I don't know NOT LOOK? I'm so exasperated. I literally can't believe that in this day and age 1) an author would write such an offensive novel and 2) a publisher would publish this ignorant novel. There are so many more offensive things that I want to point out, but I feel that it's best to just link a few reviews at the end of this post for you all to read for yourself.
Aside from all of the stereotyping, sexism, and more, the book wasn't that impressive. The POV jumps around constantly so it's really hard to keep track of who's perspective you're reading from. Since the POV was constantly changing, the characters were very flat and lacked substance. You didn't get to read one character's perspective for long so you weren't really involved with them. Overall this book was not one that I would recommend, especially to PoC (if I had known sooner, I wouldn't have picked this up).
Thank you for reading this review. I feel that I have a responsibility as an avid reader and lover of literature to point these things out to people and to warn people who may find something an author wrote offensive and ignorant. I also want to quickly say that if you enjoyed this book or want to read this book you are not in any way wrong, I just thought I would share my opinion on this novel as I am entitled to have one and warn anybody who may find this novel offensive.
Rating;
2/5 stars
~Evie
goodreads reviews I mentioned/recommend you read for more info;
Liv (Stories For Coffee)
Abby
Mia (pens-and-parchment)
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