![Book review: Love, Hate and Other Filters]()
review, Romance, YA |
Nothing screams a vacation like curling up with a cozy, sweet romance right? The title Love, Hate And Other Filters shouted out me as just what I needed to try and enjoy the hot, sultry summer in the southern part of India. And you what enticed me more – Love, Hate And Other Filters is an #ownvoice book with a Muslim representation, which is kinda rare. So how did it fare, read ahead to find out.
Book Name: Love, Hate And Other Filters
Author: Samira Ahmed
Genre: Fiction – Romance, Young Adult
Characters: Maya Aziz, Violet, Hina, Phil, Kareem
Setting: Chicago, The USA
Maya Aziz, a typical 17 year old American high schooler loves Indian food and making movies. Her Indian born parents do not take her aspirations to become a film maker seriously and want her to settle down with a serious guy soon.
Maya has a huge crush on Phil for years, who is already in a relationship. Meanwhile, her conservative parents set her up with Kareem who seems to be a safer bet given their common heritage and family background. Should she stand up against her parents’ wishes for just a ‘maybe’ guy? Or should she try to focus on career like her rebellious aunt Hina?
Her almost perfect world shatters following a terrorists’ attack on the USA. She and her family become the victims of Islamophobia. How does religion affect Maya’s life? Read Love, Hate And Other Filters.
Love, Hate And Other Filters is a witty and fast YA romance. I finished reading the book in one sitting and the setting reminded me so much of When Dimple met Rishi. When I am not such a big fan of lovesick female lead, I loved how the book spoke so much about Indian culture, even though it was a bit over the top at places.
I like my protagonists to be fierce, interesting – erm.. just not bland. Unfortunately Maya was just that. And her ‘relationship’ with Phil had no base except that they knew each other. where is the damn chemistry? Phil you can definitely do better.
I loved Violet, the protagonist’s friend and how fiercely loyal she was to Maya till the end. Phil and Hina were totally cool too. The other Indian characters, especially Maya’s parents were too stereotypical. I mean there is only so many of over dramatic Indian mothers one can read about without rolling one’s eyes.
Love, Hate And Other Filters did okay at being an American-Indian representation, but it is definitely not an accurate Muslim representation. Love, Hate And Other Filters doesn’t talk about Maya’s religion at all, except when it is used against her. Maya’s family might be liberal Muslims but even that message doesn’t reach clearly. If it were not for her last name, one might not even know she is a Muslim, which is definitely not a good representation.
If you are looking for a YA with light romance or an own voice book you can choose Love, Hate And Other Filters right away.
Have you read Love, Hate And Other Filters? What do you think about it? Have you read any other book with Indian or Muslim leads and you liked them better? Let us discuss, I love some books with better representations, especially #ownvoices.
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YA |
I remember staying up all through the night reading the author’s earlier work (The Statistical Probability Of Love At First Sight) few years ago and I hoped The Geography of You and Me would help me repeat the experience. Did it fulfill the promise? Read on to know more.
Book Name: The Geography of You and Me
Author: Jennifer E. Smith
Genre: Fiction – Romance, Young Adult
Characters: Lucy, Owen
Setting: New York, The USA, London, England, The UK
The story starts with Owen and Lucy stuck in an elevator when the whole city plunges into darkness. It is instant chemistry and once they are rescued they roam around the city and end up chatting for hours. They end up spending their night gazing at stars from their rooftop. As fate intervenes, they both leave New York City soon and part ways.
Owen and his father are trying to get over their loss of their mother and go on a road trip across America. Lucy joins her parents in London who are avid travelers and trots all over the globe. They keep in touch with each other through postcards and email. Do they get to meet each other? Or does the distance change them?
The Geography of You and Me opened with a great promise of an unusual set up but failed to sustain the interest. I am not a big fan of love at first sight (gasp) and the lead characters spent less than a day together to have had time to fall for each other.
I love reading the lovey dovey portion of any romance, as any person would. I was almost looking forward to it just to get out of the monotonous chapters that consisted of ‘he went there’ ‘she went there’. But The Geography of You and Me was a disappointment even on that front.
The story alternates between two POVs but the voice ended up being the same which didn’t work for me at all. I have heard so much of this book and opened it with great expectations and sadly The Geography of You and Me didn’t live upto it.
Is there any book that failed to live up to the hype? Or is it just me? Let us chat.
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YA |
How refreshing is it to find a book that is totally out of your usual genres? One of my Facebook group decided to read a book from Brazil and they chose The Head of the Saint.
As per usual, I did not read the blurb before I picked the book. But I had a vague idea what the book was about based on the discussions the other members had. The Head of the Saint is not like anything I have read before. Was it good or bad then? Read more to know.
About the book
Book Name: The Head of the Saint
Author: Socorro Acioli, Daniel Hahn
Genre: Fiction – Magical Realism, Young adult
Setting: Brazil
The plot
A few days before her death Samuel’s mother asks her fourteen year old son to light candles at the foot of three different saints and then to find his estranged father and his grandmother in the town of Cadeia.
During this ill fated journey Samual finds shelter in what he first assumes as a cave. He later learns that it is the head of an incomplete statue of a famous Brazilian saint and is surprised to hear the prayers of the believers from the town of Cadeia. .
Cadeia is what you can call as a dead town with no prospect for development and many people have migrated away to other towns. The few people who stayed back have lost their faith in their saint and their religion. Samuel realizes he can solve the worries of the patrons by simple interventions and thereby restoring the towns Catholic faith inadvertently.
Did Samuel’s little play help the town or make matters worse for him? Where is the line between human intervention and God’s play? This short tale The Head of the Saint will answer these questions and more.
My initial thoughts
Even though I had a vague idea about the subject, The Head of the Saint was a pleasant surprise. It reads like a folklore and all the characters are intertwined.
Though translated from Portuguese, this story set in Brazil will not deprive you of the native settings.
The Head of the Saint has a lots of religious undertones that we do not find in our typical (read as US/UK-centric ) YA books. The book involves several heavy themes like identity, roots, corruption etc.
Things that worked for me
- The author’s writing helps the novel stay true to the middle grade and Young adult audience despite its themes
- I love reading about other culture and their folklore, The Head of the Saint was a good choice for Brazil.
Things that didn’t work for me
- It does feel chunky and it is apparent that it is a translated work at times but it does not spoil the reading experience.
Bottom-line
The Head of the Saint is a coming of age, if I can call that, story with intense themes that would surprise you. If you are interested in reading folklore from different countries, you can pick The Head of the Saint for Brazil.
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Romance, YA |
The Upside of Unrequited tells a tale that the readers of YA have read several times. It definitely talks about first love and teenage angst. But what makes this novel by Becky Albertalli such a hit both among young and new adults? Read my review to know more.
About The Upside of Unrequited
Book Name: The Upside of Unrequited
Author: Becky Albertalli
Genre: Fiction – Young Adult Romance
Characters: Molly and Cassie Peskin-Suso, Reid, Will, Mina
Setting: Washington DC, The USA
Plot Summary of The Upside of Unrequited
Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso has never had a kiss and has about 26 crushes that she has never made the move upon. She is shy, awkward and conscious about her body. Her fraternal twin Cassie, her best friend, is just the opposite.
Things change when Cassie falls in love with Mina. Molly is forced to get out of her aloofness and make new friends. Mina’s best friend Will takes a liking to her and he is about to become Molly’s 27th love interest when she meets Reid, her nerdy co-worker.
With Cassie moving further apart from her, Molly is forced to handle having the attention of two guys alone. To top it, her parents are finally tying their knots with the legalization of gay marriages in the USA and she has more on her plate than ever.
Will Molly and her awkward self, be able to pull this off? Will Will become her 27th unrequited love (did you see what I did there?) or is it someone else? You will have to read the book to know more.
Book review of The Upside of Unrequited
The Upside of Unrequited deals with several themes that are relevant in today’s world – peer pressure, body image, teenage love, and rejection.
I loved the writing. The style of the author is definitely quirky and cheerful that kept me hooked until the end.
One thing that The Upside of Unrequited has been continually praised for is the diverse representation of minorities, interracial and LGBTQ couples and families. The characters are diverse, of course, well thought out but still are too perfect to be relatable, except maybe for Molly.
Molly’s flawed, funny, socially inept characterization would be relatable to everyone who has had that phase. I like how family and sisterhood was important to her.
I would have loved Molly except that for the fact she had one goal in her life – finding and kissing her boyfriend. And all of a sudden she gains her self-worth when she finds herself a guy. Erm.. definitely something we don’t want books to reinforce of the kids today.
Bottom line
Despite the predictability in the plot, as one might find in most of YA romances, Becky Albertalli’s writing wins the book for me, I could not put the book down even for a minute before I could finish it.
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Thriller |
Who can survive the mighty Amazon jungle – The strongest or the smartest?
What determines your survival – teamwork or the survival of the fittest?
How far would you go to survive and where would you stop and let go?
About the book
Book Name: Feel Me Fall
Author: James Morris
Genre: Fiction – YA, Thriller
Characters: Emily Durant, Vivian, Derek, Molly, Nico, Ryan
Setting: The USA, South America
Disclaimer: Thanks to the Author for the Review Copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
The plot
Six American teenagers are pushed to answer these questions when their flight crashes over the Amazon forest. The lone survivor Emily has PTSD, and her therapist asks her to write about her fateful journey. How the trip, her survival and her truth affects her life forms the rest of the story.
Emily Duran forges her mother’s signature to take the trip of her lifetime to South America with her high schoolmates. The school trip didn’t go as well as it was supposed to and their plane crashes over the Amazon. Now you see why I was hooked? – there are deaths, lots of it.
Emily and five of her classmates are the only survivors of the crash. Fortunately (or was it?) Emily had her best friend Vivian and her boyfriend Nico to fall back on. The teenagers decide to walk away from the wreckage in search of some village. (Why? Who does that?)
Where there are high schoolers, there drama usually ensues, doesn’t it? That is true. The status quo of the survivors changes all of a sudden, thanks to the new environment. The popular ones do not have much to rely on anymore, do they? Lies, deceits and secrets catch up and pit them against each other.
How does the average, crowd-pleasing Emily become the only one who stays alive? Read Feel Me Fall to know more.
My initial thoughts
The story travels between the pages of Emily’s diary and the thrilling past from the tropical forest, making it a fast-paced compulsive read that will impress readers of all ages. I have had the opportunity to beta-read some of the other works of the author, and it took all of me (and failed) not to have a ‘fangirl flail moment‘ when I got the request to review his books. And he did not fail to impress me, despite my expectation being high.
I loved how every character was different from the other and how the author handled the dynamics between them very well. Be it the failing mom-daughter relationship or the more scandalous student-teacher relationship, they made sense and fit into the grand scheme of things (you know, not thrust in, just for the heck of it) and had depth in them.
Things that worked for me
- The author’s writing style is crisp and to the point, without having too many descriptions, yet I could visualize everything that happens in the story.
- The story has its share of unexpected twists, and an unreliable narrator makes it all the better.
Things that didn’t work for me
- The book’s premise might remind you of other survival books but I can assure Feel Me Fall is better, even if you vehemently hate high school drama.
- Spoiler: The story contains a teacher-student relationship, and it is vital to the story and dealt in detail, so if you are not comfortable with this or they turn you off from the book, you might have to skip Feel Me Fall
Bottom-line
If you are on the lookout for a thriller with twists and unexpected turns which would never let you put the book down. Feel Me Fall is the book for you. Be prepared to be shocked and surprised pleasantly with this tight knitted YA.
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