Saturday, 24 July 2021

Review on Stella



 
Stella Callahan has always been fascinated with astronomy. Growing up in the small town of Torrance, she has always been able to gaze at the stars. However, on the night a comet flew over her town, Stella’s mother mysteriously goes missing. Years later, the same thing happens to Stella’s dad during a meteor shower, where she witnesses him being engulfed in light before disappearing. Stella’s love for astronomy soon turns into a fear of even being out at night, but after moving away for college, Stella is drawn back to her home town where she discovers the terrifying truth.

I’ll admit I’ve been ignoring quite a few review requests lately, but when I read Josh’s request his book immediately piqued my interest! I’ve loved astronomy since I was young, so I always love anything to do with stars and planets. Stella is a novella set in a small town in Indiana, where Stella lives in a farmhouse with her dad and her dog. However, Stella’s life is drastically changed when she witnesses her dad disappear in a ball of light during a meteor shower.

 I will admit the book wasn’t what I was expecting, as I thought it would involve aliens, different planets, and Stella discovering her parents had been teleported somewhere by an alien lifeform. I was pretty disappointed that this wasn’t the case, and Stella stayed in her hometown for the majority of the book, with a chapter set in a city where she attended college. Honestly, it’s my fault for going in with certain expectations, but I couldn’t help be disappointed it wasn’t the great Sci-Fi adventure I’d been expecting.

 After overcoming the initial disappointment that this book wasn’t going where I had expected it to go, I did start to enjoy it for what it was, and it made me wonder if not aliens, then what had taken Stella’s father? The big reveal only comes in the final few pages of the book, and despite there being foreshadowing near the start of the book, it managed to slip past me completely as I wasn’t expecting it at all! I loved the plot twist and even though it wasn’t aliens, I loved that it was still something out of the ordinary. However I felt as if I ended up with more questions than answers, and I really wanted to know more about Stella’s neighbors, and what Stella decided to do with her life. 

 The characters felt a little two-dimensional, but at less than 100 pages, it’s understandable that the characters were never fully developed. I didn’t care for the characters or find them interesting, but the story was mostly plot-driven, and was interesting enough for me to not mind too much. I loved seeing how Stella coped with the loss of her father and the interesting side effects of her becoming terrified of the stars and being outside at night. It was interesting to find out that Astrophobia is actually a real thing that people can suffer from, usually as a response to watching too many Sci-Fi movies. As a meteor could potentially wipe out all life it’s actually not that strange of a fear! 

 Even though the book wasn’t what I was expecting, I did enjoy it, and only wish it had been a little longer! I'm a little torn on how to rate this one as it wasn't quite 4 stars, so I'd probably actually give it a 3.5. I felt it had the potential to delve a little deeper and even be made into a full-length novel, as a few things seemed a little too rushed. I loved Josh’s writing style and brilliant plot twists, and I would love to read more from him in the future!




Saturday, 10 July 2021

Review on Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating

 



 
Hani Khan is one of the most popular girls in school. She’s friendly to everyone and has two best friends she’s known since she was an infant. However, when Hani comes out as bisexual, her friends don’t believe her. To try to prove herself, she pretends she is dating Ishu, a girl who seems to have time for nothing but studying. Ishu’s main goal is to become head girl, but without Hani’s popularity, that will be impossible. Hani and Ishu decide to pretend to be dating each other until they both achieve their goals, but as they become closer and start to understand each other, the fake dating starts to feel a little too real.


I absolutely adored the idea behind this book! Fake dating is one of my favourite tropes, and the fact this book is sapphic made me even more excited to read it! I will admit this is a trope I’ve seen countless times, but most of the time it’s between a straight couple so I loved how having two girls fake dating gave this overused trope a new lease of life. I thought this part of the book was adorable, and I loved seeing how the two girls navigated their feelings for each other and went through all the ups and downs of their first relationship. 

 I loved the soft cute parts of this book, but along with that, the girls faced some real issues such as homophobia, Islamophobia, and racism. The majority of this came from Hani’s best friends, Aisling and Dee. Rather than full-on attacks, the girls were constantly throwing microaggressions at Hani while gaslighting her into thinking she should just accept it. Even though I was rooting for Hani to drop her horrible friends, I also found myself relating to her. When I was around Hani’s age I had friends similar to this who would throw homophobic and racist remarks around, but as I’d been friends with them for so long and had no other friends, I would usually not speak up. It’s often difficult to speak up when you’re young, and no one wants to believe that the friends they grew up with are actually horrible people, so although I was frustrated that Hani dealt with them and changed things about herself to please them, I also saw how difficult it was for her to stand up for herself. I loved that she was eventually able to find the confidence to stand up for herself and Ishu, as standing up to toxic friends can take even more courage than standing up to bullies. 

 Hani and Ishu’s relationship with each other was the complete opposite of this. Although both girls are Bengali, that’s where their similarities stopped. The girls had vastly different personalities, with Hani being popular but quiet and docile, and Ishu being studious, unpopular, and unafraid to speak her mind. Hani is also Muslim while Ishu isn’t. I loved how accepting the girls were of each other, and how Ishu knew her boundaries when it came to Hani’s faith and didn’t try to force her way into Muslim spaces the way Hani’s friends forced themselves into Bengali spaces. I think it’s important to know the boundaries of your friends who may have a different culture, religion or sexuality to you, and only enter these spaces if they invite you. Whereas Hani’s friends made her feel like she had to change who she was to fit in with them, Ishu allowed her to express who she really was.

 I loved how Ishu taught Hani what it was really like to have a friend who cared for her. For most of her life, Hani didn’t realise how horribly her friends were treating her, which often happens when you’ve never known any different. I think we’ve all dealt with toxic friends at some point, and it’s not until you meet a friend who actually cares about you that you’re able to see this toxic behaviour. It’s a process to be able to drop friends who are treating you badly and takes a lot of courage, but in the end, you have to do what’s best for you and get rid of the people in your life who are making you feel bad, or who won’t accept you for who you are.

 There was a good mixture of important topics and cute romance, and I think the romance helped to break it up a little. This book was literally full of my favourite tropes, from fake dating, friends to lovers, slow burn romance, and even the one bed trope! Honestly I can never hate a book that includes the one bed trope. The relationship between the girls progressed naturally, and I loved how it took time for them to warm up to each other. Any kind of relationship takes time to form, which is honestly why I hate instalove so much, so I loved how although it wasn’t quite my favourite trope of enemies to lovers, there was still a lot of development. I loved that the girls having clashing personalities ended up being beneficial to them both, as Ishu’s no-nonsense attitude eventually helped Hani to stand up to her friends, while Hani’s caring personality helped Ishu to see things from her sisters point of view, and realise she was in fact not trying to sabotage her. I loved how they were able to help each other with their problems and accept their differences. 

 I just want to quickly talk about a subplot I loved, which was Ishu’s relationship with Nik, her older sister. Ishu goes through some family drama when Nik disappoints their parents by announcing she is dropping out of med school to get married. Ishu’s parents are strict and want Ishu to follow in her sisters footsteps, which ends up being the whole cause for Ishu wanting to be head girl. Although Ishu initially agrees with her parents, she comes to see that Nik is unhappy and only went to med school because it was what their parents wanted. It’s only natural to want to please your parents, but at the end of the day it’s your life not theirs, and the most important thing to do is what makes you happy. I loved that with the help of Nik, Ishu realised this and set herself on her own path rather than the one her parents had laid out for her. I was a little disappointed that Nik wasn’t able to solve things with her parents, but at the same time, it showed us that life doesn’t always go to plan, and it’s pretty unlikely that we’ll always be able to fix every problem in our lives. Not everyone is going to accept your life choices, and if what you decide is what makes you happy, then that’s what should be focused on rather than people’s opinions. Nik’s parents really didn’t seem like bad people and seemed to be on the fence about Nik’s decisions, so it would be nice if they eventually did come around, but even if they never did, Nik still has her sister on her side.

 This book wasn’t exactly the cute feel-good story I was expecting it to be, but I did enjoy it and felt it dealt with all the themes it covered well. I wouldn’t recommend it if all you’re looking for is a sweet sapphic romance, as there are some pretty important themes that could potentially be upsetting. Something I absolutely loved was that it gave content warnings on the front page, so you knew what you were getting into. I know content warnings seem to be a bit of a divided topic in the book community, but I personally feel like people not getting triggered is far more important than these warnings being potential “spoilers”. As long as you feel like you can handle the topics I’ve mentioned then I definitely recommend this book!