The Marvelous Mirza Girls

by Sheba Karim

To cure her post–senior year slump, made worse by the loss of her aunt Sonia, Noreen is ready to follow her mom on a gap year trip to New Delhi, hoping India can lessen her grief and bring her voice back.

In the world’s most polluted city, Noreen soon meets kind, handsome Kabir, who introduces her to the wonders of this magical, complicated place. With Kabir’s help—plus Bollywood celebrities, fourteenth-century ruins, karaoke parties, and Sufi saints—Noreen begins to rediscover her joyful voice.

But when a family scandal erupts, Noreen and Kabir must face complicated questions in their own relationship: What does it mean to truly stand by someone—and what are the boundaries of love?

Genres: Romance, Young Adult, Contemporary, Fiction, Audiobook, India, Young Adult Contemporary

400 pages, Hardcover

First published May 18, 2021

About the author

Sheba Karim is the author of the YA novels Skunk Girl, That Thing We Call a Heart, which made several Best Book lists including Bank Street and Kirkus, Mariam Sharma Hits the Road, a NPR Best Book of the Year, and The Marvelous Mirza Girls, winner of the South Asia Book Award. She is the editor of the South Asian anthology Alchemy: The Tranquebar Book of Erotic Short Stories 2 (Tranquebar Press, 2012). Her fiction and essays have been featured in 580 Split, Asia Literary Review, India Today, Literary Hub, Michigan Quarterly Review, Off Assignment, Sewanee Review, Shenandoah, South Asian Review, The Rumpus, Time Out Delhi and various anthologies in the United States and India.

She has an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has been awarded residencies at Hedgebrook, Ledig House, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts and The Millay Colony for the Arts.

Reviews

[Sami]

I have so many thoughts about this book so I’m going to make a list.

PROS
- Clear improvement from Mariam Sharma in terms of writing style and plot
- Perfect descriptions of Delhi. It truly felt like I was back there.
- Accurate depiction of social life and the way life works
- Lots of moments that would evoke a “Log kya kahenge?” from the elder generations. It’s nice to see brown girls depicted as normal people and not these pretentious nerdy girls.
- Desi single mother and daughter relationship that isn’t toxic.

CONS
- Why on Earth does Noreen call her elders by their first name most of them time but in actual dialogue refer to them as their proper titles? It’s confusing and weird.
- She’s Desi, from Jersey, is close with her grandparents but still manages to constantly have the shits in India? HUH????
- No character development what so ever. Nothing changed about Noreen except that she fell in love. There was so much potential for this to be a great book if it had gone in the direction of closure after the death of a loved one or even resolvment of her massive daddy issues but nope. None of that happened.
- The plot might have been better than Mariam Sharma but it wasn’t great either. Absolutely no one main focus. There are a million things that seem like will become the focus of the book and then just don’t (grief, daddy issues, long distance ect)
- The MeToo part of the book. Listen if you’re just gonna have the characters take a stance of neutrality and then pass it off as advocacy for survivors, delete those parts. It was an incredibly centrist take.
- Speaking of little to no nuance! The casteism, racism towards Northeasterns, being gay in India, and other social commentary fell so flat because of the lack of nuance. It honestly would’ve been better to just not include it.

This book has so much potential and I was looking forward to seeing Karim’s development as a writer but I have to say as a first gen Indian that I was beyond disappointed.

[Maria]

Thank you Harper Collins for the gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was enjoyable right from the beginning. The writing is great, and it will stick with you.

Although the book just has one girl (woman) on the cover, at its core is a mother and daughter story of resilience and strength. I loved Ruby and how cool she is (but omg, I think ALL PARENTS NEED TO BE LIKE RUBY), and I loved how she is a solid rock for Noreen, her daughter. I loved watching them together, even in the awkward parts. IYKYK ;)

Sure, the characters may have been slightly childish for me, or acting unrealistic in my POV, but it’s a romance, so this is kind of to be expected. I would not change ANYTHING about this book, and I want more from Sheba Karim * adds backlist books to TBR *

[Emma]

This book offers a glimpse into the life of Noreen and her mother as they spend a few months in New Delhi. The romance between Noreen and Kabir was lovely and I really enjoyed reading about the two of them, especially their visits around all the beautiful places the city has to offer.
I also really appreciated the mother-daughter bond shared Noreen and Ruby and I would have loved to see them explore the city together.
The ending was to be expected, but I wished for something more to be honest.
In the end it was a nice read, but that's it.

[Ahaana Bhargava]

rtc.

[Aylin Niazai]

This is so NOT the muslim representation we need 🙃🙃🙃

[Hamsini]

What a fun, fun book. I really enjoyed reading it. Lighthearted + political in equal measure, to nudge you to think and laugh. I highly recommend!

[The Candid Cover (Olivia & Lori)]

Full Review on The Candid Cover

The Marvelous Mirza Girls by Sheba Karim is a story of two strong women finding themselves after a loss. As a big fan of Travel YA, I was excited by the main character’s trip to New Delhi, and this one features a mother-daughter duo, which I always love to see. The setting is one of the book’s highlights, making for an immersive reading experience. I would recommend this to those looking for a heartwarming read with a compelling setting.

Following the death of her aunt, Noreen and her mother travel to India, hoping to overcome their grief. There, Noreen meets a cute local who shows her around New Delhi and helps her feel whole again. I’m a big fan of books about travel, and these aspects were a big win for me. I will say, I did find the plot a little thin, and at times, it lacks direction. However, the amusement of Noreen’s experiences mostly made up for this.

❀ LIKEABLE MAIN CHARACTER

Noreen is a likeable main character, and she hopes to become a sitcom writer someday. I loved getting to read excerpts from her screenplays, and and she has such an engaging voice. However, I would have liked to see her character develop more throughout the story, besides falling in love. Noreen’s mother also plays a significant role in the book, and I really enjoyed reading about their support for each other. Parents are often absent in YA, so I appreciated this mother-daughter relationship being brought into the spotlight.

❀ VIVID SETTING

One of the strongest parts of the book is its setting. Karim transports the reader to New Delhi, spotlighting delicious foods and local attractions to create an immersive reading experience. Current social issues like the #MeToo movement are also discussed. The entire atmosphere of New Delhi is vividly described, and I ultimately loved tagging along with Noreen as she and Kabir explore the city.

❀ A HEARTFELT STORY

The Marvelous Mirza Girls by Sheba Karimis a heartfelt story of resilience and finding yourself after a loss. The main character has a compelling voice, and I loved the mother-daughter relationship at the centre of the story. I especially enjoyed the New Delhi setting. Fans of the Travel YA genre will not want to miss this one.

[Starr ❇✌❇]

I received an ARC from Edelweiss
TW: religious prejudice & hate crimes, mentioned pedophilia, talk of sexual assault, mentioned kidnapping
3

Noreen and her mother are both grieving the loss of Sonia, her mother's sister. The opportunity to temporarily relocate to New Dehli might be exactly what they both need to find their way again- and maybe even find love. As Noreen reminisces about her aunt, starts a new relationship, and struggles with writer's block & self doubt in her writing, she also has to navigate a new country and the complications of family letting you down.

Travel YA is its own special category, usually involving love and a lot of character growth (and tourism), and I was excited to see it find its way in New Dehli. As I've never been there, I can't say how realistic the portrayal was, but the cultural aspects made it for me, and the descriptions felt real.

Besides the culture, I appreciated the addition of some social justice. There are a few moments in this book about politics and protests, which made it feel less just mundane teenage life, and there's a large portion that talks about the MeToo movement. While I do think that could have been handled in a more powerful way, since it wasn't the focal point of the story I'm just glad it was there at all, to give it some more depth.

I also was happy to see a nice, pretty healthy family dynamic. Noreen and her mother get along well, and her mother's best friend, who should also count as family, is a fun character who makes their trio feel genuine. The grandparents are more complicated, but not in a toxic way, and honestly when it comes to Indian representation it's just nice to see something that doesn't fall into toxicity in family life.

The writing isn't bad and there are some funny parts. While I personally had no connection to Noreen I can see some people really loving her. And there's enough feminism outright for it do a little good.
The problem is, mostly this story is just... nothing. There are plot points, obviously, but they just follow Noreen living in New Dehli, and her boyfriend's reaction to allegations against his dad, and nothing ever comes to a head or get done. There isn't much character development, the one big character development moment for Noreen doesn't show a resolution on page, and beyond the grieving Noreen's whole story revolves around a romance that is not only not compelling but feels completely unrealistic. Oh, and Noreen messing up her relationship and then mentally going "I'm messing up my relationship! I have father issues!!" and then that never coming to a head either.

It's also not a big thing on page, but I was surprised and disappointed by the casual deadnaming of Caitlyn Jenner, which left a bad taste in my mouth.

I think if you want a light, just character driven novel about New Dehli then you may like this one. But if you're here for story or development of any kind, then it's not going to be for you.

[Abeer Hoque]

“See how it helps her forget, memory replaced by breath.”

The Marvelous Mirza Girls is Sheba Karim’s fourth YA novel and I so appreciate how each of her books successively grows in depth and breadth and lovely language. Not to say that her first, Skunk Girl, is any less important: what I would have given for an early teen Desi girl book in my own early teens, one that would make me laugh while being seen. There is the same sense of humor in this latest book, that pointed knowing that brown teenage girls and women will especially vibrate to (or recoil from): “mustache over braces…a roving band of small but vicious pimples… happiness comes from having kids who grow up to choose their own medical specialty.”

The protagonist of The Marvelous Mirza Girls, Noreen, is 18, older than previous narrators of Karim’s books and the psychic territory covered is commensurate with her age and then some. Plus for the first time in Karim’s published oeuvre, we leave the US and travel to India, landing up in Delhi, complete with its choking pollution and historical grandeur and sacred spaces and lechy dudes: “She turned her head as he passed but could feel him leering, his eyes piercing her skin, her chest, her tender chrysalis of a heart.”

Noreen loses her beloved aunt just before she’s set to go to college. She decides to defer college and go to India with her cooler-than-cool mother, Ruby, as a kind of gap year, albeit cloaked in grief. Once there, she falls in love with Delhi: “its domes, its dissonance” and also with Kabir who is a veritable thirst trap with his “coral felt pants,” wavy hair, and thoughtful ways: “She liked that when he asked her a question, he always waited for the answer.”

As always, Karim tackles serious topics, along with the more usual YA themes of love, sex, personhood, and family dynamics. In addition to processing grief and loss, one plot point involves the Me Too movement and the fallout that always comes with accusations of sexual assault. Noor’s personal arc gets a little subsumed in this section, and I also found her character a bit similar to her mother’s in some places. Then again, that’s what the Gilmore Girls are like, and reading a Desi version was quite so satisfying.

“I developed this expression, very hard, very cold, very tough—I call it my resting India face.”

I appreciated that the people who toil in middle and upperclass Indian homes and elsewhere are a constant presence, noticed and named throughout: “A servant’s family was sleeping on a roof across the back alley.” And one of my favourite scenes involved Laughter Uncle, who leads a group of enthusiastic aunties through “laughing yoga” poses in the park.

There are no easy answers for the marvelous Mirza girls, in America or India, but loving friends and friendly lovers are keys to their lives, along with a healthy dose of pot. Karim has written yet another engaging well-paced funny self-aware narrative, and I can’t wait to read her next.

[Vaish -bookishbelle1008]

When I first saw the cover for this book and read the blurb, I was completely in love! Having finally had a chance to get my hands on and read the book in a few hours, I was shocked at how quickly this book became boring and flat. The first half completely captures you, introducing you to Noreen's grief and her wish to embark on a journey to India so she may find closure. It felt like Karim packed all the strong points of the story e.g. meeting Kabir, sightseeing, her mother finding romance etc. in the first half, hence the second felt like she had to tie the loose ends and bring the book to a close. Keeping in mind the title of the book, one would think that the story would focus on Noreen and her mother, Ruby's, personal growth and relationship development, but the plot quickly moves away from them and focuses on all the side characters we are introduced to in bits and pieces. I also struggled to connect with Ruby as I found her personality and behavioural traits unbelievable and a cringe worthy effort to seem cool. The one thing that I could appreciate about this book was that it felt like a love letter to Delhi as Karim entices the reader with the various sights, smells and sounds that Delhi has to offer. Growing up, I always used to visit my mother's house in India, which is Delhi and hence I like to think of myself as a bit of a Delhi girl and this book brought back such wonderful memories of my time spent there. This was a read that had so much potential and really fell flat because of the lack of character development and strength in the storyline.

[Payal]

A bit of coming of age, a bit of coming into culture, a bit of self-esteem builder. But all in all, it was just a slice of life book. There were some awkward parts. As expected Noreen, who was born and brought up in America as a third gen Pakistani, didn't fit in well in India in many situations. I thought the explanation of using incorrect grammar was very well put.



HOWEVER, there was too much repetition of nearly everything. All the foods gave her indigestion, all the ruins/masjids gave her a spiritual experience, all the people she met were striking, just too much! As an Indian I get that we're nearly always TOO MUCH but really?



And the whole MeToo thing was interesting. While I get what the author was trying to do, it didn't really fit with the story. Again, slice of life but really I didn't understand at the end what this was supposed to be. Eat, Pray, Love, but desi style? No thanks, didn't even like the first iteration of it.

[Alyssa]

Full Review: The Marvelous Mirza Girls by Sheba Karim | Book Review

Snippet from review:

“The Marvelous Mirza Girls’ takes us along Noreen’s journey of grief and self-discovery. There’s a charming love story, an interesting relationship between mother and daughter, and a peek into India’s multicultural atmosphere. This is the kind of book you read when you want a book to transport you somewhere unexpected, but right.”

3 stars

Thank you to Harper360YA for providing me with an Advanced Reader’s Copy of ‘The Marvelous Mirza Girls’ by Sheba Karim in exchange for an honest review.

[Karen]

dnf @ 33%

just not really doing much for me. the 3rd person narrator feels so blunt and disjointed, it's really taking me out of the story. i've been in a reading slump so i could see myself finishing this if i weren't. but as it is, i just can't do it.

[Kia (hoesreadtoo)]

I randomly picked up from the library so I didn’t have very many expectations. I loved the premise but the execution was a let down. I hope others are able to connect to the story and love it. It just wasn’t for me.

[Zainab Bint Younus]

This book was an epic disappointment. The cover art is beautiful, but then it goes completely downhill. The blurb describes jinn & Sufi saints & I honestly thought this was going to be a Muslamic fantasy, & I kept waiting for a portal into another dimension or time travel or something - which never happened.

Turns out the entire book was a painfully mediocre ethnic brown take (with a sprinkling of Muslamic references) on the "going to India to find yourself/ heal" journey trope... with gratuitous, unnecessary, constant emphasis on having sex (with a random fob dude she meets & somehow spends weeks alone with, with her mother's permission and encouragement???), casual use of drugs, & an exaggerated attempt to be as woke as possible (shoehorning in a #MeToo subplot that wasn't even a real subplot). Also - the random explicit sexual details seemed way past the YA category & put it squarely in the NA (New Adult) category.

None of it was relevant to the story, there was no character development, and the original premise of working through grief in the aftermath of her khala's death is barely followed up. The conclusion was unremarkable, & frankly pointless.

Literally the only thing interesting about the book that seemed even partially decent was the representation of India itself, contrasting its unique historical & modern architecture and daily realities.

If anything, this highlights that mainstream publishing has a pretty low standard of good writing, let alone good Muslamic representation - in many ways, lot of these YA "Muslamic" books are nothing except tokenism for "diversity," & pushing an agenda of mainstreaming ideas/values that have no grounding in Islam. Always be critical of these Muslamic pitches from mainstream publications! Examine them, call them out, & push for *authentic* Muslamic representation of *practicing* Muslims.

[Diya]

why i didn't like this book:
- annoying mc......most of the characters too
- not sure if it was just me but the way india's air quality was mentioned all the time was so? offputting? putting the air quality index at the start of each chapter, the mc complaining about it for the first half, and even mentioning the "toxic" sky during a romantic scene...idk maybe i'm the only one but if anyone else felt the same pls let me know i feel like i'm overthinking it
- the MeToo parts in this book were weird as hell bc all the mc and her li did was stay neutral and then claimed that was activism and supporting the victim??? give us nothing i guess????
-------
i'm undecided on what rating I should give but the bottom line is that i can not recommend at all

[Ayushi (bookwormbullet)]

This was an interesting book. I really liked following Noreen along in India as she explored Delhi. I’ve never been to Delhi specifically so it was really cool to learn about the city while also still being able to relate to the general theme of visiting India as an Indian-American. I also loved learning about the Mughal influences in Delhi’s culture, architecture, etc. As a whole, I think this book did a decent job of highlighting how multicultural India is.

I think the main thing I didn’t like about the book was Noreen’s character development and her relationships with the characters around her. Both Noreen and her mom travel to India in order to properly grieve for the death of Noreen’s aunt/her mother’s sister, and while that did happen by the end of the book, it seemed like all the other random events that were occurring while Noreen was in India were detracting from this main journey. I also found all the commentary about social justice and socio-economic issues in India a little superficial. There were moments where Noreen would point out an example of inequality among different classes or races in India, yet there wasn’t anything that came out of her pointing out the problem. She would just mention it and then move on with her life with an “Oh well, I can’t do anything about that” attitude, which was not helpful at all. Not to mention the lowkey neutral perspective Kabir and other characters in the book had regarding the #MeToo movement. It felt insulting, to be honest.

Noreen’s relationship with her mother was also a little strange. It definitely didn’t remind me of a relationship that I and other second generation Indian-Americans have with our mothers, so I wonder if Noreen’s mom was second-generation herself. (Side note, I didn’t understand why Noreen’s mother was referred to by her first name throughout the book--it was definitely confusing.) Overall, Noreen’s mom felt quite irresponsible throughout the book and honestly didn’t seem like the best role model for Noreen so I wasn’t a fan of their relationship. I did appreciate how she was there for Noreen when she was seeking advice or support throughout their time in Delhi.

I was also very thrown off that this book had so many mature themes. Even though this book is marketed as YA, I would definitely recommend this to older YA readers ages 16+. There were several fairly explicit (at least for YA) descriptions/scenes that really caught me off guard. I was also uncomfortable with the fact that Noreen and Kabir were together in this book considering that Noreen had just graduated high school and Kabir was 24 years old.

Overall, I’d give this book 3.5 stars!

[Erin]

3.5 Stars

Note: I was provided with a free ARC by Quill Tree Books through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.

The Marvelous Mirza Girls is definitely an acquired taste, and though it wasn't quite to my particular liking, it has its strengths. The Gilmore Girls inspiration is strong in both the relationship of Noreen and her mother and the witty banter they engage in throughout the book. And love for Delhi, both the good and the bad, comes through very strongly--what a great backdrop to a coming-of-age story!

A complete review of the pros and cons of this book will be published on my blog in February 2021. LINK: https://gatewaybookreviews.blogspot.c...

[Amalfi Disla]

Todo fue tan plano: los personajes, la historia, los “dramas” y el final.

Fue decepcionante ver cómo nada destacó en este libro, nada generó interés, no engancha y en general es muy contradictorio. Ningún personaje me agrado y lo sentí muy irreal, lo terminé porque lo estaba leyendo con una amiga.

Lo único que rescato son los inicios de cada capítulo y que no termina como cuento de hadas.

[Kristi Housman Confessions of a YA Reader]

RTC on my blog.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my earc.

[Hannah]

Soooo many things to love! Stay tuned for a Hey YA episode ;-)

[Nithya]

Did not finish at 40%

[Zoha]

There will be many triads in this review but I would sooner eat glass than use AI. I refuse to give up my bad writing quirks to an LLM.

***

A list of everything The Marvelous Mirza Girls wants to be (and fails at):
a collection of comedic sketches about the personalities in Delhi you run into when hanging out in rich entertainment and art circles,
a coming of age story,
an Eat Pray Love story about finding yourself in an exoticized land,
a Gilmore Girls mother-daughter story and
a first love story at the same time.

Even worse, it’s not all these things in parts that won’t come together. It’s a dheela assemblage of all this but as half-baked concepts, like drawing room discussions and riksha reflections we all think are insightful and radical and unique when we don’t have enough self-awareness to realize everyone else is also having them. TMMG is hard to review because it doesn’t gel together into one cohesive whole, because it takes exceptional writing to realize a good story is about plumbing the specifics.

***

Let me start with the writing. TMMG reads like a screenplay turned into a novel because novels are easier to publish and Hollywood will never invest in a South Asians-only movie or TV show. It’s replete with overly plain straightforward language because the author cares more that she thought the idea up and nary for polishing the execution, so – to get even more specific – it feels like I’m reading the screenplay for a bad early teen-audience TV show that confuses being simplistic with being kid-friendly: all direction and a plot fitted together like lego blocks. There’s no lingering, no atmosphere, except that contrived, stilted, self-conscious prose everyone associates with MFA writing (I KNOW that’s a bad term; let me be). I’d already thought this before we got Noreen’s first script excerpt; how well that excerpt matched the prose’s tone just proved my point. Both the prose and the script excerpt read at a 14-15 year old level.

Before the ball starts rolling in Delhi, I’m only wincing a bit at the prose and looking high and low for strengths, to keep going. Ruby comes easily to the forefront, the most well-developed character in the book, (but that’s partly because whole interesting people are easy to recreate from the real in fiction). The real skill is in making an underdeveloped, stunted personality still full enough to dissect. Still, credit where credit is due; it’s refreshing to see diaspora fiction where the mother has broken away from the grandmother and isn’t the oppressor. I like that she’s a good parent, a mature adult and supports Noreen, instead of stuck in the past and seeking family reconciliation to heal her.

I like that Ruby pushes back against how US citizens exceptionalize themselves by painting other countries as unusually violent or bad but doesn’t lie about the reality. Yeah it’s unsafe and polluted. Yeah there aren’t women on the streets much. When white people say it, it’s just to prove they’re better. When these women say it, it’s from a place of sorrow. I like that complexity but that was the last stop for the Nuance Bus and I walked the rest of the way home in a blizzard where the hits came hard and fast.

Have you noticed by now that I preferred Ruby over Noreen? Well, that’s because Noreen isn’t much more than a witness to the events taking place. You could swap her out with anyone and it wouldn’t matter, because like Kabir’s counterpart, Noreen is a very unformed desi 18-year-old diaspora girl from New Jersey, US, like a large composite of average forgettable cis het desi teen girls having experiences girls this age usually fantasize about having. When she tells Kabir she loves him, she thinks “please impregnate future me”, because she’s a Wattpad writer in the making. That’s probably her most well-developed trait and it’s not even on purpose.

She’s obsessed in a thoughtless, insecure way with her ‘foreignness’ and how others single her out (such as “beggars”, terminology uncommon to the US) and the story is content to let her think that, with, nothing on how she benefits from her American passport and can leave when she gets tired. The day upper- and middle-class diaspora kids stop being woe is me, I’m between worlds, there will be world peace. I’m a bit accustomed to it now though. Balli Jaswal’s book also liked to pretend diaspora people don’t know their embassy will fight for you if they’re wronged to lord its power over its colonies. They were just doing that for a murderer in Pakistan who decapitated a woman (Zahir Jaffer in the Noor Muqaddam case).

Bereavement is used as an excuse for her shallow characterization; she’s just too traumatized to be a person and it has absolutely nothing to do with the lack of skill at work here. If Noreen is largely one big self-esteem vacuum healed by Kabir’s jobless manic pixie dream boy sexual attraction, well, that’s just between the two of them.

There’s not much to critique Noreen for, except for being a very 2012-2015 Superwholock Tumblr user type of cringe, because she’s just there so the book can happen. But one decision was baffling enough to warrant a long treatise. I’m not sure why Noreen was made a Pakistani-American girl instead of an Indian-American one. The book makes her Pak-Am and then goes out of its way to pretend it would have no bearing on the story. She conveniently doesn’t want to visit Pakistan or want a relationship with the place her family is from. When she’s in Delhi, she doesn’t dare imagine if Lahore would be similar. We don’t know what city Ruby returns to in Pakistan. Their background is never brought up with their new friends in Delhi when it would 100% lead to some discrimination against them. It’s strange to comment on every social problem but there’s nothing on India’s anti-Pakistani xenophobia. There is absolutely no way you can have the time to give a voluntourist white girl a good whacking, while acting like Noreen wouldn’t have been asked by even ONE person to praise India’s secularism and ‘plurality’ over Pakistan’s ‘terrorism’ or if she’s relieved to not be doing pardah. Even in NJ, community dynamics would have shifted from changes in India’s government, as they did in London. This kid would have been familiar with this tension or maybe she’s been raised in solitary confinement her whole life and that was left out too.

(As an aside, there are multiple decisions in the book that feel like the author made them and then forgot about them. If Noreen is from NJ, the story’s penchant for translating food to the point of ridiculousness is even more bewildering. I’m not sure why a roll is being explained as a ‘handheld Indian burrito’ when everyone in the scene is familiar with the item and when rolls exist in the U.S. and even non-South Asian readers will understand what’s being said. I get that some of this is being explained as how Noreen would perceive it but I’m not sure why a kid growing up in NEW JERSEY (currently competing with London to be Little South Asia 2.0) is unfamiliar with rolls.)

When the white girl in the cafe raves about India, even a moderately smart Pak-Am girl with two brain cells to rub together would have reflected briefly on how she and her family would never be fetishized the same way. She can see the racism for what it is but also be on the outside of it, aware that the exoticization won’t apply, only fear. She would know her country of origin is the terror counterpart to India’s exotic, even though they have the same history. Though published in 2021, Noreen has no opinions on the Trump ‘Muslim ban’ that affected Pakistan, she and Ruby never refer to 9/11 and its impact on her grandparents, they say nothing on how a Pakistani Muslim family would feel going to a country ruled by the Butcher of Gujarat. Arzu would not say it makes her look bad to be abandoned by her daughter, she’d say her daughter would get shot on the streets and then praise Jinnah for founding Pakistan and liberating Muslims 🙄 which is also bad, let me make that clear. But that’s how a conservative Muslim Pakistan-American woman would react. She would have hate and vitriol for India, not this random interpersonal grievance.

The Pakistani-American identity would also show up in the visa processing like this, straight from the High Commission of India (isl, pk) website:

“Note: Pakistanis holding dual nationality must apply only on their Pakistani passports. Those who have either renounced Pakistani nationality or cancelled their Pakistani passport would need to submit documentary proof in this regard. Foreign passport holders of Pakistani origin may kindly submit the online visa application form along with the foreign passport and a valid Pakistani visa or a Citizenship Renunciation Letter issued by Ministry of Interior of Pakistan or a proof claiming that the citizenship has been acquired on account of their birth in the said foreign country and that they do not hold Pakistani nationality. They should have valid visa for entering Pakistan in such case.”

Because her grandparents had Pakistani citizenship, she would have to go through this process. The book doesn’t touch on this at all, for some reason. I’d say the reason is that there was no research done on Pakistani American hurdles for visiting India and as such, on the discrimination levied by Indians against Pakistanis, both at home and in the diaspora. But Sheba Karim is Pak-Am, as far as I can tell, so I’m not sure why that entire reality is missing from the story.

The singular acknowledgment of this identity is framed as an event that happened by itself. I don’t have heat for Partition grief when it’s not weaponized by India to be reunited with more resources and labor to exploit, but we HAVE to stop acting like it happened only because of colonial powers and no aiding and abetting by would-be Indian and Pakistani collaborators. The story says ‘aw, wish Partition had never happened and “it’s easier for a Martian to come to India than someone with Pakistani heritage.” But this difficulty is written off as Partition when the law quoted above was implemented in 2008. My only explanation is that social and historical research triggers some kind of a system shutdown in the author.

This aversion to doing any meaningful research and translating it into the story so it reflects awful on-ground realities extends to caste. Like most South Asian literature in English, TMMG wants to do a ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ strategy in regards to acknowledging caste as the foundation for the near-slavery conditions the domestic help exists in. It decorates the landscape with, frankly, workplace abuse but refuses to frame it as such. Instead, it murmurs that it’s simply ‘how things are done here’. Raju the butler is still not trusted by Geeta and forced to perform deference for his caste and class superiors; Sarita works 6 times a week. The one time it acknowledges casteism, it allots the singular instance to Kabir’s domestic staffer, implying that casteism is simply backwards ideology exhibited by the less educated, instead of the foundation for society and the basis of all wealth held by the rich, which includes Noreen and Kabir’s family.

By making the instance largely verbal as well, it erases the structural nature of casteism and undermines how deeply it permeates South Asian society. Yes, it’s not okay for bathroom cleaning duties to be assigned to Dalit and Bahujan women (the term that Noreen should have used instead of “low caste”) but it’s also not okay that these people are working for you at all because they’re more marginalized than you on the class and caste hierarchy. Yes, she was casteist but so is your mother and Geeta Auntie, but theirs isn’t noted as such. Is she too poor to afford bigotry? Can the right to bigotry be disguised if purchased?

TMMG regales us with profound socioeconomic insight, such as: “One of the consequences of labor being so cheap in India was that tasks that could be completed by one person were often done by two or three or four, and not necessarily any more efficiently, which meant she was now half-naked underneath two women, one short and plump, a thick, oiled braid sitting over her shoulder, the other tall, with vitiligo patches across her face and neck.” By itself, the observation seems a bit misguided but harmless but when you step back, you see that TMMG loves opining on societal flaws in India, such as misogyny, shooting of activists, etc. All true and correct. But then, it demurs when asked to bring the same heat to the unprotected, un-unionized, exploited domestic labor class, created primarily by caste. It becomes a funny quirk about life in India, instead of a created and maintained reality.

TMMG lies by pretending labor is cheap because of ‘overpopulation’, a Malthussian myth anyway, but it’s actually caste that makes so much life and labor worthless in South Asia. The abysmal work conditions are manufactured – through never buying helpful machines, protective gear, just like in Industrial Revolution-era UK – to create endless wealth for the enslavers. But I’m guessing this is an aspect of life that can’t be given up by the characters or the authors so it’s just explained away, by cost or by weather (Delhi being so dusty that it requires routine upkeep hint hint). I’m waiting for a ‘it pleases them and fulfills their needs to serve us’ any day now.

I’d say I’m being glad that the domestic workers are at least acknowledged, instead of being completely invisibilized, as they are in other South Asian literature in English, but bro, why the fuck should I be. This is rock bottom.

Once again like most South Asian literature in English, TMMG wants to acknowledge race and colonialism though, but only between white people vs brown people and not within South Asia. TMMG insists there’s only one racial model, and South Asia doesn’t have a parallel and overlapping system. There are indirect obfuscations of this, like how TMMG normalizes the occupation of Pakistan- and Indian-occupied Kashmir by constantly linking Kabir’s friends to Ladakh as if it’s simply another part of India, instead of an occupied territory. Of course, all domestic stuff should be denied and characterized through its absence, so only someone familiar with the occupation would see it, while white imperialism and colonialism must be shouted from the rooftops or better, through fiery admonitions in cafes.

This event is a doozy on multiple levels so bear with me. Noreen meets Ankita, her sexual and romantic rival, in a beyond contrived meeting, where she’s described like such a caricature that I begin picturing Aladdin’s Jasmine slinking around in her sexualized red outfit. But okay, the narration is third person limited omniscient so it’s more indicative of Noreen’s own objectifying perception than the book per se. However, the turn of events are set up by the book, not the protagonist’s perspective. Ankita comes into a cafe to throw a melodramatic overwrought fit. It starts out being about her friend being shot but becomes quickly about her own guilt about not being more than a journalist and, to tie up her coolness with a bow, ends with her laying into a loud and convenient racist white girl who conveniently takes a call right then to gush about how ‘love and light’ the grateful Indian orphans she’s helping on her voluntourism are.

This ham-fisted sequence has all the subtlety of an ice pick rammed straight into my ear and unfolds in a breakneck couple of pages with no sense of irony to set up Ankita as Noreen’s insecurity-triggering foil: sensual, politically radical, brave and self-assured. All admirable qualities but the events the book uses to demonstrate them make me feel like I’m watching a Lele Pons x Jake Paul YouTube skit because it has the same crass quality, where it has to go for the most obvious example of the idea being communicated, just begging to be ridiculed.

This interplay between race and gender continues but like a car speeding downhill because the brakes failed. Camille’s point about white women being seen as sexually easy warrants raising but I don’t see the point of throwing such a flippant observation out there if you’re not gonna unpack it. What, do you want me to act like this observation has taken root out of nowhere? Like colonizers haven’t promoted white women as desirable and vessels of empire power? They’ve positioned themselves and their subjects as sexually freer than their colonies, whom they framed as hypersexual initially and repressed now (in imperialism; see UK and U.S. stereotypes of SWANA and Islam). White women have produced colonial fiction, desiring subjugation and violence from ‘savage’ men of color that they domesticate with their virtue.

Men of color want power and assimilation through white women and white women want men of color they can fetishize and hold up as proof to show they’re more desirable than women of color. Camille is not to be blamed because she’s a mouthpiece and her experience is accurate from her vantage point but I’m irritated by how this book treats misinformed and incomplete expat observations and concerns cultivated by the author and her friends as a checklist to be crammed into this one story over just 6 months, so you don’t see the full context unless you’re familiar with the culture and its power dynamics. Writers, I promise you can read theory and use it to inform your stories so you’re brave enough to confront difficult realities instead of cobbling bullshit together based on your limited perspective, without dying. Scout’s honor.

I’m angry on behalf of the readers who can’t even tell they’re being taken for a ride because they haven’t studied these things for multiple years. Karim lobs disguised, simple-seeming observations at readers who may not be able to spot the sleight of hand.

But hey, if you thought we were done with the very strange gender and sexuality politics, palat, palat and palat once more because Kabir is 24 and dating an 18 year old Noreen. By this point, I was FLABBERGASTED. I had no clue how a seemingly mature parent like Rubina is okay with this, why Adi is encouraging this, etc.

(Another aside: why the FUCK is Adi’s first crush deadnamed and misgendered Caitlyn Jenner? When she went public in 2015 and this book is published in 2021? There could have been ANY other person, so this choice feels deliberately transphobic.)

This is like 40% of the review so the rest is on my b/l/o/g.

[Calleigh]

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.

[Jiji]

This book has the worst Muslim rep I have ever read...

I honestly have no idea why this is being promoted as good rep for Muslims, and I can understand everyone has different experiences, but c'mon. This book was not fun.

Firstly, the third person POV didn't make it an easy read. I didn't relate to Noreen's feelings even when I actually did. The POV made the story so fragmented and hard to read, I had to stop very often just to get back into it with the right mind.

Secondly, the themes right at the start kind of just fizzled out, most importantly grief. The beginning was written well- the way grief was detailed in Noreen's own words and how it impacted her graduation plus her decision to travel. It didn't develop into anything?

Thirdly, I'm not Indian, so I can't speak for the culture rep, but c'mon.. Noreen describes the air quality as being horrendous every five seconds and it got on my nerves! This girl is so stuck in her own head, she literally only sees that random dude Kabir who she's already in love with after 3 meetings??

Finally, if you're going to do Muslim rep, do it right PLEASE. Or at least have some development! Noreen drinks and has casual sex- which is perfectly fine- except when you're representing a whole religion, there are some things that should be explained better, and it was this lack of explanation that I had a major problem with.

I did not enjoy this book at all, and after talking to other reviewers who told me about certain scenes that just don't sit well with me, I've never been so happy to dnf a book.

[Miya (severe pain struggles, slower at the moment)]

This book right away caught my eye. The cover is absolutely gorgeous. I really like how the story is separated. I thought it was a unique way to mark chapters. It felt slightly slow for me in the beginning, but I stuck with it and liked it. I loved the setting and different aspects of culture brought into the book. It is quiet long for young readers, but a lovely story if they are patient.
Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Under the Covers Book Blog]

Noreen travels with her mom to New Delhi on a gap year. Feeling slumpy after her senior year of high school and the death of her aunt, this adventure seems like the perfect opportunity to reignite her life’s purpose.

There are several things worth mentioning about this book.

The setting

If you want a book that will hit that wanderlust bug in you and transport you to India, this is the book for you. The setting and culture felt so vibrant I could almost taste it. This was certainly my favorite part of this book. Noreem is exploring the city with Kabir, a boy she meets upon arrival and of course starts falling for. Getting to see some of the sights through Kabir’s eyes and perspective was also nice because it added depth to the locations they were visiting.

The romance

Yes, there is a romance throughout the book and honestly it was a bit insta lovey and felt like it lacked connection. But it wasn’t something that made me think twice about my enjoyment of the book. It was just there. A bit forgettable.

The family

Specifically here I want to talk about the importance of the mother/daughter relationship in this book. I often found their relationship a bit odd, especially when I compare it to the experience of first generation Indian that I know. At times, Noreem’s mom felt a bit immature herself. But I think that there was growth there in the relationship and it was good to see her be there for her daughter when she needed to be.

The social issues

I feel like a lot of very important topics are mentioned in this book, but at the same time they are not addressed in any deep way. Everything felt really superficial and without the proper handling and resolution. From MeToo to racism, casteism, discrimination. It would’ve been better to narrow these down to only tackle one but do it justice.

The plot

Actual plot, I mean, there wasn’t much of one? It felt like in the end there was a whole lot of nothing really going on. It’s a mix of scenes that delve into the topics I highlighted above but very little in the character growth or finding oneself as a journey or discovery that I was expecting going in.

Overall, I’m glad I picked this one up. It was a very fast and enjoyable read and a great cultural experience.

Reviewed by Francesca ❤ ♡ Don't want to miss any of our posts? Subscribe to our blog by email! ♡ ❤

[J.D. Holman]

I really enjoyed Richa Moorjani's narration of this. The accents were lovely to listen to. Ruby and Noreen sounded a little too similar sometimes, but I can accept that. My mom and I can sound very similar, especially on the phone, as well.

The first half of the book was definitely a hit for me. I laughed a lot. The relationship between Ruby and Noreen is wonderful. I enjoyed the exploration of Delhi through Noreen's eyes.

Then ... I think it was at the point where I recognized that there really needs to be a separation between teen/YA and YA/"new adult," because this book is definitely made for 18+. The Brazilian bikini wax scene was the most explicit part of the book. And I'm not sure I'm old enough to hear about all those details. (J/K, I'm 38. But you know what I mean?)

It also quit being a "popcorn" read. It was still a very good book, with Karim's family's problems and how he and Noreen felt about them, and the growth of their relationship, but the tonal shift was not as enjoyable.

I would still recommend it, though! It does offer a pretty good look at India through Muslim and foreign eyes. Plus the mother-daughter relationship is just so nice.

[Bookshortie]

Noreen has just graduated from school and is hoping to start college soon. When her mother, Ruby is asked to relocated to India as part of her job for a few months Noreen decides to defer her college placement to go with her and fulfil her late aunt’s dream to visit India. India is definitely a different world than Noreen is use to but she quickly settles in. Then she meets Kabir, someone she likes more than a friend. So starts Noreen and Ruby’s new adventure which includes love, laughter, scandal and more.

I really enjoyed the storyline. The book is described as Gilmore Girls meets New Delhi and this is the perfect description of this book. Ruby and Noreen are definitely the desi version of Lorelai and Rory. The characters were likeable and written well. I found the relationship between Ruby and Noreen very sweet and it is clear that they are very close and have a mutual understanding of each other. Although they may be mother and daughter they are also good friends, which adds more depth to their relationship. Noreen is someone who is eager to learn more and explore her surroundings. One of my favourite parts of the books was following Noreen when she explored different monuments and historical places in New Delhi with Kabir. I liked the flashbacks to times and conversations involving Noreen’s aunt, Sonia. Although we never meet Sonia the more your learn about her the more you realise how much of an impact she had in Noreen and Ruby’s life and left behind a hole in their lives that can never be filled.

A YA coming of age book based in New Delhi!

[Kathleen]

Go in expecting great depth and you'll be disappointed. But go in as I did, expecting a sappy little romance with a dash of ethnicity for spice, and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

I think of this as a coming-of-age romance with an extra level of awareness about the complex and chaotic state of the world, and I find I don't need it to come to any amazing conclusions. The protagonist is coming to terms with more challenges than her personal loss, and her youth paired with her level of awareness not only makes her an engaging character, but makes an equivocal but hopeful take most realistic.

Descriptions of Delhi, from trashy to transcendent, felt far more real and engaged than many I've read. As a housebound reader, I appreciate stories that take me places and show me as many facets of those places as possible.