Sixteen-year-old Zarin Wadia is many things: a bright and vivacious student, an orphan, a risk taker. She’s also the kind of girl that parents warn their kids to stay away from: a troublemaker whose many romances are the subject of endless gossip at school. You don't want to get involved with a girl like that, they say. So how is it that eighteen-year-old Porus Dumasia has only ever had eyes for her? And how did Zarin and Porus end up dead in a car together, crashed on the side of a highway in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia? When the religious police arrive on the scene, everything everyone thought they knew about Zarin is questioned. And as her story is pieced together, told through multiple perspectives, it becomes clear that she was far more than just a girl like that (Via Goodreads.com).
Pages: 378
Release Date: February 27th, 2018
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Review:
A Girl Like That is an extremely amazing yet underpromoted novel. It follows, Zarin, an Indian girl who moves with her aunt and uncle to Saudia Arabia after her mother's death. Her abusive aunt leads her to estrange herself from her family and Zarin begins "acting out," which ultimately brands her as "a girl like that." She is thought to have slept with everyone and all the girls at school despise her. The story starts with the mysterious death of her and her best friend, Porus, and works from the past until it intercepts with their deaths. I only remember seeing the cover of A Girl Like That once or twice around its publication date then it seemed to have vanished from the Earth. While it is not a well known novel, it is a fantastic read and I highly recommend it.
One of the well addressed topics within the novel is the contradictory treatment of men and women in Saudia Arabia. Women are restricted from things such as dating or being in the presence of men, but men date and interact with women easily. The idea as a whole transfers to the entire world. Although Zarin is considered derogatory terms because of her "relations" with guys, those same guys are able to have relations with women and not receive any slack. It is the perpetuation of a "boys will be boys" attitude while women are deemed impure if they demonstrate the same behavior.
Zarin is also not "a girl like that." She does hang out with a few guys, mainly Porus, but she rarely does anything with them. She mainly sits in their car and smokes with them. Society and her peers paint her in a certain light by judging her behavior, but they do not know who she actually is. Ironically enough, the guys she hangs out with have good reputations; however, they are predators. A couple of them are truly terrible people and I will give a warning for rape/sexual assault content within the novel.
The entire point of A Girl Like That is the fact that Zarin's peers do not know who she is. They believe her to be a certain person, but they never allow themselves to get to know her, they prefer to judge her instead. The only person who actually knows Zarin is Porus. He is the only person that realized she was not "a girl like that" while she was still alive. Everyone else discovers who she truly is after her death. They should not have gotten the truth after her death, they should have understood her before she was gone, it might have changed the outcome of the novel.
I absolutely loved Zarin and Porus individually and together. They were both well developed characters with distinguishable tones and chapters. I loved how independent and strong Zarin was while Porus was such an adorable and supportive friend. I wish that Zarin had been more accepting of his friendship sooner, but I understand why she was so abrasive. While I did enjoy the end of the novel, I wish it could have ended differently. They both deserved more time on Earth and the readers deserved to have more time with them. They were both such phenomenal characters, I wish there was more to their story, I just want more.
A Girl Like That was one of, if not, my favorite book of 2018. It had fantastic characters, a great story line, and a lasting message. I experienced a lot of different emotions throughout the story. Although you know how the story ends at the beginning, it still does not prepare you for the journey you are about to take with the characters. I highly recommend reading A Girl Like That, I cannot give it enough praise, it deserves to be more mainstream. I am excited to see what else Tanaz Bhathena publishes in the future.
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