Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating

 

Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating

Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating is about two girls Hani and Ishu who start fake dating for their own personal reasons. Humaira, or Hani, recently came out as bisexual to her friends and they think she’s lying. To prove to her friends that she is truly bisexual and not just looking for attention, she lies to them about dating Ishu. Ishita, or Ishu, is trying to become class-president to one-up her older sister, Nik. Nik just strayed from the only path acceptable to their parents of becoming a doctor, to get married and do what she actually wants to in life and Ishu sees this as an opportunity to win her parents approval even more. In order to become president, she has to be well-liked by her peers and in order to do so, she starts dating charismatic, friendly Ishu. Both of them start this “relationship” quite formally at first, because it is all for their own personal gain but as they become more comfortable, they start to really care about each other. Slowly, their fake dates turn into real feelings and they start understanding parts of their lives that they hadn’t really cared about before. With each other's help, they start embracing the people in their lives that really matter and the parts of themselves that they like the most.

This book includes many important themes for teenagers, including queer teens. In this book, unlike the other people in their lives who are constantly suffocating them, Hani and Ishu allow each other to grow while still being there for each other. It allows self-discovery and the freedom to choose what they want from their lives without being forced into things by their peers or parents. In addition, Nik, Ishu’s older sister, who used to be a competitive, mean person, comes around and softens up, compassionately and empathetically helping Ishu through her problems even though there is the possibility of her getting nothing in return. Throughout the book, Hani and Ishu both let go of toxicity in their own lives and help each other find light in the little things in life.

I think this book was amazing. The writing made you feel like you were in the characters’ shoes and in each chapter the narration switched between Hani and Ishu’s points of view about their entire situation. Personally, I think it was a little predictable because, let’s be honest, we all know how this book is going to end. Nevertheless, I think it was a sweet book. I also think the author approached the idea of two queer, brown girls in a very wholesome and normalized way. Unlike other books where their culture is portrayed as embarrassing to them or their queerness is forced, this book is able to look at these concepts in a very real and understandable way which makes it a lot more enjoyable to read. Also, Hani, who is Muslim, never forces her religion onto Ishu, and Ishu never gets grossed out by Hani’s religion which seems to be the case in a lot of books that have both religious and nonreligious characters. They both have struggles in school that any Bengali, queer person would have, but it never seems far-fetched. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a good book with a sweet ending.

-Praachi