Henna Wars

 Henna Wars

Henna Wars is a book about Nishat and Flavia, two high school girls who love henna. Nishat is a queer, Bangladeshi girl at a Catholic school who feels isolated because of her faith and sexuality. Flavia, Nishat's childhood friend, joins Nishat’s school as a transfer. Despite the bullying that Nishat faces because of her identity, the one thing that makes her feel happy and connected to her heritage is her henna business. Flavia also opens a henna business and she’s actually really good at it. They start to compete against each other for who has a better henna business and their friendship starts to fall apart. Will they be able to regain the connection they once had with each other or will the thing they care about most pull them apart?

This book touches on the intersectionality of art and culture. Though henna is a part of Nishat’s Bangladeshi culture, it still belongs to Flavia just the same because she cares about it. Henna itself isn’t pulling them apart, their competition over art is. I believe that for the most part, art can belong to one culture but still be respected and embraced by others. Most of the time, people try to avoid talking about issues like this because it's hard to portray either side without it seeming like gatekeeping or cultural appropriation. This book shows that art belongs to all of us and can bring us together and help us all embrace each other.

I highly recommend this book. It's sweet and like all other young adult books, it has a happy ending. I think it does a great job showcasing different cultures and showing the intersectionality of culture. This book is a romantic comedy, so it's funny and sweet. It’s also a very relatable book because both girls are dealing with high school problems like meeting the expectations of parents and teachers and fitting in with others. 9/10

-Praachi

Comments

  1. LenaApril 3, 2023 at 8:55 AM

    Praachi, great job! It's cool how you noticed that one of the lessons of this book is showing that art can belong to one culture but still be used and embraced in a respectful way by others. It's cool that the main character was able to feel happy because of her business despite the fact that she had many other problems in her life.

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  2. SriApril 3, 2023 at 11:25 AM

    Nice Review Praachi! The story seems pretty interesting, but what stood out to me was the way this post was structured. I really like how you made everything short and sweet, so it wasn't really long, but still got the information through to the reader.

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  3. Kaylee ZhengApril 3, 2023 at 9:13 PM

    Good review Praachi! Henna Wars sounds like a really good book, featuring values, identity, culture, and life all in an engaging way. I think I want to try reading this book. Also, I love how clear and concise your reviews are.

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  4. Simrah KhanApril 6, 2023 at 8:29 PM

    Hi Praachi! I can't begin to describe how much I loved reading this review! Your writing is descriptive and does an amazing job of captivating the reader. I also appreciated how you said that art can belong to anyone, just like henna belongs to Flavia just as much it does to Nishat. Great review, I will definitely check this book out sometime soon!

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