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The Henna wars
400 pages
A spirited queer rom-com where cultural pride, family expectations, and the messy thrill of first love collide in a high school rivalry.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like navigating the chaotic, high-stakes emotional landscape of high school, where the thrill of a new crush is inextricably tangled with the heavy burden of family expectations. The narrative moves at a brisk, engaging pace, balancing the lighthearted, snappy tropes of a rivals-to-lovers rom-com with deeply earnest explorations of identity and belonging. You sit inside a mood that is at once sweet and stressful, feeling the protagonist's painful friction of coming out to parents who refuse to understand, alongside the frustrating, magnetic pull of a childhood friend turned business rival. The prose is accessible and emotionally direct, making it incredibly easy to devour. It is a perfect fit for readers who love queer YA romances that do not shy away from messy realities like cultural appropriation and family rejection, yet still deliver a deeply hopeful, romantic, and culturally rich experience.
- Mood
- hopeful
- stressful
- sweet
- tender
- Tone
- earnest
- spirited
- conflicted
- romantic
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- coming out · cultural appropriation · family expectations · first love · teenage rivalry
- The writing
- Accessible and emotionally direct, balancing the snappy energy of a high school rom-com with the tender weight of personal identity.
- The arc
- Moves from the painful friction of family rejection and hidden identity to the messy, hopeful thrill of self-assertion and young love.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave queer YA romances that weave serious conversations about culture and family into a sweet, rivals-to-lovers dynamic.
Content notes
- family rejection
- homophobia
- cultural appropriation
About the book
When Dimple Met Rishi meets Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda in this rom com about two teen girls with rival henna businesses.
When Nishat comes out to her parents, they say she can be anyone she wants—as long as she isn’t herself. Because Muslim girls aren’t lesbians. Nishat doesn’t want to hide who she is, but she also doesn’t want to lose her relationship with her family. And her life only gets harder once a childhood friend walks back into her life.
Flávia is beautiful and charismatic and Nishat falls for her instantly. But when a school competition invites students to create their own businesses, both Flávia and Nishat choose to do henna, even though Flávia is appropriating Nishat’s culture. Amidst sabotage and school stress, their lives get more tangled—but Nishat can’t quite get rid of her crush on Flávia, and realizes there might be more to her than she realized.
Description from Open Library.
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