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A review by literatehedgehog
Not the Girls You're Looking for by Aminah Mae Safi
4.0
A sharp contemporary YA with realistic female friendships.
While my high school friendships may have differed from the dynamics in this book, I could totally see these girls as real friends with complicated interactions. They were different in temperaments, backgrounds, race, and sexuality, but each was recognized and valued for those, and played equal parts in the group (at least by the end, I suppose). Best of all, the plot of the book centers on the changes in their relationships, not romantic relationships. Sure, there is plenty of drama with romance and sex, but the driving force of the story is the friendship.
*minor spoiler ahead.
I didn't always understand the moods and reactions of the girls, but it has been...a few decades since I was a teenager so that difficulty is on me, not on the writing. If I had any one particular annoyance, it was that the setting of so many scenes took place at parties. My mental image populated the background of the teen parties with so many slices of 1990s teen comedies that lessened the power of whatever drama was unspooling. Plus, it made it seem like Lulu's life centered on partying, if you consider percentage of story spent at parties (family, religious, and friends combined), but I don't think that was the intention.
Excellent narration, especially distinguishing each girl's voice, and the fluent Arabic and occasional French used.
While my high school friendships may have differed from the dynamics in this book, I could totally see these girls as real friends with complicated interactions. They were different in temperaments, backgrounds, race, and sexuality, but each was recognized and valued for those, and played equal parts in the group (at least by the end, I suppose). Best of all, the plot of the book centers on the changes in their relationships, not romantic relationships. Sure, there is plenty of drama with romance and sex, but the driving force of the story is the friendship.
*minor spoiler ahead
Spoiler
It was also refreshing that Lulu's main antagonist bothered her currently by sexual harassment, but he had become her antagonist through racist behaviors. There was tension in her hiding why he was such an enemy to her, and it would have been believable, but less forceful, for it to be solely on his unwanted sexual attention. [Which, not to minimize, is barbaric and disgusting as it is].I didn't always understand the moods and reactions of the girls, but it has been...a few decades since I was a teenager so that difficulty is on me, not on the writing. If I had any one particular annoyance, it was that the setting of so many scenes took place at parties. My mental image populated the background of the teen parties with so many slices of 1990s teen comedies that lessened the power of whatever drama was unspooling. Plus, it made it seem like Lulu's life centered on partying, if you consider percentage of story spent at parties (family, religious, and friends combined), but I don't think that was the intention.
Excellent narration, especially distinguishing each girl's voice, and the fluent Arabic and occasional French used.