A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhatena - OPTIONAL

A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhathena, 374 pages.  Farrar Straus Giroux (Macmillan), 2018.  $18.  

Content: Language:  PG (4 swears); Mature Content: PG-13; Violence: PG-13.   

BUYING ADVISORY: HS – OPTIONAL  

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE  

Zarin and Porus are killed in a car accident and when the Saudi Arabian religious police come to question why they were together in the car in the first place, the story begins.  Zarin is an orphan who lives with her mentally ill and abusive aunt and her sometimes kind and protective uncle.  They treat Zarin as though her beauty is a sin which pushes Zarin to use it to get what she wants from men.  Porus is a kind empathetic teen who falls for Zarin’s sassy ways, but his humble life isn’t exciting enough for Zarin until her world is shaken and she needs someone she can rely on.  

This book is hard to read because it’s depressing and the characters aren’t easy to relate to, even though you do have deep empathy for their situation.  The cultural rules about religion, dating and appropriate relationships is interesting.  There is a lot of sexual content including a non-graphic description of a person raped after being drugged, a lot of sex talk, teen boys who sexually shame women and infidelity.  There is also a graphic car accident description and a graphic death explained during a story.  

Reviewer, C. Peterson.