When Dimple Met Rishi
Title: When Dimple Met Rishi
Author(s): Sandhya Menon
My rating: ★★★★
Format: Audiobook
content warnings: racism, misogyny, harassment, bullying
representation: indian-american main and side characters, indian side character, side interracial m/f relationship, bi/pan side character
“She wept for her hardheadedness, and for a world that couldn’t just let her be both, a woman in love and a woman with a career, without flares of guilt and self-doubt seeping in and wrecking havoc. No one she knew had balanced both. There was either work or love. Wanting both felt like a huge ask, it felt like wishing for hot ice cream or a bitter sugar cube.”
Review can also be found on my goodreads.
Oh my GOD, you were all so hard on this. I have two theories for so many 1/2 star reviews. 1) You guys were expecting something other than a slightly-cheesy romcom, or 2) Racism. Keeping in mind that when I say that, I don't mean "you hate indian people", I mean "this female indian-american protagonist didn't act the way you expected". FOR THE RECORD, I'm not saying that every single 1/2 star review is for either of those reasons, but judging by the multiple I've read that seems to be the theme.
I'm going to literally just address the complaints because I think most of them are bullshit:
I thought this would be about a girl at STEM camp, not so much romance. Yeah, no shit, it's a fucking romance. That is the genre. This is where the "you didn't know this was a romcom" thing comes in, because I think a lot of people genuinely thought this was going to be something other than a feel-good, romantic contemporary.
Dimple is a bitch, e.g. the iced coffee scene. This is, no offence, the stupidest criticism I've ever read in my entire life. The way the scene plays out is that Dimple is sitting at Starbucks by herself, enjoying her coffee, and then Rishi goes up to her and says "hello, my future wife". Dimple hasn't been made aware of the future-arranged-marriage thing and just thinks he's a weirdo. He then says "I can't wait to spend the rest of our lives together". So Dimple (who is a girl, by herself, who has been approached by a boy she doesn't know who made creepy, romantic comments) throws her iced coffee at him and runs. I'm not blaming Rishi for this, he didn't know that Dimple didn't know, but I definitely don't think Dimple was unjustified in her actions.
Dimple is abusive. Yeah, I don't see this. People cite the fact that she punches him several times, leaving out that each time is a light, friendly punch that people give their friends, because she does it when they're more-or-less strangers, friends, and friends with sexual tension.
Dimple hates other women and slut shames them. No she doesn't. She mentions several times that she doesn't like wearing make-up and doesn't care about her clothes, but that is always specifically in relation to the expectations her mother and culture places upon her. She also makes comments about other girls' wardrobes, but never is a deprecating way. The closest she gets is when she describes Celia and Isabelle's costumes for the talent show, and then she's specifically talking about how uncomfortable they look and how obvious it is that the guys decided on the costumes.
Again, I genuinely don't understand why people hate this book with such a passion. I thought it was fun and cute, with endearing characters, good banter, and an adorable romance. That scene towards the start when they're taking pictures with the polaroid? 💕💕💕 If you're looking for a light romcom with some slightly deeper themes of misogyny and racism, I would definitely recommend this.
Author(s): Sandhya Menon
My rating: ★★★★
Format: Audiobook
content warnings: racism, misogyny, harassment, bullying
representation: indian-american main and side characters, indian side character, side interracial m/f relationship, bi/pan side character
“She wept for her hardheadedness, and for a world that couldn’t just let her be both, a woman in love and a woman with a career, without flares of guilt and self-doubt seeping in and wrecking havoc. No one she knew had balanced both. There was either work or love. Wanting both felt like a huge ask, it felt like wishing for hot ice cream or a bitter sugar cube.”
Review can also be found on my goodreads.
Oh my GOD, you were all so hard on this. I have two theories for so many 1/2 star reviews. 1) You guys were expecting something other than a slightly-cheesy romcom, or 2) Racism. Keeping in mind that when I say that, I don't mean "you hate indian people", I mean "this female indian-american protagonist didn't act the way you expected". FOR THE RECORD, I'm not saying that every single 1/2 star review is for either of those reasons, but judging by the multiple I've read that seems to be the theme.
I'm going to literally just address the complaints because I think most of them are bullshit:
I thought this would be about a girl at STEM camp, not so much romance. Yeah, no shit, it's a fucking romance. That is the genre. This is where the "you didn't know this was a romcom" thing comes in, because I think a lot of people genuinely thought this was going to be something other than a feel-good, romantic contemporary.
Dimple is a bitch, e.g. the iced coffee scene. This is, no offence, the stupidest criticism I've ever read in my entire life. The way the scene plays out is that Dimple is sitting at Starbucks by herself, enjoying her coffee, and then Rishi goes up to her and says "hello, my future wife". Dimple hasn't been made aware of the future-arranged-marriage thing and just thinks he's a weirdo. He then says "I can't wait to spend the rest of our lives together". So Dimple (who is a girl, by herself, who has been approached by a boy she doesn't know who made creepy, romantic comments) throws her iced coffee at him and runs. I'm not blaming Rishi for this, he didn't know that Dimple didn't know, but I definitely don't think Dimple was unjustified in her actions.
Dimple is abusive. Yeah, I don't see this. People cite the fact that she punches him several times, leaving out that each time is a light, friendly punch that people give their friends, because she does it when they're more-or-less strangers, friends, and friends with sexual tension.
Dimple hates other women and slut shames them. No she doesn't. She mentions several times that she doesn't like wearing make-up and doesn't care about her clothes, but that is always specifically in relation to the expectations her mother and culture places upon her. She also makes comments about other girls' wardrobes, but never is a deprecating way. The closest she gets is when she describes Celia and Isabelle's costumes for the talent show, and then she's specifically talking about how uncomfortable they look and how obvious it is that the guys decided on the costumes.
Again, I genuinely don't understand why people hate this book with such a passion. I thought it was fun and cute, with endearing characters, good banter, and an adorable romance. That scene towards the start when they're taking pictures with the polaroid? 💕💕💕 If you're looking for a light romcom with some slightly deeper themes of misogyny and racism, I would definitely recommend this.
Comments
Post a Comment