SuitabookHani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating
Adiba Jaigirdar
- Reading
- Read alongside the teenager if they welcome discussion, pausing after conflicts about friends, family, culture or faith. Ask what each character wants, whose expectations matter, and whether their choices respect themselves and others.
- Themes
- Identity and belonging: Hani is pressured to prove her bisexuality and accommodate friends who disrespect aspects of her culture, religion and sexuality. The story treats self-respect and supportive relationships as preferable to assimilation and demands for proof.
- Family expectations and autonomy: Ishu feels responsible for meeting her parents’ expectations while responding to her sister’s different life plans and her own ambitions. The book recognises family relationships while showing Ishu questioning whether pleasing her parents should determine her future.
- Performing a relationship: Hani and Ishu pretend to date for different social purposes: answering doubts about Hani’s sexuality and supporting Ishu’s Head Girl campaign. The premise creates romantic and comic energy, but also raises questions about honesty, consent and whether social approval should depend on performance.
- Worth knowing
- Content to discuss beforehand includes strong language, several kisses, a reference to an orgasm, brief mention of genocide and war, peer pressure to drink, and racist or homophobic microaggressions.