Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin | Book Review

Hello friends! I’m back with another book review. After finishing Moon Fuentez and unexpectedly love this book, I didn’t expect to find another favorite this quick. Here I present you the book which offers you a lot of things, and will make you crave some Indian foods! And it's available as audiobook on Storytel.

Length                                 : 376 pages

Date released                       : April 13, 2021

Date read                             : July 3-11, 2022

Goodreads rating                 : 4.02

My rating                             : 4.50

Keywords                            : adult, contemporary, romance, foods, Indian foods, radio, podcast, Canada,

                                              BIPOC main character, muslim main character, hijabi main character

Trigger warnings               : misogyny, racism, islamophobia, chronic illness, men

Where to read                    : Storytel

BLURB

“Hana Khan’s family-run halal restaurant is on its last legs. So when a flashy competitor gets ready to open nearby, bringing their inevitable closure even closer, she turns to her anonymously-hosted podcast, and her lively and long-lasting relationship with one of her listeners, for advice. But a hate-motivated attack on their neighbourhood complicates the situation further, as does Hana’s growing attraction for Aydin, the young owner of the rival business. Who might not be a complete stranger after all”

MY THOUGHTS

I love this book! First of all let’s appreciate the narrator who did good job to make my heart flutter every time they said Aydin’s name. It’s the most beautiful thing they read in this book (everything else is beautiful, yes).

This is a contemporary romance but it’s wrapped inside food, religion, and cultural difference discussion.

Our main character, Hana, loves podcast and radio, and she has her own podcast and she found an online friend she never met, yet she felt kinda liking him. This situation can happen to any of us right? We can feel some sort of attraction towards people we don’t know through their typing and online conversations. Well, the thing that motivates me to talk about my current situation especially about my Youtube channel in my August Bullet Journal setup is Hana’s courage and fun way to talk about brown people living in Canada.

Spoiler alert : I didn’t get the confidence to talk about myself and to talk in front of camera because people who have subscribed to my channel are mostly for my bullet journal setup, and as people of color myself, I felt the fear of rejection. I wanted to speak but I scared that people will hate me because of my skin color or my clothes or my language, because I want to be friends with everyone all over the world. Then I found this book and listening to the audiobook reminds me that there are always people who have different opinions or taste or preferences and they will disagree with you, if I only think about the differences, I’ll be forever staying in this scared shell and not be able to do what I want to do. So, I’m so lucky to be able to listen to this book.

Back to the book talk. Hana, as the main character here is not a flawless character who only did good stuff but she made mistakes, she hated some people, she fixed her mistakes and finally she accepted the truth. And this is the first book I read with Muslim MC which also shows the religious practices such as prayer, going to the mosque, and attending the funeral. I appreciate everything she included in this book and it shows that people with strong beliefs about religion and do the prayers diligently can have problems, make mistakes and reflect upon their actions, because we are all humans, right?

If you find the act of islamophobia is triggering, this book has some part about it, so read the trigger warning before picking this book.

I love the support and bond among characters in this book, not only the Muslim ones, but also everyone living there. I love Hana’s friendship with Yusuf and Lily too. Also, I love Hana’s cousin, Rashid. He was so funny. Yes he made mistakes too and he might make things worse, but the way he handled stuff which was different from Hana (or Aydin) was interesting, and don't forget his little love story.

Honestly, this book talks about many things, so I might forget some important stuff I like from it. Hana’s purpose on sharing about brown people is cool and different. She didn’t want to show the struggle or the hate they received, but she wanted to show another side of brown people’s family which I think it’s a way to show that we are also humans and we have family and we have problems. We only have different language and skin color. That’s cool for me! She is also courageous and having strong opinion. She didn’t want to follow the idea of Radio Toronto’s senior, and she accepted her being fired because of her idea.

For the mystery about this online guy she found is not really a mystery for me, because I can predict who he was. But the revelation and how everything explained still made me stick to the book until the end.

Okay, this book also made me craving biryani (I don’t know if biryani poutine is my kind of food).

"Then you tell me your favorite book so I can read it just so we can argue about it."

Also, from Aydin’s side, which is about business and his relationship with his family, is another whole interesting topic. The business topic, is about him wanting to prove that he’s capable of everything his father expected him to do. It is about meeting her father’s expectation. And I want to know this book from Aydin’s POV because I know being Aydin is not easy. He might look cool and rich and has anything he wants, but he also has to do a lot for his father. And the story for Aydin’s family and his relationship with his parents are just unexpected! We can see towards the end of the book, that all characters you think are only side characters turned out to be important people for the story. So, just stick to the book until the end. This story about Aydin and the revelation about the truth about his family are my favorites.

this graphic is from my July reading thread

This book makes me wonder how Biryani Poutine in the real life tastes like. 

Overall, this book is another unexpected favorite of 2022, too many books I like this year, it seems, haha. So, have you read this book? Tell me down below.