This was my second Sandhya Menon read, but the first book I’ve read in the Dimple and Rishi verse. That being said, I had absolutely no problem in reading this book as a standalone. The plot doesn’t feel as if it were connected with threads from the previous two books, nor do the characters have many little associations that would warrant a whole-series read. 10 Things I Hate About Pinky was just right for the new reader.
Readers will first fall in love with the cover as I was utterly enthralled by how charming the protagonist felt just from how the cover was chosen to be designed. In the book, Pinky Kumar is perfectly depicted on the cover with her wide smiled, passionate, coloured hair, living loudly, and just lovely overall. Pinky was all of this and faces many things that one would deal with at that age: struggling to connect with parents, comparing themselves to others, finding yourself and what you want,and struggling to both conform and not wanting to conform at the same time. Pinky is passionate; she’s impassioned by her thoughts and her goals and she keeps at them no matter how many obstacles come her way. She’s steadfast and opinionated … but she’s also vulnerable, a little lost, and longing to connect with her mother. She’d jump to the save the environment or help someone before they even finish asking, but she doesn’t know what to do or what to say when it comes to reaching out to her mother. Doesn’t that feel familiar? Isn’t that all of us at some point in our lives?
Samir Jha on the other hand is the very opposite of Pinky. Where Pinky is loud, Samir is quiet, where she is outspoken and impulsive, he’s contemplative and a planner, where she’ll never stop, he’s likely to be practical, cut his losses and leave. The one thing they have in common is everything that they feel for each other, which is absolute disregard.
Despite seeming the more perfect between the two, Samir is just as flawed as Pinky and they’re both just as vulnerable. He’d been crying out for help and strangely enough, the universe seems to have heard him.
The author reminds us very gently that everything that we think we perceive about someone can flip in a minute once you get to know them and you may come to find a strange kinship with someone you never thought had anything in common with. I say this not just about a romantic relationship. This whole book is about these kind of connections; between cousins, with a parent, or even strangers. You may never know the wounds that others hold or how close their pain resonates to your own until you look away from yourself.
Almost every aspect of the relationships around Pinky are covered; her relationship with her parents, her peers, her cousin, and of course, her fake-boyfriend. The author delves into the many facets of these relationships that can appear under the spotlight that is life. I enjoyed seeing them because of how normal they were, especially when time and emotions interact suddenly and at the same time in a relationship. Pinky’s life unravels in a way that brings many truths to light, including those that involve her.
My only frustration with the book was that the focus was more on Pinky, which means that there were some things that felt brushed over in Samir’s life. We don’t get to watch his issues untangle, but only see the result of everything having fallen in place. Despite the heavier focus on Pinky, I do feel I would’ve loved to see a better outcome for Pinky and her mother’s relationship because of how wonderfully it built up. The resolve felt a little rushed simply because it didn’t unravel as intricately as it was threaded into place.
However, despite all this, the book brought me lots of smiles and emotion and none of this took away from the over-all feeling of goodness that I walked away with. My previous book having been a heavy one, 10 Things I Hate About Pinky was the perfect light-hearted but emotional remedy for it.
10 Things I Hate About Pinky is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of July 21st 2020.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
The follow-up to When Dimple Met Rishi and There’s Something about Sweetie follows Pinky and Samir as they pretend to date—with disastrous and hilarious results.
Pinky Kumar wears the social justice warrior badge with pride. From raccoon hospitals to persecuted rock stars, no cause is too esoteric for her to champion. But a teeny-tiny part of her also really enjoys making her conservative, buttoned-up corporate lawyer parents cringe.
Samir Jha might have a few . . . quirks remaining from the time he had to take care of his sick mother, like the endless lists he makes in his planner and the way he schedules every minute of every day, but those are good things. They make life predictable and steady.
Pinky loves lazy summers at her parents’ Cape Cod lake house, but after listening to them harangue her about the poor decisions (aka boyfriends) she’s made, she hatches a plan. Get her sorta-friend-sorta-enemy, Samir—who is a total Harvard-bound Mama’s boy—to pose as her perfect boyfriend for the summer. As they bicker their way through lighthouses and butterfly habitats, sparks fly, and they both realize this will be a summer they’ll never forget.
