Book Review: Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed

This heart-wrenching novel explores what it is like to be thrust into an unwanted marriage. Has Naila’s fate been written in the stars? Or can she still make her own destiny? 
Naila’s conservative immigrant parents have always said the same thing: She may choose what to study, how to wear her hair, and what to be when she grows up—but they will choose her husband. Following their cultural tradition, they will plan an arranged marriage for her. And until then, dating—even friendship with a boy—is forbidden. When Naila breaks their rule by falling in love with Saif, her parents are livid. Convinced she has forgotten who she truly is, they travel to Pakistan to visit relatives and explore their roots. But Naila’s vacation turns into a nightmare when she learns that plans have changed—her parents have found her a husband and they want her to marry him, now! Despite her greatest efforts, Naila is aghast to find herself cut off from everything and everyone she once knew. Her only hope of escape is Saif . . . if he can find her before it’s too late.

I always get excited when a book with diversity gets good reviews from other people. It's always great to have more books with diversity. 

I think this is a very important story for all types of people need to hear today. The story features a young girl of Pakistani heritage that ends up in an arranged marriage by her family during a "vacation". Of course, in some cases, these marriages go over smoothly and they end up very happy with each other. Other girls aren't so lucky and end up in dangerous situations. This was one of the unlucky ones.

It was difficult to read at times, because the narrator had no idea what was really going on, but as a reader you quickly realize how dire her situation becomes. While she had to face some incredibly heart-breaking things at such a young age, she handled it with as much strength as anyone could. The scariest part of this whole thing was when she began to expect her fate. She stopped fighting because she realized how useless and fetal it was. That was scary and as a reader you want to keep cheering her on. 

With such a real topic in today's society, the author handled everything very well. It was never forced down our throats that we were supposed to feel sad, that we should hate her culture or religion and it was written incredibly well. She described everything so eloquently and with vivid detail in few words so that not one page was unimportant. This book is pretty short, only around 200 pages. Which, if I'm being honest, was good because I didn't know how much more I could've taken. 

While it was a hard book to read, it's still a good one to do so. It's good to have these books with all types of diversity and allows one to understand this culture better. If you've read any of Khaled Hosseini's books, this will be very similar. #WeNeedDiverseBooks

Read: July 2015
My Rating: 4 stars / 5 stars