Young Adult Fiction: There's Something About Sweetie by Sandhya Menon

Welcome! Welcome! Welcome to DSN's annual YA Fest, where every post for the month of June will cover a new young adult fiction novel. This is the third year in a row that I have done this, and for the second year in a row, the latest novel by Sandhya Menon will kick things off. There's Something About Sweetie is not quite a sequel, but more of a companion novel to 2017's When Dimple Met Rishi. This time focusing more on Rishi's younger brother, readers enter a complicated world of young love, self love, and parental expectations.

The Situation: Sweetie Nair is getting ready for her 17th birthday celebration, among other things. She is also the star athlete on her high school's track team, and with the end of the school year in sight, she must stay focused for finals. Add to it that she assists her mother on Saturdays when they sell sweets at the market, and Sweetie has a lot going on, but she is happy. For the most part. All it can take is a comment made about her weight, and Sweetie is reminded that many people see her as 'less than.' And to add insult to injury, a lot of the comments come from her own mother. Ashish Patel's world may be completely different from Sweetie's, but a recent breakup is also making him feel less than worthy. Not only is he now having a hard time simply talking to girls, but his basketball game is also suffering. Desperate to move on, Ashish does what he never thought he would do, and that is ask his parents to help set him up with someone new.

The Problem: Ashish's parents are all for this plan, but unfortunately, Sweetie's mother has refused the offer. Ashish is handsome, muscular build, popular, and Mrs. Nair believes he and her daughter would be too much of a mismatch. Once Sweetie is able to move forward from the painful realization that her own mother does not believe she is good enough for Ashish, she decides to plot her own path. With the blessing of Ashish's parents, the two begin to date, not only agreeing to keep it a secret from Sweetie's parents (for now), but also to follow a literal contract laid out by the Patels. The couple can only go on official and sanctioned dates, some of which Ashish is less than excited about. But despite the formalities, and their differences, Ashish and Sweetie kind of...work. In fact, they work really well. Ashish does not give Sweetie's weight a second thought, and Sweetie is fully aware of Ashish's emotional baggage. They both agreed to this more because of something they wanted to prove to themselves, and it is up to them if the relationship is going to survive beyond what is written in a contract.

Genre, Themes, History: This is a young adult fiction novel that follows two Indian-American teenagers. Ashish Patel is the younger brother of Rishi Patel from When Dimple Met Rishi. He is his brother's opposite in nearly every way, but when he realizes how much of a slump he is in, and how well it worked out for his brother when their parents set him up with Dimple, he decides to go for it, and that is how he meets Sweetie. In the Author's Note, Menon acknowledges that the messages that Sweetie gets from her mother were similar to ones she got as a teenager growing up in a South Indian household. To be fat as a woman was synonymous with being a failure, and Sweetie's mother is constant in telling her daughter that she has to cover up her arms, will never be happy unless she loses weight (even though she already is happy), and will not even acknowledge her daughter's successes on the track team, instead insisting that she would be even faster if she were thinner. But despite everything that is thrown at her, Sweetie combats it and slays it, opting to live her life instead of hiding on the sidelines.

My Verdict: This book was a slow burn for me. I liked the characters well enough, especially Sweetie, and I was thrilled with the idea of following Ashish's story, of only as a chance to see how the other Patel brother navigated his life in contrast to the artistic golden child that is Rishi Patel. For whatever reason, the beginning was hard to get into, and things did not really pick up for me until somewhere in the middle. Though Ashish and Sweetie immediately click, for me their relationship did not become engaging until their second date at the Holi Festival. Even so, the slow build pays off immensely in the end, and once the story began picking up momentum, it did not stop, and the conclusion was more satisfying than I expected. It is a book about what it means to fight stereotypes and stand up for yourself, even when a lot of the attacks you face come from inside of your own home.

Favorite Moment: When Sweetie challenges Ashish to a race around the track and easily beats him.

Favorite Character: Sweetie, easily. Though any one of her three friends from the track team would be easy picks too.

Recommended Reading: Both of Menon's previous novels are just as delightful. But I also recommend My So-Called Bollywood Life by Nisha Sharma.