Name: American Betiya
ISBN: 9781984897169

Anuradha D. Rajurkar

Eighteen-year-old Rani, a budding photographer, grapples with first love, family boundaries, and the complications of a cross-cultural relationship.

American Betiya

A luminous story of a young artist grappling with first love, family boundaries and the complications of a cross-cultural relationship. Perfect for fans of Sandhya Menon, Erika Sanchez and Jandy Nelson. Rani Kelkar has never lied to her parents, until she meets Oliver. The same qualities that draw her in--his tattoos, his charisma, his passion for art--make him her mother's worst nightmare. They begin dating in secret, but when Oliver's troubled home life unravels, he starts to ask more of Rani than she knows how to give, desperately trying to fit into her world, no matter how high the cost. When a twist of fate leads Rani from Evanston, Illinois to Pune, India for a summer, she has a reckoning with herself--and what's really brewing beneath the surface of her first love. Winner of SCBWI's Emerging Voices award, Anuradha D. Rajurkar takes an honest look at the ways cultures can clash in an interracial relationship. Braiding together themes of sexuality, artistic expression, and appropriation, she gives voice to a girl claiming ownership of her identity, one shattered stereotype at a time. "A brave, beautiful exploration of identity--those thrust upon us, and those we forge for ourselves." --Elana K. Arnold, award-winning author of What Girls Are Made Of

Lamia Hajani

This YA novel tackles a very tough subject - racism against the South Asian community in a neoliberal city where the prejudice often takes place in the form of microaggressions. This book is made for someone like me - a South Asian girl who grew up in a neoliberal suburb and has grown up to marry a white man. 

American Betiya's main character, Rani, is an artist who wants to be a pediatrician. She meets Oliver, a "bad boy" artist type and quickly begins a secret-from-her-parents relationship with him. She ignores the red flag actions he takes (calling her Princess Jasmine, mimicking her dad that he's never met, etc.), although a part of her brain is screaming that what he's doing isn't okay. She's also got her best friend, Kate, and her family, including her visiting grandma and ailing grandfather in India to worry about.

I'll start with the good: this book is sex-positive, covers microaggressions in a thoughtful way and Rani, the main narrator, is multifaceted and interesting. There are, however, some things I will note about this book that I didn't particularly enjoy:

-The narrative is VERY anti-marijuana. I do not partake, but I also think there is no need to be judgmental of others who do - the book clearly has an anti opinion of marijuana, and it gets to the point where the author treats it as if it's literally equivalent to heroin. 
-The dialogue feels stilted and unnatural at many points of the book.
-This is a small point, but it really took me out of the book. Rani has theoretically been to India multiple times and is ingrained in her culture. But she has no idea what a tandoor is when she sees one. Girl, I've never been to Pakistan and I have lost a lot of my culture since moving out of my parents', but I know what a tandoor is!!

All in all, the book got 3 stars from me. It's a good book with a gorgeous cover and an interesting premise. Thank you to Anuradha D. Rajurkar, NetGalley and Random House Children's for an eARC of American Betiya in exchange for my honest and unfiltered review.

cossette

content/trigger warnings: alcoholism, child abandonment/absent father, drugs, suicide attempt, suicide, death of a friend, pregnancy, racism, misogyny, addiction, abusive parents, death of a grandparent, grief, guilt, gaslighting, manipulation, infidelity, fetishization

i finished this a few hours ago and honestly i'm ... disappointed? i wish i had enjoyed it more. i don't know if i would've enjoyed it more had i known about some of the triggering content prior to reading it, or if my lack of enjoyment was due to things i personally did not ... vibe with ... (such as the strong anti-marijuana perspective) to say the least. 

i loved the family dynamics, i loved the supporting characters — unfortunately, i think i was more interested in rani's family & her best friend than i was in ... her. i appreciated how microaggressions were covered, and i really loved how sex-positive this book was. something i also really loved was how rani comes to stand up for herself, how she comes into her own, and how she realizes that someone's past doesn't justify their shitty actions. 

overall, i thought this was a fast read and would recommend it along with the list of trigger warnings mentioned above. american betiya was quite difficult to read at times, due to all the red flags between rani and oliver, but a poignant & important read nonetheless.

Jelke Lenaerts

I received a galley of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

This book has content warnings for drug use/addiction, alcoholism, racism, fetishisation, death of a loved one and mention of suicide.

This book took me by surprise. Don't get me wrong. I was expecting to enjoy this book but I wasn't expecting to amount of investment I would have into this book. I really liked our main character. She was such a headstrong character with a strong love for her family and her culture and I love how she never backed away from that troughout this entire book. I liked the discusions around religion as well. I liked how she talked about not really believing but how she also wouldn't call herself an atheist because the traditions attached to the religion are such a big part of her and her life. I thought that offered an unique view on religion that I really liked. At the center of this book is a romance and I love how it evolves. I love how the author isn't scared to show how cultural differences can create conflict in a relationship and I like how that was shown in this book. I like how our main character didn't nececarily recognize the fetishisation of her heritage in the moment but as she was more removed from the moment and thought over what happened she did realise it was wrong. I loved the discussions around that by the way. The big discussion that happens between the main character and the love interest when she finally has enough captured me completely and so many great points were raised in that. I even liked the fact that he doesn't learn. It shows the reality of the world. Not everyone is going to learn when you call them out on their microaggresions and fetishisation. But I liked how our main character learned to stand up for herself and being able to discuss that it is wrong. Even though the romance is the central focus of this book I mainly loved the family and friendship aspects in this book. They were done so well. Overall, I really loved this book and I would highly recommend it.

Jawahir M

I would to thank PRH Global for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts expressed are my personal opinion.

Score: 3 / 5

The book had wonderful and harrowing aspects that I'll never forget and stepping into Rani's world was a enlightening experience. It have a slow start despite the fast pacing and Rani's insta love with Oliver was too much for me, she fell for him fast and hard and yes maybe that happens but it just affected my enjoyment rate of my reading.

The cultural fetishization and micro aggressions were phenomenally brilliant. Truly if I could rate these two separately they would get a knock out five stars. How Rani's complex Indian culture is withered down to stereotypical gimmicks and objectification of the worst kind was so shattering. And honestly quite triggering.

Do I recommend? If you want a book that presents cultural fetishization so well this book is a great outlook into that.

Irin 


      American Betiya was such a thoughtfully written novel! I started reading this with high expectations since the book is about a south-Asian girl just like me, but boy, oh boy, it exceeded all my expectations. ALSO, I CAN NEVER STOP SWOONING OVER THE BOOK’S GORGEOUS COVER. Rani’s story had all the ele
  

American Betiya

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