Imagine my joy (and apprehension) when I finally stumbled upon a copy of When Dimple Met Rishi in my school library, the book that people had been going nuts over at Goodreads. If you guys didn’t know already, I’m Indian, and it makes me absolutely crazy, excited, and understandably scared that this book features Indian MCs and a view into our vast culture. Unfortunately, besides this fact, the romance, characters, and overall writing did NOT do great things for me.
I finished this book quick because it was entertaining and easy to read, but the writing was repetitive and the plot was practically nonexistent. The book had practically no direction but still happened to remain as predictable as typical dramatic Bollywood love story. Basically nothing happens for 75% of the book and then when something finally does, you’re so bored that you don’t even care about continuing. Especially since you already know what’s coming. I mean, it only took 2 days to get through this book, but halfway through, I was this:
Dimple and Rishi, I will say, have pretty realistic goals, flaws, and personalities. Dimple is passionate and independent, but is rebellious toward her traditional parents (specifically her mother) who tend to focus more on her appearance and acquiring husbands than her interest in coding and computer science. Rishi, on the other hand, is much more welcoming and embracing of his culture, but has trouble expressing his true passions to his parents. The characters themselves were too inconsistent for me to be invested in, but I could relate to both of their insecurities and fears about who they were and what others wanted them to be. The secondary characters, however, were altogether unnecessary. Besides adding a dash of cringe (which every Bollywood movie contains, let’s be real), they served no purpose but to stir up drama that had nothing to do with the message of the book or the plot.
Musings and Books 