Skunk Girl~ Sheba Karim Review

Enjoyment: ★☆

Plot: ☆

Characters: ★★

Flow: ★★★

Overall: ★☆

If Nina Khan were to rate herself on the unofficial Pakistani prestige point system – the one she’s sure all the aunties and uncles use to determine the most attractive marriage prospects for their children – her scoring might go something like this:

+2 points for getting excellent grades
–3 points for failing to live up to expectations set by genius older sister
+4 points for dutifully obeying parents and never, ever going to parties, no matter how antisocial that makes her seem to everyone at Deer Hook High
–1 point for harboring secret jealousy of her best friends, who are allowed to date like normal teenagers
+2 points for never drinking an alcoholic beverage
–10 points for obsessing about Asher Richelli, who talks to Nina like she’s not a freak at all, even though he knows that she has a disturbing line of hair running down her back

In this wryly funny debut novel, the smart, sassy, and utterly lovable Nina Khan tackles friends, family, and love, and learns that it’s possible to embrace two very different cultures – even if things can get a little bit, well, hairy.
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This book made me feel so blah.

The main character was so shallow and self-absorbed. When I had read the summary I was under the impression that the book would actually have the fact that she had a stripe of hair down her back some time in the beginning of the story. Nope, in fact you don't hear about the hair until page 101 and after that point it is really only mentioned in passing. Nina, the shallow main character, thinks nonstop about this guy named Asher and when ever she's not thinking about him she is insulting everything and everyone around her. I personally liked her so-called archenemy more than her because at least Serena had different facets to her personality. I would have rather have read about one of her friends because they were so much more interesting.

The plot. Where to start? This is what happened. Nina sees Asher. Nina starts to obsess over Asher. Nina complains how she can't go out with Asher. Nina hates Serena because she is dating Asher when she can't date Asher. Nina is mad that Asher sees her hairy back and so ignores him for five seconds. Nina obsesses over Asher some more and then she and her sister go to Pakistan. Where was the conflict? What was the conflict? Better yet, what was the point of this story?

Personally some stories are better not written and this is one of them. It reminded me of this really boring blog I once read that consisted of a guy saying everything he did and at what time he did it at. It started with I woke up and ended at I went to bed. Only without all of my beautiful capitalization.