10 Things I Hate About Pinky by Sandhya Menon

Summary from Goodreads:

The follow-up to When Dimple Met Rishi and There’s Something about Sweetie follows Pinky and Samir as they pretend to date—with disastrous and hilarious results.

Pinky Kumar wears the social justice warrior badge with pride. From raccoon hospitals to persecuted rock stars, no cause is too esoteric for her to champion. But a teeny-tiny part of her also really enjoys making her conservative, buttoned-up corporate lawyer parents cringe.

Samir Jha might have a few . . . quirks remaining from the time he had to take care of his sick mother, like the endless lists he makes in his planner and the way he schedules every minute of every day, but those are good things. They make life predictable and steady.

Pinky loves lazy summers at her parents’ Cape Cod lake house, but after listening to them harangue her about the poor decisions (aka boyfriends) she’s made, she hatches a plan. Get her sorta-friend-sorta-enemy, Samir—who is a total Harvard-bound Mama’s boy—to pose as her perfect boyfriend for the summer. As they bicker their way through lighthouses and butterfly habitats, sparks fly, and they both realize this will be a summer they'll never forget.

Review:

I loved When Dimple Met Rishi and There’s Something about Sweetie. I didn’t even know this book was coming out! I was so excited when this came across my radar. I ordered it and requested at my library right away. Also, 10 Things I Hate about You is one of my all time favorite movies. Oh, and I live in Cape in Cod, where it takes place.  I had high hopes for this book.

Sadly, this is my least favorite book in the series. I still read it super quickly. I needed something light and fluffly for my stay-cation week, something to go down nicely between some of the heavier stuff I’d been reading lately. Plus, I love a little romance every now and then. I guess I still enjoyed the romance and the summer island setting, though, I wish some real inland Cape Cod places were mentioned too….

So much is said throughout the whole book about Pinky’s shady past. It keeps getting alluded to by her parents, her cousin, her relatives, and even herself. Yet, we never see it! What on earth happened? Drugs? Alcohol? Sex? What did she do? Over the summer, she plays Boggle, attends trivia night at the club with her parents, and reads for fun alone in her room….Like something wasn’t clicking. What terrible things did she do?

Then we get introduced to the idea that Pinky’s mother hates protesting. And Pinky likes standing up for the little guy. She rescues raccoons and opossums. She works her butt off to try to save a butterfly habitat on the island, despite a lot of negativity. But, would any of these things qualify her as a problem child? Not really…At one point, it’s mentioned that she has an ex that had to do community service instead of prison time. And that’s she had a lot of exes. But…I feel like this gives a really bad picture to kids/teens about what makes teens a “problem child.” Shouldn’t we be encouraging more youth to stand up for what’s right? And not worrying them that their parents will be against it? I don’t know. This whole thing seemed kind of backward and strange. Like the mom was against her child doing the right thing….

Then there’s another weird storyline with Pinky’s cousin “slumming it” with a neighbor at the lake. I get that the guy was no good. But, it felt like he kept being dismissed as no good because he was “new money” and not actually because he was no good. And then the cousin gets punished for having a relationship with him. She hadn’t been punished for past monogamous relationships.  I don’t know. I guess I felt like the parenting here was totally out of whack and not real.

I felt bad for the kids and their lack of real leadership/parenting.  It made sense that the girls were so confused –both rebelling. Though, again, I’m not sure saving the planet one butterfly habitat at a time, and dating one not so great guy is real rebellion.  

I did enjoy the romance. I found Samir to be sweet. He was nowhere near as interesting as Pinky. But, I liked what he brought to the balance of things. And I guess we needed a mature character from somewhere. It wasn’t coming from the adults. I give it a 6/10.