A Sciencey Sapphic Read: Rani Choudhury Must Die by Adiba Jaigirdar

Rani Choudhury Must Die by Adiba Jaigirdar is a book I’ve been looking forward to. I really enjoyed Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating, as well as The Henna Wars by the same author, and I was in the mood for a teen read!

This story follows Rani and Meghna, ex-best friends who find out they’re dating the same boy and devise a plan to get their revenge on him at the European Young Scientist Exhibition by creating an app designed to tell if someone is cheating on you. Stories about people creating apps aren’t really my cup of tea because I don’t own a smartphone, so that whole world is pretty distant from what I pay attention to. However, despite my personal anti-smartphone biases, I think creating an app to catch your cheating boyfriend on a big science exhibition stage is very funny, though not the most ethical thing to do.

Friendships are a major part of the story: Rani and Meghna used to be the best of friends, but after family drama, they stopped talking to one another and wound up at different schools. They haven’t spoken until they run into each other at the Irish division of the Young Scientist Exhibition, where the whole story kicks off. Meghna is prepared to lose to Rani, because she loses to Rani every year. On the other hand, Rani is competing against Zak, her two-timing boyfriend whom her family adores, and she’s worried he’s going to upstage her at something she really cares about. Once the two of them discover the cheating, it only brings them closer together, despite Meghna’s attempts to keep distant.

I thought the romance was cute, though it didn’t quite have the zing compared to other books by the author. This could just be because I picked up on a lot of the friendship elements first, since a big portion of the relationship is them becoming genuine friends again after years of not talking. I enjoyed seeing the progression of Meghna realizing her feelings for Rani as they regained their friendship, and her opening up more and more as they worked together.

Overall, this was a solidly enjoyable read! It captured my interest, and it was cute. I truly don’t have many more thoughts than that. It was a chilly gloomy day when I read this, and it was just the right thing to cheer me up and add some brightness to my life. I’m very glad I can always count on Adiba Jaigirdar to write a book that will do that, while still exploring important topics like women of colour in science and the attitudes people have towards that. If you’re a science fan, or just want to see two girls get together after breaking up with their nasty ex, give this book a shot!