Book Review: There’s Something About Sweetie by Sandhya Menon

There’s Something About Sweetie by Sandhya Menon
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: May 14, 2019
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Ashish Patel didn’t know love could be so…sucky. After being dumped by his ex-girlfriend, his mojo goes AWOL. Even worse, his parents are annoyingly, smugly confident they could find him a better match. So, in a moment of weakness, Ash challenges them to set him up.

The Patels insist Ashish date an Indian-American girl – under contract. Per subclause 1(a), he’ll be taking his date on “fun” excursions like visiting the Hindu temple and his eccentric Gita Auntie. Kill him now. How is this ever going to work?

Sweetie Nair is many things: a formidable track athlete who can outrun most people in California, a loyal friend, a shower-singing champion. Oh, and she’s also fat. To Sweetie’s traditional parents, this last detail is the kiss of death.

Sweetie loves her parents, but she’s so tired of being told she’s lacking because she’s fat. She decides it’s time to kick off the Sassy Sweetie Project, where she’ll show the world (and herself) what she’s really made of.

Ashish and Sweetie both have something to prove. But with each date they realize there’s an unexpected magic growing between them. Can they find their true selves without losing each other?

There’s Something About Sweetie is a companion novel to When Dimple Met Rishi. It totally stands alone – Dimple and Rishi only make a very brief appearance. There’s Something About Sweetie is about Rishi’s little brother Ashish and a girl named Sweetie Nair. Sweetie is a great student and star of her school’s track team. That’s not good enough for her Indian mother because she also happens to be fat. Sweetie’s mother worries that she’ll never find a suitable boy if she doesn’t lose weight.

Ashish is recovering from a break-up and decides to do something he never thought he’d do…Ask his parents to set him up with an Indian girl. They choose Sweetie but Sweetie’s mother won’t allow it. She thinks that because Sweetie is fat, she’s not good enough for Ashish or his family. His parents are filthy rich after all. Sweetie and Ashish decide that they want to date anyway. Ashish’s parents make them sign a dating contract outlining the specific dates he and Sweetie are allowed to go on. Hopefully, Sweetie’s mother won’t find out.

I appreciated that this book showed that just because someone is overweight, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t worthy of love or can’t be happy. And that it’s possible to be overweight and an athlete. I think Sweetie is a great role model – she’s very body positive, which is quite a feat considering how horrible her mother is to her about her weight. However, There’s Something About Sweetie crosses the line into After-School Special territory. I found it to be preachy at times. The dialogue between Sweetie, Ashish and their friends was not how typical teenagers talk. The author definitely had an objective – she wrote that she herself was fat as a child – but I think she was heavy-handed in trying to achieve it. I’d be interested to find out if teen readers feel the same way.