REVIEWS FOR SKUNK GIRL
“[T]here are only two types of people who spend their Friday nights in high school at home—Pakistani Muslim girls and future serial killers.” Although Nina Khan was born and raised in small-town Deer Hook, N.Y., and has never visited her parents’ homeland, she must adhere to their rigid cultural and religious beliefs, including no sleepovers, alcohol or dating. With dark skin, a wide bottom and an overabundance of body hair that makes her a “skunk girl,” what are her chances of dating in the predominantly fair-skinned, closed-minded town anyway? But when Italian Asher transfers to her high school, she dreams of romance for the first time. In this debut, episodic novel, rife with smart, self-deprecating humor and set in the 1990s just as a phenomenon known as e-mail is gaining interest, Nina searches for identity and emerging independence while accepting the reality of her home life.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“Karim’s first novel provides a rare exploration of Muslim culture and will be a welcome addition to teen collections.”
— Booklist
“Narrator Nina has a wry, witty take on her life’s circumstances, yet her humor is subtly delivered, deftly intermixed with the novel’s undercurrent of seriousness. Whether they share Nina’s circumstances or not, readers will readily identify with her struggle, and they’ll find her an endearing and admirable literary companion.”
— Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
“Readers will get a kick out of a story featuring a character whose background may be nothing like theirs, but who is someone they can relate to all the same. They’ll appreciate — and maybe admire — Nina’s sense of humor about her predicament, and they’ll root for her in her quest to win Asher’s heart. The jury is still out on what the future will hold for Nina (and for those like her). But if what Karim has written thus far is any example, she’ll probably be fine.”
— Teenreads.com
“The book’s strength is Karim’s writing, which makes light work of balancing the darkness of the pre-“post-racial” world with the annoying but perennially interesting problems of teenage girlhood: singledom, first love, heartbreak—and hair.”
— Mint (India)
“As the first person narrative progresses, Karim’s acerbic insights into America’s Pakistani society will have readers chuckling loudly. Nina’s ready wit and sarcasm are thoroughly enjoyable as she describes her tiresome relatives, her cloistered life, her perspectives that are always at odds with her parents’, and her constant struggle with body hair.”
— The Telegraph (India)
REVIEWS FOR “HEAVENLY ORNAMENTS” in ELECTRIC FEATHER
“Heavenly Ornaments” by Sheba Karim is one of the best. This story about a little girl’s introduction to eros and thanatos, to pleasure and fear, to tenderness and humiliation, through her life in her grandmother’s family in Karachi recalls Ismat Chughtai’s fiction.“
— The Telegraph (India)
“Sheba Karim’s tale of a young girl’s infatuation with her aunt is subtle and elegant.”
— Outlook India
“Sheba Karim’s “Heavenly Ornaments” is powerful; while it deals with the typical setting of women within a patriarchal home, it is subversive – and the subversive always carries the potential to excite.”
— The New Sunday Express
