Good Intentions

Good Intentions by Kasim Ali

Reviewed by Jess
📕📗📘📙

The story of Nur and Yasmina is definitely an emotional and thought-provoking one, for me at least! Told through the eyes of Nur, Kasim Ali has achieved a rare feat of writing a romance from a male perspective that is sensitive without being soppy, with some real dialogue, no race/religion/immigrant cliches and not shying away from some hard topics.

We open with Nur plucking up the courage to tell his parents about his years-long relationship. As we go back and forth across their timeline from how they met to their current issues, I found myself (despite what everyone was telling me!) sympathising greatly with Nur. He’s frustrating, complicated, and stuck in between himself and his family, some classic older child pressure compounded with mental health problems that only make things worse. Yasmina is brilliant, a real light in the book and not only is she a supportive partner and friend, she is still her own person, ambitious and strong-willed. Rooting for them as a couple is easy, but as the book leads to its conclusion, turns out it’s not as simple as that.

I’ve completely dog-eared the book with pages folded over for passages to remember - Kasim has really taken a deep dive into the characters through their conversations, and that was my favourite part. It wasn’t overdone or abstract a la Sally Rooney, but relatable and understandable. There are a lot of important themes covered, but they’re not as fleshed out as the central story, and I’d love to see more of it! Still, this is a great study of a formative relationship that is hugely readable and makes you think; a great one to put on your TBRs!