Review: "If You're Not the One" by Farah Naz Rishi

If You're Not the One by Farah Naz Rishi
Published October 2024 via Quill Tree Books
★★★★

Anisa has it all planned out: she has an image to maintain, an arranged match to follow through with, and a law degree to obtain. A boy with bright yellow crocs—a boy determined to be Anisa's friend—is not part of the plan.

If You're Not the One is more or less a fictionalised version of Rishi's own story. I read Sorry for the Inconvenience not too long ago, and as soon as I saw that Rishi had also written her story into a YA fiction format, I knew I'd have to read it. So there are two things to talk about here: If You're Not the One, and the experience of reading the two books nearly back to back.

The book itself: This is pretty classic YA romance. Anisa is in college, with her whole life planned out ahead of her; she has wrenches thrown in her way via family upheaval and just normal college figuring-things-out. Anisa has put a great deal of effort into projecting an image of perfection, and she's pretty damn insufferable about it. It works because Rishi is aware that Anisa is pretty damn insufferable, but also, Anisa does some genuine growth—and grew on me—over the course of the book. I love how hard she works at making her relationship work, too; she doesn't have great models for communication, and she's definitely still figuring things out, but she knows enough to actively try to communicate...and to know that, whatever else, she wants to be with someone who wants to be with her. (Is this a low bar? Yes. But it's too high a bar for a lot of books.) The book also carries the bonus of much of the romantic context being outside the YA norm, as Anisa is perfectly fine with the idea of an arranged marriage, and whether or not her marriage is arranged is largely beside the point throughout the book. Also, there are footnotes. So generally? I think the book is a win.

Reading the two books not quite together: Now, I'm not here to spoil eitherIf You're Not the One or Sorry for the Inconvenience, so I'll tread carefully here. The inspiration is clear as day, and there's a lot of overlap, but there are also substantial plot and character differences. In particular, the romantic interest of the novel gets a bit more backstory than the real-life love interest; the one who was Not Meant to Be is allowed to be more complex in the novel; certain adults are allowed a softer (if less complex) side in the novel; Anisa's sibling's story is not Rishi's sibling's story. (I'm guessing, also, that Rishi was rather less insufferable than Anisa in college...?) The novel also covers a significantly shorter time period.

I'm more likely to reread the memoir than the YA novel, partly because the story in the memoir is simply more complex and partly because as much as I enjoy YA I really, really love memoir—but they serve different purposes. And maybe someday I'll get to teach a class on paired literature...? These would be a great fit.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.