This post was written by Adiba Jaigirdar, author of Rani Choudhury Must Die.
When I was an undergrad in university, I was assigned an essay on Jane Eyre and Great Expectations, and the intertextuality between these books. It was my first time being introduced to the term intertextuality; the idea that books are in conversation with each other, even when they’re written decades apart by completely different people in entirely different contexts.
Now, when I write books I always think about what my books are in conversation with and how they contribute to these conversations. In some ways, they are rehashing tried and tested romances, with the identities of the characters changed. This already changes the story in major ways, creating new obstacles to the romances, but also bringing new meaning and light to the stories. This is one of the things that I was thinking about as I wrote Rani Choudhury Must Die, which at a glance can be mistaken for a sapphic retelling of John Tucker Must Die, but really is only a book in conversation with the movie, which in itself is already in conversation with Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor!
Of course, I am not the only author thinking about these things, or the only one who is drawing inspiration from the 90s and early 00s boom of amazing romance movies. If you’re a big fan of movies from that era, here are a few YA books that may remind you a little of your favourite movies:
If you love 10 Things I Hate About You, you should read The Love Match by Priyanka Taslim. 10 Things I Hate About You is one of my favourite movies. It has all the elements of a great romance movie; a great female protagonist, the brooding love interest, fake dating, a great hate to love arc. It’s not easy to pull off all of these things, but The Love Match by Priyanka Taslim definitely nails a lot of these elements, and adds even more! The book follows Bangladeshi-American Zahra whose mother is insistent on setting her up with the perfect match. But her idea of a match is not Zahra’s. While Zahra is swooning over the new dishwasher, Nayim, at the tea shop she works at, her mother is setting her up with Harun, the son of a wealthy family that she couldn’t have less in common with. Good for her that he seems as uninterested in the match as she is. The two of them forge a plan to fake a relationship to keep their parents happy, while Zahra is free to fall for Nayim. Unfortunately, matters of the heart are a little more complicated than Zahra had bargained for, and it’s not long before things start to go array.
If you love Bend It Like Beckham, you should read She Drives Me Crazy by Kelly Quindlen. Like many people, I loved Bend It Like Beckham, but thought that it would be so much better if it was sapphic. She Drives Me Crazy gives you a sapphic sports romance; filled with all the best romance tropes. After losing a basketball game to her ex-girlfriend, Scottie gets into a fender bender with her nemesis, Irene. This leads to the girls forced to carpool together before eventually, an opportunity arises for Scottie to get back at her ex by faking a relationship with Irene. As much as neither of them wants it, they both have things to gain from the fake relationship. But when real feelings start to develop, things start to get complicated.
If you love Notting Hill, you should read The Exes by Anam Iqbal. While Notting Hill sees a romance between a famous actress and an average-joe bookseller, The Exes follows ordinary teen girl, Zara, who has a run in with Karim, a famous social media influencer. The two of them couldn’t lead more different lives, but when they meet, the sparks between them are undeniable. Meanwhile, a secret gossip has been spilling secrets about Karim and his influencer friends, leading to problems that may just spill over to Zara. Will they be able to bridge their differences to give their love a real chance?
If you love About Time, you should read Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds. I love movies that are contemporary stories with a speculative twist, and that’s what’s fun about the time travelling of About Time. Opposite of Always has a similar speculative twist to the love story at its heart. Instead of time travel though, it follows a Groundhog day-esque time loop. Following a young teen called Jack as he meets Kate at a party, and quickly starts to fall for her. But when Kate dies, it should mean the end of their love story. Instead, Kate’s death sends Jack back to their first meeting and as he lives through their love story over and over again, he has to figure out if he can save Kate, and who else may have to die for his love story to have its happy ending.
If you love The Princess Diaries, you should read Heiress Apparently by Diana Ma. While this isn’t a royalty story, it definitely scratches the exact same itch. The Princess Diaries followed Mia as she learned that she was actually the princess of Genovia, while Heiress Apparently follows Gemma, a down on her luck actress who has just been cast in the role of a lifetime in Beijing. But once she gets there, she realises that she shares an uncanny resemblance with a popular social media star, which leads to her unravelling her own family’s history.
Get your copy of Rani Choudhury Must Die by Adiba Jaigirdar here.