Books Like The Henna Wars

There is a specific feeling that comes from finishing The Henna Wars: the feeling of having watched someone stand up for who they are. Adiba Jaigirdar’s novel - Nishat, the Bangladeshi Irish teen who wants to win her school’s business competition with her henna art, even when her childhood crush becomes her competitor - has been loved by young adult readers because it is about identity, culture, first love and the courage of standing up for all three. The problem after finishing it is the one every great book creates: you want more of the feeling - the warmth, the color, the standing up. This guide collects the books that genuinely belong on that shelf.

What Made The Henna Wars Special#

Before the recommendations, it is worth naming what you are actually looking for, because the right next book depends on which part of the book stayed with you.

If the identity stayed with you - Nishat’s culture, her art, her courage - then the identity novels will fit. If the first love stayed with you - the crush, the complication, the warmth - then the young adult romances will be your natural next step. And if the family stayed with you - the parents, the expectations, the love - then the family-centered young adult novels will carry it forward. Most readers are looking for all three, and the books below cover the range.

The Identity Novels#

Love from A to Z by S. K. Ali#

If there is one book that the Henna Wars reader should pick up next, it is Love from A to Z. Zayneb and Adam, two Muslim teens carrying their own burdens, meet and fall in love - and the novel is a warm, honest story of faith, identity and the courage to be yourself.

The two books are siblings: the identity carried proudly, the first love, the family and faith at the center. For readers who loved Nishat’s courage, Zayneb and Adam are the natural next characters to root for.

Content notes: A clean young adult novel, suitable for readers from the early teens up.

Saints and Misfits by S. K. Ali#

For readers who want the identity-and-healing theme with the most depth, Saints and Misfits is the book. Janna, a Muslim teen in a close-knit community, is navigating faith, friendship and a trauma she has told no one about - and the novel is a warm, honest story of identity and healing.

The book shares The Henna Wars’ honesty about identity and its warmth toward young characters. For readers who loved Nishat’s courage and are ready for the deeper story, this is the book.

Content notes: Deals with sexual assault and its aftermath; for readers from the mid-teens up.

The Young Adult Romances#

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell#

For readers who want the young love with the most tenderness, Eleanor & Park is the book. Two misfit teens in 1986 Omaha find each other over comic books and mix tapes - and the novel is one of the most beloved young adult romances ever written.

The book shares The Henna Wars’ young love and its honesty about the hard lives of young people. For readers who loved the romance of The Henna Wars, Eleanor and Park are the natural next couple.

Content notes: Deals with family difficulty; for readers from the mid-teens up.

Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar#

For readers who want more of Adiba Jaigirdar’s particular voice, Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating is the book. Hani and Ishu agree to fake-date for their own reasons - and the novel is a warm, funny story of identity, friendship and the love that grows from the fake.

The book shares The Henna Wars’ warmth, humor and celebration of identity. For readers who loved The Henna Wars and want more of the author, this is the natural next read.

Content notes: A clean young adult novel, suitable for readers from the early teens up.

The Family-Centered Novels#

The Henna Wars and the Family#

One of the quiet achievements of The Henna Wars is its family: the parents with expectations, the sister with opinions, the love beneath the pressure. The family-centered young adult novels on this shelf share that achievement - the family that is both the complication and the comfort. For readers who loved the family of The Henna Wars, these are the books that carry the warmth forward.

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri#

For readers who want the identity-and-family theme in an adult register, The Namesake is the book. The Ganguli family - from Calcutta to Massachusetts - and their son Gogol’s struggle with the name he was given is the great novel of the immigrant child’s identity.

The book shares The Henna Wars’ concern with identity and family, delivered for adult readers with extraordinary depth. For readers who loved the identity theme of The Henna Wars and want the grown-up version, this is the book.

Content notes: A literary novel, suitable for readers from the mid-teens up.

How to Choose Your Next Read#

The right next book depends on what you are ready for. If you want the identity and first love: Love from A to Z. If you want the deeper identity story: Saints and Misfits. If you want the young love: Eleanor & Park. If you want more Jaigirdar: Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating. If you want the adult version: The Namesake.

There is no wrong order, but there is a sensible one: start with Love from A to Z for the same identity and warmth, then Eleanor & Park for the young love, then the others as you go.

Reading the Shelf for the Pride#

It is worth saying plainly what the Henna Wars shelf is really for, because the pride is the thing young readers carry away: these are books that teach readers to be proud of who they are. Nishat’s henna art, her culture, her love - the novel insists that all of it is worth standing up for, and the books on this list make the same insistence in their own registers. They are books that give young readers permission to be proud.

The permission matters because it is so often withheld. Young readers are told, in a hundred ways, to be smaller - to hide the culture, the identity, the love that makes them different. The books on this shelf are the counter-voice: the insistence that the difference is the strength, and that the standing up is the point. For the reader who loved the pride of The Henna Wars, the shelf is a collection of permissions - each one a reminder that who you are is worth standing up for, and that the standing up is not selfish but necessary. Read them when you need the reminder, and let them teach you the pride. It is also worth saying that the pride the shelf teaches is not the pride of the individual alone; it is the pride of the community that honors its members. Nishat is proud of her henna, her culture, her love - and the novel shows that the pride is carried by the people around her who see her fully. The books on this list are full of such carriers: the friend who cheers, the parent who learns, the community that widens to include the different child. For the reader who loved the pride of The Henna Wars, the deepest lesson is that pride is both claimed and given - claimed by the young person who stands up, and given by the community that honors the standing. Read them for both halves, and let them teach you to give the honor as well as claim it.

The Values the Shelf Carries#

The Henna Wars is, at its core, a book about values in action - the courage of standing up for who you are, the loyalty of the friends and family who support you, the healthy relationships that grow from honesty. It belongs on the relationships shelf alongside the guides that explore those values directly. Our friendship and loyalty themes and reading notes walk through the value of the bonds that carry Nishat - the friends who see her, the loyalty that holds - and they pair naturally with this reading, because the novel is a demonstration of exactly what the guide describes.

The shelf also connects to the respect themes, in a specific way: the book’s deepest subject is the respect that comes with being seen fully - Nishat’s culture, her art, her love, all treated with respect. Our guide to family-friendly respect and manners explores the values that the novel shows being practiced across its pages, and it belongs with this reading because Nishat’s story is a study in the respect that must be given and claimed. Together these guides frame the fiction, and the fiction makes the guides feelable.

Discussion Starters for Book Clubs#

The Henna Wars is a natural book-club pick, and not only because it is short enough to read in a weekend. Its central question - whether Nishat and Flávia can build a romance on the foundation of what was, at least initially, a rivalry - invites genuinely different answers from different readers. Some will argue that competitive energy is just chemistry in disguise; others will insist that trust has to come first. The novel itself is wise enough to land somewhere in between.

Clubs can also spend a productive hour on the book’s treatment of cultural appropriation. Nishat is furious when Flávia’s school project draws on henna without understanding it, and the novel refuses to wave the question away with a simple resolution. It asks readers to sit with the difference between appreciation and appropriation, and to notice that Nishat’s own pride in her culture is not the same thing as policing who gets to enjoy it. These are conversations teenagers - and adults - are ready to have, and the book provides a safe, funny, emotionally honest frame for them.

Why Young Adult Readers Love It#

The novel earns its place in readers’ hearts by taking its characters seriously without ever taking itself too seriously. Nishat is allowed to be wrong, petty, jealous and brave in the same chapter, and that full humanity is exactly what young adult readers are hungry for. The romance is sweet but never saccharine, the family scenes are warm but never sentimental, and the henna itself is treated with the reverence it deserves.

It also matters that the book is genuinely funny. The sisterly bickering between Nishat and Priti, the disastrous school dance scenes, the mortifying texts - these are the details that make readers feel seen, because they recognize the texture of their own lives in them. A book that can make you laugh, cry and think in the span of an afternoon is rare, and The Henna Wars manages all three without breaking a sweat.

Conclusion#

The Henna Wars has been loved by young adult readers because it is about identity, culture, first love and the courage of standing up for all three - Nishat, her henna art, her crush, her family. The books on this list are the honest responses to the question it leaves behind: what next?

The identity of Love from A to Z, the healing of Saints and Misfits, the tenderness of Eleanor & Park, more of Jaigirdar’s warmth, and the depth of The Namesake - together they carry the same truth in different voices: identity is worth fighting for, and the fighting is the point. Read the notes, choose where you are, and let the books take their time.