Book Review: The Dos And Donuts Of Love by Adiba Jaigirdar

‘The Dos and Donuts of Love’ by Adiba Jaigirdar was released in May 2023, and is her fourth novel. This book follows a similar rivals-to-lovers arc that is present in some of her previous books, such as her debut, ‘The Henna Wars’, and that element was incredibly fun to read.

Shireen Malik is seventeen and has just gone through a nasty breakup with her girlfriend Chris Huang, which broke her heart. With her best friend overseas, spending some much-needed time in Bangladesh with her extended family, Shireen is lonely, depressed, and existing in a limbo of delicious food and reruns of ‘The Great British Bake Off’, when she finds out she’s been accepted to be a contestant on a new show airing in Ireland: ‘The Junior Irish Baking Show’ with a whopping grand prize of ten thousand euros.

Shireen is ready and raring to give it her all in the competition, but can’t deny she’s thrown to see Chris will be competing beside her.

As Shireen gets to know her competitors, especially Niamh, who she becomes good friends with during filming, she has a lot more to tackle than the others, something that only Chris understands, since they’re in the same boat.

Both Chris and Shireen are subject to blatant racism and ignorance from their host, Kathleen Keough, and other members of the crew. While it’s unclear whether Chris gets the same ignorant treatment as Shireen, it is likely they are both receiving digs from people who don’t care to know more about them. Kathleen makes one Hell of an impression, butchering both Chris and Shireen’s names, referring to them as “Sha…ron May-leak and Christina Who-aang”. Furthermore, it is demonstrated in the second challenge, when both Shireen and Chris make traditional food from their cultures, that Kathleen declares that Shireen from India, not Bangladesh. It is likely that Chris was subject to assumptions about her heritage.

Then there’s the reaction from the Irish public, who are incredibly mean to the children on the show – from offering commentary on who they thought was right, or wrong in arguments, speculating who started a food fight, debating who is an asshole and who isn’t to offering rude comments on their bodies. But, what the white children competing conveniently ignore while celebrating the comments praising them on the show was how racist fans were on social media. They just ignore it, and move on, as if Shireen  and Chris aren’t affected at all. Hell, at a point, Shireen gets screenshots of the racism sent to her, which is just tactless. Why would you want to send someone a tweet about them where the poster is saying racist things – insensitive much? The book pokes holes in how white people can be completely oblivious to their privileges, and how racism is taught through subtle nuances, like reality TV antagonising people of colour.

The show provides a scathing commentary on the nature of reality TV, even competition shows like ‘Master Chef’, and ‘Bake Off’ not just programs like ‘Love Island’, ‘Big Brother’ or ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’. As Fatima, Shireen’s best friend tells her, reality TV doesn’t represent reality, there are tonnes of overarching storylines that producers will want to play with when curating the episode content. They want drama, heroes and villains, and controversy, of course. Something that Shireen doesn’t think about until she’s in the centre of a supposed sabotage scheme. Is she the villain?

Ultimately, this book is a love letter to food, and baking, and the sharing of food. Throughout the show, Shireen gushes about her admiration for one of the judges, Padma Bollywood (who has a great twist on a name we all know – just as Maire Cherry and Galvin Cramsey do), and how she and Nadiya Hussain are two of the only desi women in the public eye, sharing their culture and their food on TV, and how it’s sad, but empowering to meet her.

I really enjoyed this book – it was very fun, I loved the puns. You can tell, despite the heavy and important messages that Jaigirdar discusses in book that it was something she had a lot of fun writing, because it was fun to read. I’d recommend it without hesitation!