Sarvat Hasin‘s Strange Girls is a meditation on friendship, love, and the blurry lines in between. First drafted in 2021 and published five years later, the novel underwent multiple revisions, yet the two main characters, Ava and Aliya, stayed the same. “I’ve never had to completely restart a book from scratch so many times before, without carrying anything over from earlier drafts,” Hasin says. While her previous four novels leaned into magical realism, this marked a new chapter. “I hope every novel I write is different.”
Switching between the past and the present, the novel follows Ava and Aliya, two friends who first met at university and reconnect after a decade of no contact at a mutual friend’s bachelorette party. They confront where they both are in their lives, the co-dependent bond they once shared, and the unresolved tensions of their past. “One of the central themes of the novel was what keeps two people together,” Hasin explains, “and when their lifestyles diverge, how do they hold onto that friendship?”
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Their complicated relationship falls somewhere between friendship and romance. “A lot of people have those relationships where labels are undefined, and the plot intentionally shows what ambiguity does to a relationship and how it can impact both parties,” Hasin says. “This ambiguous space can lead to a lot of hurt, and I wanted to explore that—especially since we don’t prioritize friendships in the same way as other relationships.”
Hasin appreciated the idea of two characters from different cultural backgrounds—Ava is American, while Aliya is Pakistani—and how this shapes their worldviews, especially in their approaches to relationships, dating, and connection. “We are all absorbing what our friends’ views of our relationships are, and that’s such a great filter,” Hasin reveals.
By being inside the minds of both characters, the novel cultivates empathy. It invites readers to consider the uncertainty of the other subjects’ feelings and where that mystery might ultimately lead.
Images courtesy of Sarvat Hasin.
