Crush Aku 'Mr. Chicano'

by Batiah Hadi

Lelaki Melayu ke Mat Chicano? Itulah persoalan yang bermain-main dalam kepala Eva saat terserempak dengan Emir sewaktu transit di Los Angeles. Tidak sangka rupa-rupanya lelaki itu pelajar senior di universiti Eva dan crush bagi ramai gadis termasuk rakan baik Eva, Mira.

Sejak berjumpa Emir, Eva sering dilanda masalah. Kemuncaknya apabila Eva dan Emir terperangkap dalam lif. Timbul satu fitnah yang menyebabkan Eva dihalau dari apartmennya. Emir jatuh kasih kepada Eva dan mengajaknya berkahwin sebagai jalan keluar.

“Saya tak suka awak dan saya takkan kahwin dengan awak!” - Eva Rose

“Berikan saya satu peluang dan saya akan buktikan yang saya adalah pilihan terbaik dalam hidup awak.” - Emir Sirhan

Namun, takdir TUHAN tiada siapa yang tahu. Bila perkahwinan itu terbina, lain pula cabarannya. Eva terpaksa membawa diri. Dua tahun kemudian, dia kembali demi menuntut haknya. Hak yang bakal memisahkan mereka selama-lamanya. Biarlah Mr. Chicano kekal menjadi ex crushnya.

448 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2019

Reviews

[Hazi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crying, sobbing, throwing up, I love Eva Rose, the FL so much. But on the other hand, it's an entirely different story for Emir Sirhan, the Mr Chicano himself.

This is a contemporary campus romance with family secret and lot's of conflict. I'd say it's filled with drama, but still enjoyable to read. I found it amusing how the blurb truly spoiled the entire story line from the front to back, that's literally the entire story kot hh

I actually enjoyed the story, especially the first half of it, all of the campus settings, simple life as a student, it's just super realistic and nostalgic. But as for the latter half, not as much due to a couple factors, and I'll come back to that later.

First of all, I genuinely love how the story brought up on the theme of 'tamak' and 'blindness' towards men / opposite gender in particular, and how such unhealthy obsession and behaviour is could lead you into doing something beyond the teaching of our religion, cause literal harm to others, and you would spend more time taksub dengan manusia daripada Tuhan kita yang esa. I think the story portrayed it very well through different characters and different cases.

Another thing is the importance of setting boundaries, in Islam, pergaulan tanpa sebarang kepentingan antara gender berbeza adalah dilarang sama sekali, there's no such thing as 'suka suka ja', and if you're going to taaruf don't go and give hope to multiple women at once, especially if you're aware of their feelings towards you. If you buat jugak, then you was like 'well it's not my responsibility for their feelings', you are involved in it once you keluar berduan dengan mereka. Set up boundary. Even if you don't declare to anyone pun, what you're doing is straight up fk boy / playboy behaviour, you are one of them. Berduaan tetap juga sebuah khalwat ya.

One thing I truly enjoyed and appreciate it so much when reading the story is probably on the world building and environmental description by the author, it was done so wonderfully and none of it feels like an info dump whatsoever. The documentation of the author's personal experience when studying at the same place with these characters were just so well done, the info and bit of the malay / Muslim community were written very well, the same could be said with the cultural differences and the perception of Islam from others!

Although it's a drama, I think it's nice that it balanced out well and goes on fast. This is my first read from the author, and I found her writing style is quite nice and the story telling is quite smooth too!

Honestly speaking, the largest portion onto why I love the story is totally because of the main character herself, Eva. I think she's just written so well as a character, and she's just a super 'realist' person in a sense. Her way of thinking, her goals, her boundary settings, I couldn't help but resonate with her and admire her stance as a character. I was a bit terrified as I thought it would be a simple marriage of convenience with how the blurb reads at first, and I'm glad it didn't go that way and she's really firm with her rejection and reasoning. Although the way she changed a bit during her marriage with Emir took me aback initially, but one should remember that she's still very young, and with the age gap between them, and how scientifically her frontal lobe still hasn't fully developed yet, I guess it was understandable. Because once she had her redemption arc, she became even more impressive than before. Man, I simply love her.

In correlation though, I don't think the title of story reflects the story very well nor it matches up with Eva as a character, because she never really had that much strong of a feeling towards Emir, and the title better match up with the case of Lisa and Mira. 'Aku, crush Mr Chicano' would make more sense that anything, to be honest.

Personally, I was disappointed with the 'friendship' percentage on the back of the book as idk I don't think there's not much of it at all. Even on the early chapters, the way Mira was written, she doesn't seem genuine, bila Eva cakap sunyi and mentioned abt being an orphan, dia pun nak lebihkan diri dia sendiri dengan situasi dia, and it gets worse when Emir came into the picture, her jealousy since day one is so frustrating to read, and with how most of Mira's conversation with Eva lebih berpaksikan kepada Emir, and not their relationship and friendshiphood at all, I don't think the tag suits the story at all, just drama and conflict.

—
Okay, so now, I'll talk about why I dislike the second half of the story.

I could say that I reaaally enjoyed the pre-marriage interactions between the MCs rather than the Honeymoon phase arc. Their banter, their heart to heart conversations, their subtle care, and their dynamics feels so much fun to read before their marriage. But once they get married, I feel like the spark and their fun personality simply went away, semua nak bercinta sahaja. The entire arc truthfully bore, maybe it's just isn't my thing, but it was too cringy to read, and it feels so unnecessary to mention how they 'woohoo' all day and night and whenever they needed to mandi wajib at every few chapters. They makes me so uncomfortable, isteri tengok suami terus mention nak berhenti kereta masuk dalam hutan lah, terus nak drive pergi hotel lah, I don't want to know any of that, and can't it just be non sexual bah? Instead, I would prefer so much more of a genuine conversation between them, them learning more about one another, them learning about their differences, because come on, they got married real fast, taaruf pun barely jak, it's would be a better opportunity to properly show their 'changes'A from their past selves and all. But all of that feel wasted with the draggy lovey dovey scenes instead.

I feel like the time skips went on too fast and too abrupt. More kebangkitan Eva, her motherhood era and her dynamics with her daughter, her success in career I need more of that. Moreover, I'd be more happy to see Emir suffering throughout those years, how he couldn't contact Eva, how shitty he felt when he found out the truth behind the fitnah. Tapi itu lah, satu scene ja dia stress sikit, tapi masih bodoh dengan ego sendiri, lepas tu takda mention pasal dia lagi, bila jumpa balik Eva, tiba 'aku cinta kau, nak balik dengan kau' paksa paksa orang, goda orang, as if takda apa yang berlaku, as if dia tak jahat dengan Eva, as of dia tak mentally abuse isteri dia sepanjang 3 tahun tu.

Oh, not forgetting about the ML, I'm just not a fan of him. Ya kita manusia banyak buat silap, but the fact that he fumbled so bad every time, it just frustrated me so much. I truly don't understand much of him as a character, mind you, this guy is 6 years older than Eva, he's pushing his 30s, tapi yang dikatakan 'mentah' dalam cerita ni Eva, despite how I think she's so mature and relevant than Emir is. I simply don't understand his way of thinking, ditegur, dia buat bodoh ja. Bila orang cakap mereka sengsara sebab dia, dia buat bodoh ja. Orang kata itu ini, dia buat bodoh dan terima ja. Like man, can't you use your brain and think for once? It feels like he's living in his own damn world most of the time, he do whatever he wants, get whatever he desires, masalah orang lain isn't his concern. Everytime when I thought he has changed, ada jak dia buat salah lagi selepas itu. His constant distrust and dismissal on his wife concern, eg. (a) his job at different region, (2) sending Ferhad to help Eva, and weirdly 'tests' her, (3) the mother vs wife fiasco — all of these, at different situations, somehow he manages to fail putting his feet and his wife's shoe and be more understanding.

How he prioritised his mother, terus nak duduk dengan ibu, when he is already someone's husband and has his own family and decided things on his own for the nth time simply pissed me off. Tapi when it comes to Eva, she's the one that needs to be the 'wife', kena taat suami, faham suami, terima itu ini suami. Tanggungjawab sebagai suami dia buat lupa ja, as if Eva isn't a family, HIS FAMILY. What he did to Eva is just straight up zalim to be truth, I've seen how it was in real life, to a wife to be left in such status, while the husband layan ego sendiri, that's exactly what he's doing. And somehow, for 3 ENTIRE YEARS, he has done nothing at all to siasat / bertanya perihal latar belakang Eva and the correlation with his parents after the nullification of the fitnah. Bila jumpa balik, instead of minta maaf, instead of terus ajak bincang perkara penting dan tebus kesalah dengan serius, dia layan lagi ego bodoh dia, meminta minta orang terima dia, salahkan Eva pula. This annoys me even during the 'One Month Trial' arc, he may speaks genuinely, tapi the way he didn't mention of the things he has done do anger me. Man, I really would like to see this guy suffer more over what he has done, see how depressed he really is, him crying hard, him in an emotional distress, him finally let go of his ego, maybe then I can feel ensure that he's genuine when he wanted Eva back. Tapi itu lah, at the end he got it way too easy jak. I literally can't see much of his character development.

Personally, with their situation, and how hurtful it has been, I think it's nicer if they ended up divorced and choose co parenting instead. Menyayangi tak semestinya memiliki. And that would be a better message to tell imo. It's just that things went too fast, short taaruf, short marriage, short 'trial', and for the longest time she has been fine raising her own kid. Tapi tiba-tiba within one month jak, lupak segala luka dan trauma, semua love wins all.

Although this story menerapkan unsur islamik, some scenes did give me an ick, for instance: at banglo (Eva tak bertudung duduk bincang dengan Emir), them berpegangan tangan, tak jaga batas pandangan dan keluar sexual tension, keluar berdua duaan. And another thing, that doesn't sit well with me, I still don't understand why Emir's brothers conclusion upon meeting Eva is 'yo is she underage? you know it's rape right', like, where did they even get that from? She's 22, initially they thought that she's 19, but how on earth they immediately thought of statutory rape and suddenly assume she's 15? Tak boleh tanya dulu ke sebelum jump into conclusion yang boleh mendatangkan fitnah? And the conversation takda maksud apa apa pun selain filler yang tak penting sahaja.

Despite everything, although the story stresses me out greatly at the half of point, I did enjoy it, and I still think it's still a very nice campus romance. Quite an okay read if you're looking for a quick, a bit dramatic, but isn't that heavy story, this might be for you! Or just read it for Eva Rose haha, she's worth reading about as a character okay!

[Booku Puspita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nama Eva Rose memang lawa gila! Sangat kena dengan watak dia yang lemah lembut, pendiam, tapi tetap tegas dan berpegang pada prinsip. Tapi, sejak kenal Emir, semuanya berubah. Eva yang dulu tenang, dikelilingi orang tersayang, tiba-tiba rasa hidupnya huru-hara.Bagi Eva, Emir punca masalah ni berlaku.

Jujurnya, kita tak suka lelaki macam Emir. Jenis yang rapat dengan semua perempuan, walaupun tahu perempuan tu ada hati dekat dia. Kalau tak suka, cakap terus terang. Jangan bagi harapan. Masalahnya, perempuan ni kadang-kadang cepat cop lelaki tu suka dia bila nampak lelaki tu layan baik (walaupun tak semua perempuan macam tu).

Plotnya agak slow. Jadi bosan baca sebab dari awal sampai dah nak dekat habis bab pun duk gaduh lagi. Emir yang suka paksa & Eva yang keras kepala. Tapi kita suka part awal cerita sebelum terjadi nya konflik. Emir sangatlah nakal. Suka usik Eva & Eva comel la jugak. Selain tu dua-dua annoying.

Overall, ada bab yang best sampai kita blushing. Ada bab yang buat kita annoying. Ada sesetengah scene yang kita rasa tak perlu ada sebab kita kalau boleh nak watak mak Emir ni ada perkembangan yang steady bukan terburu-buru.