Fool Me Twice Review: The 10 Pages That Wrecked Me | The Vishlist

I went into Nona Uppal's debut expecting a breezy, predictable Bollywood-lite teen romance, and for the first fifty pages, I was right. Then the rug got pulled, and I spent the rest of the night reading through a very unexpected lump in my throat. I've covered plenty of YA romance adaptations on AltBollywood, but this one hits differently. So how does a book about high school elections turn into one of the most brutal depictions of grief I’ve read this year?

The Verdict

You should read this if you have the emotional bandwidth for a massive bait-and-switch. Fool Me Twice is a fantastic, deeply moving read, but you need to know what you're walking into. It starts as a sunny, witty rom-com and violently pivots into a story about surviving unimaginable loss. If you’re looking for purely lighthearted escapism, skip it. If you want a book that respects the raw, messy reality of young mourning while still giving you a hopeful, cinematic ending, pick this up tonight.

What Fool Me Twice Is About

Twenty-year-old Sana had the perfect high school romance with Ashish, a deeply ambitious, intensely loyal guy who risked his own head-boy title just to be with her. They have the banter, the best friends (shoutout to Bani, the blunt comic relief every YA novel needs), and the grand plans for the future. Then, a drunk driver on New Year’s Eve obliterates it all. The narrative tracks Sana’s agonizing journey through the colorless void of grief, her reliance on her close-knit gang of friends, and the terrifying prospect of opening her heart to Pranav, a classmate who has quietly loved her from the shadows. Written by Nona Uppal, who actively set out to subvert the tired tropes of the genre, it’s a story that asks how we make room for a second great love when the first one was supposed to be forever.

The Passage

“I needed you to be happy before I could come back.”

That line—spoken during a climactic, late-book dream sequence where Sana is finally visited by Ashish—absolutely destroyed me. It is the exact moment Uppal gives her protagonist (and the reader) the permission to finally let go, and it is a release earned through hundreds of pages of raw, ugly grieving.

My Full Take

There is a specific kind of betrayal you feel when a book sells you on a sunny premise and then hits you with a semi-truck. In Fool Me Twice, that truck comes in the form of a New Year's Eve drunk driver. When I started reading this, I’ll admit I was coasting. Uppal serves up the classic teen romance buffet: the popular student, the school elections, the banter, the Taylor Swift references. I was enjoying it, but I thought I had it pegged. You see Ashish drop to his knee in the middle of a school assembly, risking his newly announced head-boy status to ask Sana out, and it is undeniably cute. It’s got that vibrant, cinematic energy we talk about so often. Bani, Sana’s best friend, is standing right there screaming, providing the exact kind of grounded humor that keeps the sweetness from becoming cloying. I was smiling. I thought, Okay, a solid, lighthearted palette cleanser. Then Ashish dies.

The tonal shift is so severe it gave me whiplash, but that is exactly why this book works. Uppal isn’t interested in giving us just another meet-cute. She wrote this reflecting the unexpected losses an entire generation faced over the last few years, and that collective grief bleeds through the pages. The second half of the book isn't about romance; it's about survival. The vibrant colors of Sana’s world are completely washed out.

What impressed me most is that Uppal doesn't rush the healing. She lets Sana sit in the mess of it. There are no magical fixes, just the grueling, day-by-day effort of waking up when the person you planned your future with is gone. Her friends—especially Bani and Aanchal—don't just deliver platitudes; they form a physical barrier between Sana and the abyss.

And then there's Pranav. Introducing a second love interest in a book haunted by the ghost of the first is a massive risk. Do it wrong, and the new guy feels like a cheap replacement. But Uppal threads the needle perfectly. Pranav isn't Ashish, and the book knows it. He’s playful, he’s patient, and he waits. The romance that blossoms here isn't the fiery, naive explosion of first love. It’s the tentative, terrifying choice to try again. By the time we reach the climax—which, yes, leans hard into a joyful, Bollywood-style flourish—I realized how brilliantly Uppal had manipulated the pacing. She forced us to fall in love with Ashish just so we could feel a fraction of Sana's devastation when he is ripped away. It’s a messy, beautiful, and profoundly complicated book.

Who Should Read This (and Who Shouldn't)

Read this if: You love emotionally heavy contemporary romance, you appreciate strong portrayals of female friendship, or you need a good, cathartic cry. It's especially potent for anyone who has had to navigate the messy process of moving on.

Don't read this if: You are looking for a breezy, stress-free beach read. The grief depicted here is heavy, and if you are currently in a fragile headspace regarding sudden loss, keep this off your nightstand for now.

Get the Book

Title: Fool Me Twice Author: Nona Uppal

Formats: Paperback, Kindle

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Quick Facts

• Title: Fool Me Twice

• Author: Nona Uppal

• Publisher: Penguin Random House India

• Genre: Young Adult / Contemporary Romance

• Pages: 256

• Published: February 2024

• The Verdict: A devastating but beautifully hopeful look at first love and sudden grief.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Fool Me Twice worth reading? Absolutely, as long as you are prepared for the emotional weight. It is a fantastic exploration of grief disguised as a standard romance.

Does Fool Me Twice have a happy ending? Yes. Despite the heavy tragedy in the middle of the book, the ending is incredibly hopeful and features a cinematic, uplifting resolution.

Is this book part of a series? No. It is a completely standalone novel.