The 672-page book is set in a fictional Islamic landscape with "fairy-tale imagery", and depicts the relationship between Dodola and Zam, two escaped child slaves, who are torn apart and undergo many transformations as they grow into new names and new bodies, which prove to be obstacles to their love when they later reunite.

[2] While it has been lauded by publications such as Time, Elle, Salon, NPR and reviewers for the beauty of its visual design and epic setting, it has also been criticized for misrepresenting various elements such as sexuality and its depiction of Arabic culture.

During this captured period, Dodola witnesses the thieves preparing to kill a young boy - who she saves by claiming him to be her brother despite their evident ethnic differences.

[8] Habibi has also been considered as a satire due its emphasis of Islamic influence that is countered by the advent of castration as a means of expressing the "impossibility and undesirability of living as a heterosexual, reproductive male".

"[13] Laura Miller of Salon stated, "a big, rousing, unabashedly tear-jerking Dumas novel, with fascinatingly intricate designs and fabulous tales on almost every page.

"[14] Inbali Iserles of The Independent predicted that "The book is destined to become an instant classic, confirming the author's position among not only the most masterful of graphic novelists but our finest contemporary writers, regardless of medium.

"[18] Michel Faber of The Guardian praised Habibi as "an orgy of art for its own sake", and called Thompson an "obsessive sketcher" whose artwork he categorized with that of Joe Sacco and Will Eisner.

Panno, writing for The Harvard Crimson, called Habibi "exquisite", seeing Thompson's use of Arabic calligraphy and geometric designs as a third dimension that, when added to the familiar graphic novel languages of image and text, broadened the possibilities for expression, perhaps more so for readers who do not know what it means, and must be guided in its interpretation.

[1] Charles Hatfield of The Comics Journal conducted a round table discussion of the book featuring himself, Hayley Campbell, Chris Mautner, Tom Hart, Katie Haegele, and Joe McCulloch.

Also praised was the use of Arabic calligraphy and numerology, the intertwining of Biblical and Koranic vignettes as subplots with the main story, the scripting of Dodola's challenge to "turn water into gold", and the parallels between motifs such as chapter numbers and their content, and between the river and blood.

The most recurrent complaint was with the book's bleak outlook on life and humanity, and the sexual cruelties inflicted upon the characters, which some of the reviewers thought was excessive, in particular Hatfield and Haegele, who felt that Thompson was condemning such atrocities while simultaneously luxuriating in them.

Campbell partially disagreed, saying that much of the humor was carefully used to defuse scenes of tension, singling out the flatulent palace dwarf and the fisherman, which others mentioned they enjoyed as well.

Echoing some of the Comics Journal round table's complaints, Creswell found fault with the book's depictions of racism and sexism, and its apparent exoticization of the Muslim world without differentiating between fact and fantasy, saying, "It’s often hard to tell whether Thompson is making fun of Orientalism or indulging in it...Thompson the illustrator is...apparently unable to think of Dodola without disrobing her...it is a conventional sort of virtuosity, in the service of a conventional exoticism.

Though Damluji expressed awe of Thompson's technical skill, found his artwork "stunning", and the ideas derived from his research "fascinating", Damluji observed that Dodola and Zam are given depth by contrasting them against "a cast of extremely dehumanized Arabs" and summarized the work thus: "Habibi is a success on many levels, but it also contains elements that are strikingly problematic...The artistic playground [Thompson] chose of barbaric Arabs devoid of history but not savagery is a well-trod environment in Western literature....The problem in making something knowingly racist is that the final product can still be read as racist.