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skittlesnz's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
One way to come out...
Amar is a wonderful gay Muslim who comes out to his family via Whatsapp. What follows is a heart wrenching story of a man who discovers himself and changes his life immensely. You’ll have to read it to find out exactly how, but its good to see a flawed character work on themselves and realise that people around them love them for who they are, that religious bigotry once again, has no place in this world.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent
melike_k's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
I enjoyed this book. So heartwarming and so authentic to a struggle that many people face. I felt so many different emotions and could really understand the characters emotions. At parts it was a challenging read filled with bigotry. But eye-opening and honest too.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Islamophobia, and Religious bigotry
peachmoni's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Classism
Minor: Biphobia, Bullying, Child abuse, Terminal illness, and Islamophobia
anatrnd's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This is a story about Amar, a Muslim Bangladeshi guy, who was born in London. His mother died three years ago, and that's why Amar became depressed. One year later he met Joshua and started dating him. Two years after that Joshua proposed to Amar. Now it's time for Amar to come out to his Muslim family as gay. How does he do that? He sends a text to his family WhatsApp group that he's gay and he's going to marry a man.
I'm not really into contemporary romance books. That's why writing style wasn't exactly my cup of tea. There were way too many (for me) descriptions, flashbacks, etc. But I stopped paying attention to it because I just fell in love with both plot and characters.
I'm an aro ace in a pretty homophobic family so Amar's first conversation with his family about being gay was so relatable. I'm glad that the author mentioned all those things like "you're going to hell for being gay", "then why did god create me like that" etc. I think, almost every lgbtqa+ member had a conversation like this at least once in their life.
Also, I really loved Amar and Joshua's relationships. They acted like adults, and their communication was just great. It was nice that Amar went into therapy. Things like this one should be in the media, so everyone could understand that it's okay to ask professionals for help.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia
Minor: Religious bigotry
reade's review
(Netgalley review)
DNF at chapter 9/25%
I feel the blurb on this was a bit misleading. I was expecting a cute romcom, where the heavier topics of religion, race and sexuality weren’t quite as prominent. I believe this is the reason I couldn’t really get into the story, since I was prepared for something quite different.
That being said, I found no flaws in the autor’s writing or the story itself. I feel like this story is very unique and has representation I don’t feel is explored much, especially own voices, and is certainly not present in most of the books i usually read. I think it would be highly impactful for something going through the same thing as our main character - dealing with coming out to your muslim family, not knowing exactly how they´ll react. I did feel like this is a book I could really learn from and that could open my eyes to a different perspective than my own. I will definitely try this story again when I am a bit more emotionally prepared for the turmoil...
I give it 1 star simply because it was a DNF, and my full thoughts are required to give a fair (and probably higher) star rating.
DNF at chapter 9/25%
I feel the blurb on this was a bit misleading. I was expecting a cute romcom, where the heavier topics of religion, race and sexuality weren’t quite as prominent. I believe this is the reason I couldn’t really get into the story, since I was prepared for something quite different.
That being said, I found no flaws in the autor’s writing or the story itself. I feel like this story is very unique and has representation I don’t feel is explored much, especially own voices, and is certainly not present in most of the books i usually read. I think it would be highly impactful for something going through the same thing as our main character - dealing with coming out to your muslim family, not knowing exactly how they´ll react. I did feel like this is a book I could really learn from and that could open my eyes to a different perspective than my own. I will definitely try this story again when I am a bit more emotionally prepared for the turmoil...
I give it 1 star simply because it was a DNF, and my full thoughts are required to give a fair (and probably higher) star rating.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, and Religious bigotry
sarah984's review
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I bought this book as part of Amazon's "First Reads" program, and the copy there made it sound like a romcom. Unfortunately, it's not funny. It's also probably about 100 pages too long (a lot of the prose is very repetitive) and I found the main character really annoying with the way he was always projecting on everyone and having these over dramatic spirals. No idea how 2 different guys were into him.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Grief, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Islamophobia, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Minor: Ableism, Fatphobia, and Sexual content