Scan barcode
male_soley's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
I picked up this book to learn more about the intersection of being queer and Muslim (as a queer non-religious person in a Christianity dominated country) and I feel like my goal was accomplished and even more. I gained new insights and I felt with Kayla throughout the book. The non linearity was unexpected and left me a little bit confused at times but that doesn't change at all how much I enjoyed the book. I felt so many different emotions while reading and I'm just really glad I bought this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, Transphobia, and Islamophobia
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts
ewitsmich's review
emotional
hopeful
informative
fast-paced
5.0
This book is a very personal and refreshing glimpse into a queer Muslim woman’s life. It explores the intersectionality of her race, gender, and queerness with her religion. It is structured around Islamic prophets and holy figures and how they relate to the author's life. Highly recommended for anyone who struggles with reconciling race, religion, and queerness.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Sexism, Xenophobia, and Islamophobia
Minor: Police brutality
amisk23's review
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia and Islamophobia
bookishmillennial's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial
I absolutely loved this memoir about reckoning with intersections of Lamya's identity (their queerness, relationship with and parallels to Islam and the Quran, her immigrant experience, being in graduate school/white academic spaces, being brave & vulnerable with friends & self-sabotaging, dating, choosing softer approaches to dialogue) and am so grateful for it.
I cried, I laughed, I raged, I wanted so badly to hug Lamya. What a gift this memoir was. My gratitude to Lamya for being brave & sharing with us - what an honor and privilege to witness part of Lamya's journey via this memoir.
Sharing some quotations that stood out to me below:
I absolutely loved this memoir about reckoning with intersections of Lamya's identity (their queerness, relationship with and parallels to Islam and the Quran, her immigrant experience, being in graduate school/white academic spaces, being brave & vulnerable with friends & self-sabotaging, dating, choosing softer approaches to dialogue) and am so grateful for it.
I cried, I laughed, I raged, I wanted so badly to hug Lamya. What a gift this memoir was. My gratitude to Lamya for being brave & sharing with us - what an honor and privilege to witness part of Lamya's journey via this memoir.
Sharing some quotations that stood out to me below:
“I gather my resentment, my fury that there's nowhere in the world that's magically free of racism and Islamophobia, homophobia and transphobia. I take that burning question and channel it toward new different questions: How can I fight injustices in this place where I have community, where I'm choosing to stay? How can I build a life here that feels, rooted in my principles, even if it will never be perfect?”
“And this is why my story has to remain untold: I have everything to lose. I could lose my family's love, I could lose my love for them.”
“There are other women like me in the Quran. Women who are uninterested in men, who are born wrong, living lives that are entirely out of their control.”
“Decades later, my mother will throw out a casual remark about how easy I was as a teenager and I'll be shocked anew that she never knew, that she never even tried to know.”
“And the truth is also that l love doing these things because I love these people. But in the quiet before Manal responds, I feel confronted anew with the flip side of this way of being with other people—a way that’s based in fear of people leaving, that prevents me from asking things of people in turn.”
“I’ve learned to reframe telling people as inviting in, instead of coming out - inviting into a place of trust, a place for building - and it feels like a waste of emotional energy to tell straight people whom I don’t expect to understand my queerness, don’t intend to count on for advice or support in this area. But what I’ve been noticing about people I haven’t invited into my queerness is that it introduces a barrier between us. What do I talk to these people about? How do I share feelings and intimacies without revealing this huge part of myself? Who am I without this queerness that now pervades my life, my politics, my everything?”
“...even after all of this, my saying the truth out loud is not enough to prove who I am to a world that doesn't believe me.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, and Islamophobia
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, and Deportation
readandfindout's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
Style/writing: 4 stars
Themes: 4.5 stars
Perspective: 4.5 stars
Themes: 4.5 stars
Perspective: 4.5 stars
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Self harm, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, and Classism
Minor: Emotional abuse, Colonisation, and Deportation
enbylievable's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Really enjoyable!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, and Islamophobia
elizabethtrue's review
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia and Islamophobia
noura's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, and Islamophobia
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Racial slurs, Colonisation, and Deportation
sadhbhprice's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, and Deportation
Moderate: Biphobia, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and Classism
Minor: Pregnancy
corsetedfeminist's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
My hold for this book came in last night and I thought, “Oh, I’ll read a few chapters before I go to bed.”
That sound you hear is the universe cackling at me.
This book wrecked me. It made me laugh, it made me cry. And then cry again. Okay, I cried a lot. Mostly good tears.
I read the whole thing and finished at 1am.
This book is a beautiful but pointedly honest story of the author’s life, interweaving themes of queerness and Islam and her experiences as a brown person with stories from the Quran that illustrate the point at hand.
This is the first book I’ve read since deconstructing my own faith that embraced religion, and while it did not change my beliefs, it still healed part of my soul to see in print someone who could be so deeply religious and queer at the same time, taking back her own religion’s stories.
Her descriptions of navigating queerness and other people’s religion, especially her family and Muslim friends, was incredibly familiar to me as someone living in the rural south with a very Christian family- especially her discussion of how flippant and reductive we can be when encouraging people to just come out and potentially cut off their family.
Her discussions of her gender and sexuality awakenings were honest and once again far too relatable, especially from one gender non-conforming lesbian to another.
Over all, this book is both beauty and protest, all wrapped up in one, leaving the reader with a hopeful perspective about everything, despite having our illusions of equality and acceptance challenged. Its perspective on the intersection of faith, race, immigration, gender, and sexuality is unmatched and begs for an audience.
That sound you hear is the universe cackling at me.
This book wrecked me. It made me laugh, it made me cry. And then cry again. Okay, I cried a lot. Mostly good tears.
I read the whole thing and finished at 1am.
This book is a beautiful but pointedly honest story of the author’s life, interweaving themes of queerness and Islam and her experiences as a brown person with stories from the Quran that illustrate the point at hand.
This is the first book I’ve read since deconstructing my own faith that embraced religion, and while it did not change my beliefs, it still healed part of my soul to see in print someone who could be so deeply religious and queer at the same time, taking back her own religion’s stories.
Her descriptions of navigating queerness and other people’s religion, especially her family and Muslim friends, was incredibly familiar to me as someone living in the rural south with a very Christian family- especially her discussion of how flippant and reductive we can be when encouraging people to just come out and potentially cut off their family.
Her discussions of her gender and sexuality awakenings were honest and once again far too relatable, especially from one gender non-conforming lesbian to another.
Over all, this book is both beauty and protest, all wrapped up in one, leaving the reader with a hopeful perspective about everything, despite having our illusions of equality and acceptance challenged. Its perspective on the intersection of faith, race, immigration, gender, and sexuality is unmatched and begs for an audience.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, and Xenophobia