The conflicts faced during those tricky latter teenage years offer some low hanging fruit for a novel. Combining homosexuality and the muslim faith to offer what some expect to be a unique novel.
Based in the USA, we follow Amir, who arrives at a new school, meets and succeeds in his first romance with a hansom chap called Jackson. Unfortunately he is successfully blackmailed by some bullies who have pictures of the new couple kissing, Amir pays them $1000 to keep his secret from muslim parents, then they increase their demand to $3000 so he runs away to Rome.
It's a classic scenario, but I would have liked to have had more of the bullies backgrounds, they are merely cardboard cutouts, alas the diary style limits this. I'm not so interested in where Amir will fly too, what Jackson will feel about this, but how the bullies got the photo in the first place, how long did they wait for their dream shot? were they hidden in bushes? is their hate masking a deeper love for Jackson? I'm looking for more complexity, more surprises.
On paper this is my kind of read, but the first person narrational style is a little too flat and restrictive, I was not immersed in Amirs life either, there was not enough detail and it felt like a summary rather than a story to which I could adhere, an unsatisfactory simulacrum for a strong muslim character. However, it is an easy read and the rollercoaster plot may be an adequate distraction from COVID19, one for a teenage audience to be sure.
Based in the USA, we follow Amir, who arrives at a new school, meets and succeeds in his first romance with a hansom chap called Jackson. Unfortunately he is successfully blackmailed by some bullies who have pictures of the new couple kissing, Amir pays them $1000 to keep his secret from muslim parents, then they increase their demand to $3000 so he runs away to Rome.
It's a classic scenario, but I would have liked to have had more of the bullies backgrounds, they are merely cardboard cutouts, alas the diary style limits this. I'm not so interested in where Amir will fly too, what Jackson will feel about this, but how the bullies got the photo in the first place, how long did they wait for their dream shot? were they hidden in bushes? is their hate masking a deeper love for Jackson? I'm looking for more complexity, more surprises.
On paper this is my kind of read, but the first person narrational style is a little too flat and restrictive, I was not immersed in Amirs life either, there was not enough detail and it felt like a summary rather than a story to which I could adhere, an unsatisfactory simulacrum for a strong muslim character. However, it is an easy read and the rollercoaster plot may be an adequate distraction from COVID19, one for a teenage audience to be sure.