* 2.5 *
This story is based on true events so I want to accentuate the fact that you should read stories like these despite my rating because I am not an own voices reviewer and think stories like these are important. I also want to encourage you to check out own voices reviews of this story.
This story follows a young, Muslim, Gay boy called Amir on his run away to Rome avoiding the coming out discussion with his family. I learnt a lot from this story and feel it is important to hear these things regarding religions outside of your own however I do feel that considering this is the main focus of the story, it was definitely lacking in information considering this would have been the perfect read to educate people. I loved the setting of Rome, the descriptions were beautiful and the inclusion of learning Italian words was a perfect addition. The last page had me very emotional and I think could be taken in many ways and I personally enjoyed that about the story.
However, a big part of the book is based within an interrogation room setting and within these, the author made the character repeat the officer for expositional purposes and it felt very forced, for example "You want my purse? Here" (the most spoiler free example I could find) and it just got worse as the book got on and it infuriated me no end as I feel it would have just been better to use a script format so that it didn't feel as cringe to have them repeat everything said to them.
I also didn't like the open relationship representation. At first I was intrigued; it is not something I often see in books. However in this instance, it was placed within a bad relationship where it didn't come across as open but instead cheating and lying.
The protagonist was great, I felt emotionally invested in Amir's journey and I loved his friends but they did feel very 2D and I would have loved to see more depth to them and it would have made me more interested as I was bored at times.
A final note is .. that "nipple story" hinted at throughout the book is so unnecessary and disgusting. I am not usually queasy but I had to put the book down and I haven't been able to get it out of my head. Had no place in the book and did absolutely nothing to further the story development.
I would recommend this as a memoir based story but overall I think there are others I would have benefited from in regards to knowledge a lot more.
This story is based on true events so I want to accentuate the fact that you should read stories like these despite my rating because I am not an own voices reviewer and think stories like these are important. I also want to encourage you to check out own voices reviews of this story.
This story follows a young, Muslim, Gay boy called Amir on his run away to Rome avoiding the coming out discussion with his family. I learnt a lot from this story and feel it is important to hear these things regarding religions outside of your own however I do feel that considering this is the main focus of the story, it was definitely lacking in information considering this would have been the perfect read to educate people. I loved the setting of Rome, the descriptions were beautiful and the inclusion of learning Italian words was a perfect addition. The last page had me very emotional and I think could be taken in many ways and I personally enjoyed that about the story.
However, a big part of the book is based within an interrogation room setting and within these, the author made the character repeat the officer for expositional purposes and it felt very forced, for example "You want my purse? Here" (the most spoiler free example I could find) and it just got worse as the book got on and it infuriated me no end as I feel it would have just been better to use a script format so that it didn't feel as cringe to have them repeat everything said to them.
I also didn't like the open relationship representation. At first I was intrigued; it is not something I often see in books. However in this instance, it was placed within a bad relationship where it didn't come across as open but instead cheating and lying.
The protagonist was great, I felt emotionally invested in Amir's journey and I loved his friends but they did feel very 2D and I would have loved to see more depth to them and it would have made me more interested as I was bored at times.
A final note is .. that "nipple story" hinted at throughout the book is so unnecessary and disgusting. I am not usually queasy but I had to put the book down and I haven't been able to get it out of my head. Had no place in the book and did absolutely nothing to further the story development.
I would recommend this as a memoir based story but overall I think there are others I would have benefited from in regards to knowledge a lot more.