To say I loved this book is a very large understatement; Amir is one of the funniest protagonists I’ve read in a really long time. This story doesn’t follow any of your typical YA tropes. There’s a love story, yes, buts it’s between Amir and his family, (don’t get me wrong, there’s a fair bit of romance, most of the book is set in Italy for crying out loud!), there’s plenty of drama and so many astoundingly written supporting characters. I cannot recommend this enough⠀
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When I was adding this book to my goodreads I saw so many 1/2 star reviews where the reviewers commented on how the story of Amir’s coming out wasn’t authentic enough, how it felt overplayed because his family “weren’t even that religious”, how he wasn’t Muslim enough for his fear of being outed to be believable. It’s so funny to me to read reviews that clearly aren’t from people with any of these lived experiences and so glaringly obvious how important it is, now more than ever, for #ownvoice reviews to be championed. I wish I had this book 6/7 years ago when I was still figuring out who I was and who I wanted to become. This story isn’t perfect, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t important. ⠀
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This is a story of acceptance, living your truth and finding out who you are and where you belong. With a bucketload of silliness and drama along the way.
•⠀
When I was adding this book to my goodreads I saw so many 1/2 star reviews where the reviewers commented on how the story of Amir’s coming out wasn’t authentic enough, how it felt overplayed because his family “weren’t even that religious”, how he wasn’t Muslim enough for his fear of being outed to be believable. It’s so funny to me to read reviews that clearly aren’t from people with any of these lived experiences and so glaringly obvious how important it is, now more than ever, for #ownvoice reviews to be championed. I wish I had this book 6/7 years ago when I was still figuring out who I was and who I wanted to become. This story isn’t perfect, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t important. ⠀
•⠀
This is a story of acceptance, living your truth and finding out who you are and where you belong. With a bucketload of silliness and drama along the way.