The story is very rushed. Amir is blackmailed, skips his graduation day, and flies to Rome. Here he manages to get an apartment, even if he's never been to Rome before nor does he speak Italian. Lucky for him he comes across a group of 'friends': some are American, some Italian, most are gay. They invite him out, make him feel more comfortable with his sexuality. He manages to make some 'illegal' money by writing Wiki articles, he avoids his parents' phone calls, and he tries not think about returning to America. Although he's eighteen, he acts like a young teen, which made some of his encounters with his new 'friends' a bit problematic. More disappointing still is the fact that none of these gay couples are actually happy (as most of them seem to resent their partner and/or their friends). What kind of message are the readers supposed to get? Amir has 'fun' sort of. He drinks out and goes to parties. But then we 'realise' that they are either cruel, uncaring, unforgiving, and/or liars. While a certain positive review calls my review out on this, saying that characters should be allowed to be imperfect, I think they missed the point I was trying to make. I'm all for flawed characters but they have to be somewhat realistic. The characters here don't 'change' or 'learn' from their mistakes. They are and remain one-dimensional (we have the closeted jock, the smart younger sister, the 'motherly' mother, the distant father).