Sometimes you have to lose yourself, in order to find yourself

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Amir Azadi is an 18 year old American Muslim. He is also gay. When a bully threatens to out Amir to his parents, Amir hops on a flight and finds himself in Rome. Amir's phone is blowing up with calls and messages from his family, he has nowhere to stay and he has no friends! Despite these desperate circumstances, Amir finds himself with an opportunity. An opportunity to start afresh.

This is a light and uplifting story about self-discovery and about being proud of your authentic self. The story tackles a number of important themes, including but not limited to; bullying, blackmail, sexual orientation, religion, culture, friends, family and relationships. The author provides the reader with the correct balance of humour and tackling those serious issues and stereotypes.

The authors writing style was very easy to read and the entire story flowed perfectly. The story was fast paced, which suited me perfectly, and readers will likely get through this book in a matter of days if not hours! The author really brought Rome to life and describes it in this story with genuine love. I like way the author constantly paints a picture of Amir's surroundings. The beautiful depiction of Rome is enough to transport the reader there.

The main story is from Amir's point of view but the interrogation scenes show multiple points of view, which add an interesting element and depth to the entire story. I really enjoyed the switch between the past and the present, as it provides the reader with an insight into how different characters felt at the time. The plot surrounds Amir's fear of coming out to his parents. Throughout the book this was very well written and a lot of readers will be able to relate to this.

All the characters were likeable and they all had very human, relatable flaws. Each character showed different reactions that people may have to the news of someone they love coming out. It was nice that there were also other more colourful characters that allowed Amir to discover who he really was and how to embrace it. However at times these characters did feel stereotypical and unrealistic. An issue that I have with the characters is that the ones that Amir came across were all so much more older than Amir. Even though Amir is an adult at 18 years old, the older men accepted him into their group rather quickly and then there were a couple of scenes which felt like these older men were predatory. Throughout the lighthearted, sexy antics these particular scenes made me feel uncomfortable.

Amir is a Muslim American however in the book his faith is barely touched upon. We do not get an understanding of how his faith and his sexuality overlap, instead it is due to his Iranian culture that he believes his parents will not accept him. As a result I didn't feel like I was on a Muslim family's journey of acceptance. I felt like I was on a journey of acceptance by an Iranian family and their concerns about what Amir will face by being a brown, gay, Iranian in America. This didn't hinder the story in any way, as there will likely be a lot in the story that brown and gay people can relate to. I just personally would have liked more mention of his and his family's faith.

I definitely would have picked up this book from the shelf. I really like the UK cover, and I much prefer it to the USA cover. Upon reading the blurb I definitely would have opened the book. From the first few chapters I was deeply invested in Amir's journey. I had to read on to find out what it was that happened to Amir and how he and his entire family ended up being interviewed by US Customs. Overall, this was an entertaining story, with a wide cast of characters and full of relevant themes. I highly recommend to anyone looking for a light read and particularly to young adult and LGBTQ+ readers.