Amir is new to town, and to his high school, and wants only to keep his head down for senior year before he can move away to college and live his life as his true self. But when a guy in his class snaps a photo of him kissing another boy and threatens to out him to his conservative Iranian parents, Amir has no clue what to do. So he skips graduation and ends up in Rome, making friends with a close knit group of gay guys who are living the life Amir so desperately wants. Out. Proud. Accepted. But he can’t escape his family forever.
I really liked the sound of this book from the get go. So often in YA, and in media in general I think, you get the crossover of strict immigrant parents and teenager who is not living in line with their rules, but I don’t actually think I’ve read anything about a gay guy and his Iranian parents. As a gay Iranian himself, I was sure Arvin Ahmadi would put a lot of heart and emotion into this story. I really liked the addition of his message at the beginning of the book, about how people react when he tells them he’s gay, and how having his birthday on 9/11 was difficult because the sight of ‘Muslims’ enjoying themselves on that day is a total no-no. It really made me understand why this book was so important for Arvin Ahmadi to write and made me connect with it more, and think of it as so much more than a gay guy running off to Rome.
(I have put Muslims in quotation marks above for a reason. Throughout the marketing for How It All Blew Up, Amir is described as a gay Muslim kid. But in the book, it appears he is non-practicing, and when asked something along the lines of ‘are your parents against you being gay because of religion, he answers ‘Yes and no. Our culture is pretty conservative’ and doesn’t explicably state that his family, or Amir himself, is Muslim. From reading Arvin’s message at the start of the book, it appears the author is Muslim, but whether Amir is or not is unclear. I don’t want to take away from either the author or the characte’rs identiy, but I also don’t want to assume that just because someone is from Iran or a middle eastern country that they are automatically Muslim. I also want to emphasis that after the arguement on the plane in the story that leads his family’s interrogation, it is largely because of how his family looks that they were treated how they were treated, and that regardless of their actual religious beliefs there is an assumption.)
How It All Blew Up is told in alternative timelines. The main story takes you from Amir meeting Jackson, the hot guy designated to show him round his new school, to their first kiss, to Amir being blackmailed, right the way through to his adventures in Rome. Interspered between chapters, you get an insight into a darker reality of Amir’s life. After his family found him in Rome, they all get into a heated discussion on the plane home, leading to them being separated and interrogated upon arrival at their destination. Amir’s parents are careful and polite, desperate to explain and be released. Amir is angry, at his parents, at this situation, at the whole thing. And his little sister Soreya just wants to get home to her Cats performance. As I mentioned above, the insinuation throughout is that his family are being questioned because of their appearance, and I truly believe if a white family were having a dispute on a plane the same would not have happened.
I really enjoyed these segments of the book. Soreya is funny and cheeky to her mother, but she’s also caring and worried about Amir and goes out of her way to make sure he’s okay. His parents are worried about him, but ingrained in a different culture and belief set and are having trouble aligning the two. They’re both conscious of how they speak to the officers, how they act, making excuses and apologising for their kids behaviour. They’ve played this game for too long and know how easily the situation could deteriorate. But these sections were insightful. We got to find out what happened at home while Amir was in Rome, and how his family reacted.
If we focus on Amir’s story, I think my favourite aspect was the setting. Little details here and there really set the scene and made the whole thing feel really Italian. Amir however, does very little sightseeing except the Sistine Chapel, he sleeps late, he only goes out at night, and he didn’t really feel…taken with Rome. I just feel it wasn’t the most realistic for him to go all the way to Rome and then… not want to see any of it? I don’t know, that bit seemed off to me.
I also wasn’t 100% sold on his friend situation. Amir walks into a bookstore in Rome, makes friend with a guy who happens to speak English, and then is suddenly just accepted into their very tight friendship group? Sleeping on their sofas? I just… again, it didn’t seem fully realistic or flow right to me.
I have to mention something else too: I can’t find the thread on Twitter where I saw this, but someone had posted a screenshot of part of the book with a particular scene in it. I was reading the book at this time, but hadn’t got up to this particular bit yet. This scene is not integral to the plot, so no spoilers, but in the scene, and TW for… ?body gore? I don’t even know what it would be called… but a guy is sucking on some other guys nipple who has a nipple piercing, feels something on his tongue that he thinks is a hair, it turns out to be a nerve, and the guy telling the story is disgusted when the other guy just pushes the nerve back in. I have a couple of things to say about this. This 100% did not freak me out, I’m not squeamish, wasn’t upset by it, didn’t bat an eyelid, but so many people would, and I’m sure did. Not only does this seem out of place for a book like this, and the intended age audience of the book… it also does not do a single thing to the plot of the novel, and so I don’t understand why it’s in there. For shock value? For edginess? I have no idea, it felt very out of place, and didn’t propell the plot along at all. I’ve also heard this story before (on the Shagged Married Annoyed podcast, I’m sure it was) and it feels like one of those stories that gets told to gross people out but is it really true? I’m not conviced but either way, I don’t see the need of it in this book, and know it would upset a lot of people.
Overall, I enjoyed reading the book, but not massively. I didn’t connect with the story or Amir. I don’t think that’s because I’m not a gay, male teenagers, or Iranian, or Muslim, or have parents quite like his. It’s not because I don’t see myself in the book. There are plenty of books that don’t resonate personally that I feel emotionally involved with. But this one… there was something lacking. Was it emotion in the writing? Was it character development? High stakes? Was it because from the very beginning we are told how it’s going to end? I just don’t know.
I’m sure that for so many young teenage boys struggling to come out, this will resonate with them, but I wish, for them, it was a nicer coming out storyline than the blackmailed into coming out one. I wish there was more acceptance for them. But it’s still important representation and vital that we look at the crossover of different identifies and how they interact.
Overall, a 3.5 out of 5 stars for me.
I really liked the sound of this book from the get go. So often in YA, and in media in general I think, you get the crossover of strict immigrant parents and teenager who is not living in line with their rules, but I don’t actually think I’ve read anything about a gay guy and his Iranian parents. As a gay Iranian himself, I was sure Arvin Ahmadi would put a lot of heart and emotion into this story. I really liked the addition of his message at the beginning of the book, about how people react when he tells them he’s gay, and how having his birthday on 9/11 was difficult because the sight of ‘Muslims’ enjoying themselves on that day is a total no-no. It really made me understand why this book was so important for Arvin Ahmadi to write and made me connect with it more, and think of it as so much more than a gay guy running off to Rome.
(I have put Muslims in quotation marks above for a reason. Throughout the marketing for How It All Blew Up, Amir is described as a gay Muslim kid. But in the book, it appears he is non-practicing, and when asked something along the lines of ‘are your parents against you being gay because of religion, he answers ‘Yes and no. Our culture is pretty conservative’ and doesn’t explicably state that his family, or Amir himself, is Muslim. From reading Arvin’s message at the start of the book, it appears the author is Muslim, but whether Amir is or not is unclear. I don’t want to take away from either the author or the characte’rs identiy, but I also don’t want to assume that just because someone is from Iran or a middle eastern country that they are automatically Muslim. I also want to emphasis that after the arguement on the plane in the story that leads his family’s interrogation, it is largely because of how his family looks that they were treated how they were treated, and that regardless of their actual religious beliefs there is an assumption.)
How It All Blew Up is told in alternative timelines. The main story takes you from Amir meeting Jackson, the hot guy designated to show him round his new school, to their first kiss, to Amir being blackmailed, right the way through to his adventures in Rome. Interspered between chapters, you get an insight into a darker reality of Amir’s life. After his family found him in Rome, they all get into a heated discussion on the plane home, leading to them being separated and interrogated upon arrival at their destination. Amir’s parents are careful and polite, desperate to explain and be released. Amir is angry, at his parents, at this situation, at the whole thing. And his little sister Soreya just wants to get home to her Cats performance. As I mentioned above, the insinuation throughout is that his family are being questioned because of their appearance, and I truly believe if a white family were having a dispute on a plane the same would not have happened.
I really enjoyed these segments of the book. Soreya is funny and cheeky to her mother, but she’s also caring and worried about Amir and goes out of her way to make sure he’s okay. His parents are worried about him, but ingrained in a different culture and belief set and are having trouble aligning the two. They’re both conscious of how they speak to the officers, how they act, making excuses and apologising for their kids behaviour. They’ve played this game for too long and know how easily the situation could deteriorate. But these sections were insightful. We got to find out what happened at home while Amir was in Rome, and how his family reacted.
If we focus on Amir’s story, I think my favourite aspect was the setting. Little details here and there really set the scene and made the whole thing feel really Italian. Amir however, does very little sightseeing except the Sistine Chapel, he sleeps late, he only goes out at night, and he didn’t really feel…taken with Rome. I just feel it wasn’t the most realistic for him to go all the way to Rome and then… not want to see any of it? I don’t know, that bit seemed off to me.
I also wasn’t 100% sold on his friend situation. Amir walks into a bookstore in Rome, makes friend with a guy who happens to speak English, and then is suddenly just accepted into their very tight friendship group? Sleeping on their sofas? I just… again, it didn’t seem fully realistic or flow right to me.
I have to mention something else too: I can’t find the thread on Twitter where I saw this, but someone had posted a screenshot of part of the book with a particular scene in it. I was reading the book at this time, but hadn’t got up to this particular bit yet. This scene is not integral to the plot, so no spoilers, but in the scene, and TW for… ?body gore? I don’t even know what it would be called… but a guy is sucking on some other guys nipple who has a nipple piercing, feels something on his tongue that he thinks is a hair, it turns out to be a nerve, and the guy telling the story is disgusted when the other guy just pushes the nerve back in. I have a couple of things to say about this. This 100% did not freak me out, I’m not squeamish, wasn’t upset by it, didn’t bat an eyelid, but so many people would, and I’m sure did. Not only does this seem out of place for a book like this, and the intended age audience of the book… it also does not do a single thing to the plot of the novel, and so I don’t understand why it’s in there. For shock value? For edginess? I have no idea, it felt very out of place, and didn’t propell the plot along at all. I’ve also heard this story before (on the Shagged Married Annoyed podcast, I’m sure it was) and it feels like one of those stories that gets told to gross people out but is it really true? I’m not conviced but either way, I don’t see the need of it in this book, and know it would upset a lot of people.
Overall, I enjoyed reading the book, but not massively. I didn’t connect with the story or Amir. I don’t think that’s because I’m not a gay, male teenagers, or Iranian, or Muslim, or have parents quite like his. It’s not because I don’t see myself in the book. There are plenty of books that don’t resonate personally that I feel emotionally involved with. But this one… there was something lacking. Was it emotion in the writing? Was it character development? High stakes? Was it because from the very beginning we are told how it’s going to end? I just don’t know.
I’m sure that for so many young teenage boys struggling to come out, this will resonate with them, but I wish, for them, it was a nicer coming out storyline than the blackmailed into coming out one. I wish there was more acceptance for them. But it’s still important representation and vital that we look at the crossover of different identifies and how they interact.
Overall, a 3.5 out of 5 stars for me.