It's difficult to rate autobiography sometimes as it can feel like rating a person and their life. So, this is focussing on the writing and the book.
This wasn't what I expected. I was expecting a lot more humour, glamour and the drag queen side but it is rather focused on childhood. This is how I interpreted the marketing. For me, it would have read better if it was perhaps structured as alternating now / then.
It was interesting to think about different levels of privilege and disadvantage and intersectionality.
Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a heartwarming memoir, which speaks a lot about acceptance and finding joy. Whilst there is some trauma, the authors perspective builds on layers of family, religion and queerness and makes for a moving read.

With the popularity of RuPaul's Drag Race, the drag community is much more accepted by society. However, that doesn't mean there aren't still problems for those who choose this form of art to express themselves.

Al-Kadhi grew up in Bahrain before moving to London as a teenager. Their memoir examines the pressures of being raised a Muslim while trying to deal with their sexuality and natural femininity. It was only when they established a drag troupe during their time studying at Cambridge that Al-Kadhi really felt that they'd found themselves.

This is a wonderfully heartfelt, sweet read that will engage anyone who is interested in drag and alternative cultures.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC without obligation.

I loved this book so much that I now have my own copy (and follow Amrou on Twitter)! Life as a Unicorn is a raw, unflinching, heartwarming look at Amrou's life as a queer muslim, their relationship with their mother and their love of drag. It made me laugh and cry and honestly, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it ever since.

Thank you to the publisher for my eARC copy of this book. Unfortunately I didn’t love this book and therefore didn’t finish, I just didn’t connect with this one. Not for me, sorry.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me see this book. I was sure that I had already written and posted a review of this book. But I cannot find it. So, here we go again. Life as a unicorn is a memoir of a life. It is a story of growing up and becoming a human. It is a tale of coming to terms with your identity. The author explores the process of coming out in a religious family, of being a Muslim in the queer lgbt+ scene, and of finding community in the Drag family. However, dig deeper, and you will find that it is a love story to a mother. It is a celebration of a complicated relationship. It is a story of finding love, and community, in a complex world.

A very insightful book of his extraordinary life. It was sad, funny and informative. I would recommend this book.

This was an excellent read. This memoir is challenging and difficult to read at times, but sheds light on a very much under represented community.

Wow. Just....wow.

This is a magnificent memoir which deserves a very wide audience indeed.

Amrou Al-Kadhi tells the story of how they grew up in a strict Iraqi Muslim family, in both the Middle East and in the UK, and struggled to fit into any box, norm or expectation, either from society or their family, from a very early age. Amrou fights racism and prejudice on the daily at their public school and hides their true self from their family, having already experienced their profoundly heartbreaking judgement and rejection. At university, Amrou discovers drag. All of sudden, their true self has an outlet and life takes on new meaning and colour...and new complications as well.

I found myself so moved by this memoir. While I can't relate to most of Amrou's experiences, I think we can all relate to feeling misunderstood and rejected, especially by those we love, and the struggles to find and let our true selves shine through, and to feel safe doing so. Amrou writes with humour, wisdom and insight on what was a very painful journey but now they have found a level of self-acceptance, self-love and peace.

A book that manages to be brutal and beautiful at the same time. Highly, highly recommended.

With thanks to the author, Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

I really liked this, it was a really good memoir and insight into the life of this queer drag queen. I loved it.

I cannot begin to tell you how much I loved this memoir - I would have given it six stars if I could. Unicorn is the life story of Amrou Al-Kadhi; growing up in a strict Iraqui Muslim family, battling with the prejudice and racism of public school, dealing with their family's homophobia to come out as queer and non-binary and finding themselves in their drag alter ego Glamrou (also marine biology and quantum physics seemed to help).

The story has a bit of everything - drama, regret, sadness, anger, love, drugs, loneliness... it's a real rollercoaster of emotions and my heart went out to Amrou as they were confronted with almost every different type of prejudice that exists - often all at the same time.

As a cis-gendered white woman I found a surprising amount of commonality between Amrou's feelings growing up and my own (EDIT why do I always write this? I really need to learn that underneath it all, people are all basically the same). In particular, their mother sounds like a Middle Eastern version of my own. I have vivid memories of watching my Mum doing her makeup every morning and tottering round town in stiletto heels and a cloud of hairspray. I could relate to those feelings of power that come from makeup and clothing - the exotic danger of red lipstick and the glamour of an 80's shoulder pad. Except for me, the thrill of dressing up was seen as cute - for Amrou, it was a shameful betrayal of their culture.

Seeing Amrou battle their own mental health issues to find love and acceptance in the queer drag scene was incredibly uplifting, even though it wasn't all plain sailing. I loved how Amrou drew strength from the things in their life that they loved to process their own feelings and how this strength formed the basis of a new relationship with their family - especially their Mum. If you're looking to read an emotional, beautifully written and honest account of how to belong in a world that doesn't understand you then this is the book for you.

This book is a must read. It made me cry, it made me rage, it made me laugh. A brave an honest book that doesn't shy away from the difficulties of being Muslim, gay and a drag queen. It is powerful and, I think empowering. Al Khadi has a knack of the one liner, the pithy, visceral responses and the ability to look inwards as well as outwards. I don't read autobiographies as a rule, but was tempted by this becuse I write about a gay Muslim chracter who is a police officer and two of my children are gay. I'm so glad I read this. It was uplifting and really made me think. It celebrates difference in a beautifully honest way with heartbreaking parts yet so many redeeming parts too. It's a story of love and discovery as well as being an emotional journey. Will treasure the memories of this book and it will be one I dip into again and again.

Absolutely brilliant; warm and funny. Would definitely recommend, and hope to read more from this author soon.

I never usually read memoirs for pleasure, but this book had me entranced by the first chapter.

Amrou tells, with great emotion and clarity, their story from the Middle East to the drag scene in London. The story is completely universal and is about embracing yourself in all your truth against all odds. It was funny, sad, heart wrenching, honest, positive, and informing. Amrou had an voice that pulls you in and wraps you up in a warm embrace.

Would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to read an incredible true life story.

This was one of my top two books of 2019. Amrou has written an astoundingly insightful about their journey to date. I couldn't believe they were so perceptive about the struggles they have experienced - until they mentioned their therapist. They must have an amazing therapist because they write with such clarity about the struggles they have encountered with their gender, sexuality, race and family. I honestly think everyone should read this book because Amrou writes with profound wisdom and humour about such a range of intersecting experiences. Their friend, Crystal Rasmussen, published Diary of a Drag Queen (also an outstanding read) around the same time and these two books couldn't be more different but are also equally infused with charm and heartbreak. If you haven't read either of these titles yet then run, run, run to feast your eyes on it.

I quite simply loved this book! It had everything for me. Great writing, an extremely interesting story giving insight into a world of drag queens that I only know from the outside and from RuPaul and Pose on tv, also a heart felt call for all of us to open more and to judge less our fellow human beings.

Amrou adores his mother but when he starts to experiment with wearing women’s clothes and wants to explore his sexuality with boys and men, his family reject him.

He is a strong and very courageous person and in spite of many many set backs he finds his path which surprisingly leads him back eventually to reclaiming his Muslim identity and also to reuniting with his mother. He performs as Glamrou the drag queen inspired by his stylish exuberant mother and after the painful separation and rejection of years, they both find new ways to accept each other as they are.

The story takes us with him on many downward spirals, rejecting everything and everyone including himself. But life has a way of opening up paths to redemption too and Amrou has the spirit and the heart to start again and again and to follow his heart where it takes him.

His honest description of his inner life – the perfectionism and the painful attempts to survive by obliterating his past, his language, his culture – is totally mesmerising. Here is someone who is prepared to tell the truth. The episode with the fish tank is an example of this. He found a world that felt like home, devoted himself to it, learnt everything there was to know about it and finally, destroyed it. This was hard to read. But I was totally hooked.

He thought going to Eton would help him be acceptable. But, “by the time I left Eton, I was nothing more than an unarmoured unicorn, with a blunt, weathered horn, wandering alone once more”

Read this book – it is funny, dazzling, heart-breaking and life enhancing. It gave me hope and a renewed strength to trust both myself – however weird and unicorn-like I feel – and life. And even other humans. Let’s be kind to other humans and let them be kind to us.

“Maybe every human being is a prophet in some way for someone else, guarding some sort of answer, from the gargantuan to the microscopic, holding a key to our coming closer to resolution”

I wanted to read this book because I am a huge fan of drag in all forms, and I am generally a very strong believer that people should be able to be themselves, no matter what that self might be. You have to be true to it or you will never be happy. So I liked the idea of this book as a tale of someone powering through adversity and shining to become that magical unicorn. I have also wanted to see Denim, and in fact they have performed in my home town before but disappointingly I didn't get to see them.

Unfortunately, I found that the book just wasn't for me. I just found it difficult to get through, and just not what I imagined when I found the book and read the blurb. It isn't really about drag or gay culture as much as I expected, and it is more about the author's very personal feelings and history, from being a child until they go to university. I was expecting (or hoping) perhaps for a bit more insight into their life as a fully realised "unicorn" and performer and what that has been like. I also found it to be very long and quite repetitive. The author is obviously not a writer by trade, and that shows in the book.

Having said that, I fully support the author and I think they sound like an amazing person. I don't want to be disrespectful to the author at all, or minimise their journey and what they've been through. I am so glad that they found a way to find who they really are inside, and that they have been true to that no matter what has stood in their way.

Amrou writes their story of growing up in a very traditional Muslim household with such warmth and wit, that even when things are tough and the story is sad, there's still a courage and a bravery that shines through. This is their first book and I really do hope that they write more, because their writing style is so engaging that I felt I was reading a story from a friend.

Going from such a traditional upbringing (and all the trappings that involved) to trying to find a place in a world where a non-binary Muslim Drag Queen could feel accepted was never going to be easy - especially during times when their family was not on board. The author documents their obsession with academic perfection, body fascism, encounters with homophobia in the gay community, shame, hypocrisy, sexual expression - but what could be a very sad, glum tale has a special sparkle to it - much like the titular animal.

This was a beautiful book, one I'm delighted to have discovered. Please read it!

This book was a joy to read. The author has an amusing, eminently readable style, and their story is a fascinating one. I particularly enjoyed reading about their early childhood, but the timeline was a bit fractured later on - especially the jump from schooldays to launching a university drag night. It was a great insight into the joys and traumas of an identity very different from my own, and I was very happy that the author got to a place of love and peace with their family. I’ll definitely look out for their future work.

Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy

Thanks to 4th Estate and Netgalley for my copy of this book. I love memoirs and really enjoyed reading this one. Amrou has been through a lot in his life and he writes very movingly about his childhood and the difficulties of being accepted (and of finding acceptance of himself) as a queer non binary drag queen from a Muslim background. Surprisingly funny in parts too.