I requested this book at a time when I read young adult books, however I don't read them any more. Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

This book was a huge disappointment and didn’t deliver what I hoped it would.
I loved the premise but the execution didn’t work for me

Amir was so fun! You are thrown straight into the narrative and it doesn’t stop until the last page. So many tough topics are touched with care and delicacy that’s it’s heartwarming to follow Amir through this coming of age novel and his almost forced outing.

I no longer have an interest in reviewing this title but would like to thank the publisher and author for the opportunity, it is now far past the publication and archive date. I have awarded 3 stars to keep this review neutral.

Amir is Muslin. Amir is gay. He is being blackmailed by someone at school, so instead of going to graduation, he hops on a plane to NYC, and then Rome rather than come out to his family.

Told in interview format from the pics of Amir and his family, and through flashbacks, we follow Amir as he spends a month in Rome, where he can finally be himself. Enjoyable read. Though some questionable decisions were made by the narrator.

So the story begins with - Amir Azadi, an 18 year old Muslim boy held at the US Customs office with all of his family members for interrogation. There he tells his story of how he ran away from his home because of being blackmailed by his classmates for being gay.
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He landed in Rome, where he met new people who were totally different from him. They were so open and confident regarding their identities and hardly cared what people thought about them.Amir was getting used to the life in Rome and was enjoying the time of his life.
But you can’t run away from the reality!
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Beautifully written, the story hooked me from the very first page and I absolutely loved reading it. The characters were well developed and half of the time I was drooling over the description of Pizzas😋

I want to preface this review by stating that I am aware that this book is inspired by real events, and as a white reader, this is not my place to comment on the content of the story, as I am fully aware that I am not the target demographic.

18 year old Amir is on the run to Rome, to escape his current life, not wishing to discuss the fact that he is gay with his Muslim family. The story follows his adventures in Rome, while also partly being centred around being held in an interrogation room with US Customs.

At the time of this books release, I remember everyone saying that it was a book about a Muslim person, which is great, as I believe that more books featuring different religions and beliefs should be published, however the character makes a point in the book to say that he is not religious, so I feel that I was missold on the book. I went in expecting something and received something very different. The story lacked the depth that I was hoping for, however I feel that this may not have been the case had I picked it up around its release.

I think this book has a great premise, and will absolutely be the right book for someone else to pick up, but it just wasn’t for me.

Thank you for my earc of this book! I loved the coming of age perspective in this story.

I thought the use of the interview room to add the different characters account of events was very clever and original and would definitely read more by this author.

I was really looking forward to reading How It All Blew Up, as the setting and subject area could've made for a really interesting look at the relationship between being LGBTQIA+, being an immigrant, and faith and culture. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get into the story and will not be reviewing any further at this time.

This book was so much more than I expected it to be, a great storyline that really did feel realistic and you could tell it was based on a real life story. At times it felt like I was listening to a true story podcast rather than a fiction book.

I really liked the different voices we experienced throughout the book, getting to hear about things from both Amir’s and his families point of view. I really was drawn into Amir’s experiences though and really felt for him at many occasions.

This book makes you think about how quick we all are to judge at first appearances and how people are expected to behave in a given situation.

But mostly we get to experience life through Amir’s eyes, how it must have felt to be somewhere new with strangers but to be accepted and welcomed straight away. You could just feel his relief at being able to be himself radiate from the pages and I really wanted to see a happy ending at the end of this book. I was hooked on this book and finished it in a matter of hours as I just couldn’t put it down, I needed to know what was going to happen next!

A really interesting read! I really enjoyed reading from the different perspectives and couldn’t wait to see what happened at the end and how the main character grows too!

This book though. I’ve lucked out this year by having the opportunity to read such awesome books and this one is definitely up there. I read it in just a couple of sittings across the same day. The book follows Amir and is really a coming of age story. Amir is gay and doesn’t think he will be able to come out to his family. One thing leads to another and Amir is fleeing to Rome. The book is set within a customs interrogation room at an airport after a fight on the plane which Amir and his family were on. We are given a range of flashbacks which explains how and why the family got into this situation. And why Amir went to Rome along with some of the things he got up to whilst there. This book is such a whirlwind with some pretty extreme events happening. We are introduced to a range of characters some of which you just can’t help but love. Amir himself is one of those characters. As despite the times you want him to ‘shake some sense’ into him. He is beautifully human. The story gives you insights into multiple POV’s which adds depth and perspective to the different characters and the events unfolding. Overall this book was very well written and kept you engaged throughout, it was unique and covered some very important topics whilst providing much needed representation.

With the author's behaviour towards reviewers on social media and the belly button extract I've seen, I no longer have any interest in reading this title.

How It All Blew Up had potential. It had all the themes I love in YA, friendhsips, beautiful setting, family, acceptance. I really wish I loved this book that I wanted to. But it fell flat to my expecatations.

It has good representation and the theme of finding your sexual identity, while embracing your cultural identity and being an immigrant, plays a huge role in this book. And of course, Italy is one of my favorite countries to read about. But what specifically didn't work for me was the weak storyline. Though I usuallu prefer character oriented stories, I can't help but think how this story could have been better if the plot was handeled well. And the characters themseleves were not strong enough to take the story on their shoulders alone. All of them were pretty much one dimensional.

The friendship that AMir finds in Italy was quite fast and sudden? But I loved that group. I loved the way they tried to make Amir at home. The scenes where Arvin was trying to explore his sexual identity were done beautifully.

This wasn't a bad book. I just wish the implementation was better.

In all this is a good ya coming of age queer book detailing the experience of being a gay Muslim teen boy. I really wanted to love this and I was enjoying it at first. The main character Amir is terribly endearing and it's hard not to like him. But I had to dnf about a quarter into this book because I just could not get on with the interrogation sections of the book. They are written in a different style to the rest of the book, almost like a diary formate where characters are giving us in depth detail on what they were thinking and doing during the plot of the book. However, this doesn't really fit the tone of interrogations to me. Why do they keep telling all the events in such unnecessary detail to the officers? It feels weird for the mother to tell them that she looked at her husband differently after a phone call or for the sister to give long anecdotes of past holidays just to tell them that Amir doesn't like conflict. It broke the logic for me and kept taking me out of the book. I will still recommend this for people who like ya queer books since the writing outside of the interrogations is good and I liked most of the characters, but it's just not my cup of tea.

Thank you to Hot Key Books UK for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

I decided to give How It All Blew Up by Arvin Ahmadi 4.5 stars out of 5.

Amir Azadi, an eighteen-year-old, always expected it would be messy coming out to his Muslim family. However, what he wasn't expecting was to be in an airport interrogation room, telling his story of a spontaneous trip to Rome while his family are also being interrogated next door.

Amir talks about the boys and blackmail that caused the trip and the fun adventures he during the whole month he was there for.

I loved this book. It was a fun read while also telling an emotional story which grips at the heart at points. How It All Blew Up approaches racism, family relationships and sexuality really well and I thought it was impressively written. Ahmadi's writing has really put me in the perfect summery/holiday mood and brought a smile to my face repeatedly throughout while also having the perfect amount of lows.

I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys young adult contemporary reads and LGBTQIA+ stories.

This was wild. I can only imagine how terrifying it must be to worry about being outed to your highly religious family, but just getting on a plane to Italy to avoid it? I was baffled that this teenage boy was able to literally fly across the world before his parents even realised. I'm all for avoiding conflict but damn that was wild. The story itself is really well written, and I loved how we got flashbacks, present day and multiple POVs. It provided a great look into the world of each character and how their views on the situation differed. It was a really sweet coming of age story to see him become someone he was proud of, and how he could fully be himself. The nipple story? That's a HUGE no from me however 💀

this one was fun! i had an idea of what it was going to be about and it turned out nothing like it at all, but it was good! switching between the interrogation rooms in an airport to the streets of rome, it follows a boy who panics at the thought of his parents finding out he's gay and flees to rome, i adored the descriptions, esp of the trastevere area which i visited a couple of years ago and it made me want to go back even more . i loved all the friends in rome, the community and the drama and the support they caused and provided. and i loved the sister, who was trying her best to help.

a good read!

Such a great book which broaches such important topics! Extremely well written and intriguing from the get go.

"Eighteen-year-old Amir Azadi always knew that coming out to his Muslim family would be messy, but he wasn't expecting it to end in an airport interrogation room. Now, he's telling his side of the story to the stern-faced officer. Amir has to explain why he ran away to Rome (boys, bullies, blackmail) and what he was doing there for a month (dates in the Sistine Chapel, friends who helped him accept who he is, and, of course, drama) . . . all while his mum, dad and little sister are being interrogated in the room next door."

One of those books you inhale, it's so easy to read - enjoyed it.