I enjoyed this book. I loved the exploration of sexuality, especially in different cultures. And how difficult coming out can be for people. I also loved that it was set in Rome, the imagery was great and I felt like I was there living it with the characters.

While this was an interesting idea, I never really felt like the characters were real. The premise of a Muslim boy thinking he's been outed to his parents would be a story that resonated with many people however it ends up being a silly story about gay culture in Italy. Not for me but maybe others would enjoy it more.

From reading the author’s note it is obvious that this is a deeply personal book. I can only imagine how difficult his life has been at times and even then I suspect I will not be picturing anything close to reality.

Amir has such a distinctive voice that I found myself with a very clear picture of him in my mind almost instantly. I loved the almost humorous tone with which he deals with what must be an awful situation of being detained at an airport, an attitude that forms a stark contrast to the sorrowful, defeated air to his father, Afshin’s, interview. He seems broken by the system and by circumstance, and that just made me feel so sad for him. In a further contrast to both Amir and Afshin, feisty Soraya is a real force of nature and a character I would like to get to know more.

The vibrant atmosphere of Rome is brought to life in marvellous technicolour that made me long to be back there, and even more to be part of Jahan’s circle of friends. They just felt so full of life and exuberance. The truly overwhelming nature of the city and the people Amir meets, as someone who has lived a sheltered existence up to that point, is captured in mind-spinning detail.

How It All Blew Up is a true coming of age novel as Amir learns how to blend all the conflicting aspects of who he is and become truly comfortable in his own skin.

A great and engrossing read. It was nice to read this kind of romance and friendship coming of age story with a boy main character as so often it is focused on the girls. His Italian life was beautifully and romantically described and his family love and struggles were well handled. I'm not sure about the ending as I feel I missed a little something but overall I will definitely recommend it to students 14+ for a fun read with some extra depth.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This book is a must-read for any teen wanting to come out to their loved ones, especially for Asian males for whom this ensures representation. The arc is delicately handled and, although the plot sometimes feels too overblown to be based on reality, the characters are very realistic. Vital and important.

This book was so easy to read! It's definitely one of those stories you start and finish in one sitting because you get so attached to the main character you can't live them. The dual timeline told from Amir's point of view is easy to follow, although I did prefer the interrogation scenes to the flashback scenes. But it's definitely a book I'd recommend! (3.5)

I went into this expecting a coming of age/romance, but actually parts of it read more like a thriller. It was very fast paced, compelling and interesting, and I really felt for Amir. I'd be interested in what Arvin Ahmadi writes next.

I'm somewhere in the middle: I liked the book but also disliked some parts.
I liked how easy it was to read. I also like how the author built the whole story: between Amir's journey in Italy and all the scenes in the airport. Amir finding his "new family" in Italy, somewhere where he fitted in, somewhere people could finally understand him honestly warmed my heart.
But also, I was a bit taken aback by some aspects of the story, especially the fact that Amir, an 18 year old boy who just graduated high school, spent all his time in Italy with 30ish adults. Maybe it's just me but this age gap really disturbed me. I mean, I have nothing against them hanging out together but you really felt the age gap: one of the running gag was Amir not understanding some movie references because he was too young when the movie was first broadcasted in movie theater. More than that, Amir even hooked up with one of the adult. Also, another 30-somethingèyear-old adult kinda tries/implies something but Amir brushed him off. But the intent was there you know? The adult actually wanted something.
Anyway, maybe it's just me, maybe I just don't like big age gap. I don't know.

DISCLAIMER: having just come across a 5-star review that says negative reviews should not remark on how this book doesn't really explore Amir's faith and/or heritage I felt the need to better articulate my thoughts about this book: 1) I'm not saying this book doesn't have great Muslim rep because I found it unbelievable that a Muslim mc wouldn't be thinking about his faith/heritage 24/7 or because the mc is a non-practicing Muslim 2) I do think that this book could have delved deeper into Amir's relationship to his faith/heritage. Throughout the course of this novel Amir states that being gay is incompatible with being Muslim...and that's it. He merely reiterates 'Muslims don't like gay people'...that strikes me (I am being entirely subjective) as somewhat simplistic. 3) the novel opens with his family being detained at an airport. The author states that he wanted to 'subvert' this type of situation but I am not sure he succeeded. Scenes from this 'interrogation' are interspersed throughout the novel, and it felt extremely gimmicky and insensitive (treating a serious situation in a very superficial and unconvincing way). 4) I'm not a Muslim so I recommend you read reviews from Muslim users.If you are thinking of reading this book I suggest you check out more positive reviews. What I can comment on however is Ahmadi's depiction of Italy and Italians (yes, I'm Italian)...which truly irritated me. Maybe non-Italian readers will be able to overlook the stereotypes in this novel...personally I'm tired of books that portray Italy as a quirky land of Vespas and pasta. Fun fact: Italians don't just eat pizza and pasta (I know, mind-blowing). Also, why do we always get this quaint image of Italian women hanging their laundry? The Italian characters left much to be desired. There is this Italian couple (the only two Italian guys who actually make more than two or three appearances), possibly in their late twenties, and they are not monogamous. Cool for them, right? Except that they are actually deeply unhappy and they (view spoiler) Then we have a cute Italian guy from Puglia who plays a rather irrelevant role (I guess he's there so we can have a kiss scene in the Sistine Chapel?). Another Italian character is a guy who works at a bar/restaurant and speaks in a "It's-a Me, Mario" accent (his supposed all-caps texts to his daughter? Ridiculous). 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). I had the impression that Ahmadi skipped a lot of scenes, so that we had these jumpy transitions in which 'time passed' and 'stuff happened'. The ending felt anticlimactic, angsty for the sake of being angsty (of course we have to have a big fight between our 'friends'). The interrogation scene predictably amounted to nothing. The writing, the characterisation, the way Italy is portrayed, all leave a lot to be desired (once again: this is my personal opinion).

This book does that YA thing where it tries to tie together a lot of important and concerning themes - being gay, being Muslim, being Iranian, coming out, knowing your parents won't accept you, finding 'your people', being targeted by flight marshalls because of race - but doesn't quite spend enough time on any of those things to make them significant. That may be because these are some of the author's exaggerated memories, or the POV writing of a teenager. But a short novel gives an impression without giving much depth.

Amir is 18 and gay. He's always known that it would be hard to come out to his Muslim Iranian American family, but had expected to do it in his own time, or not at all. Instead he finds himself being blackmailed by a boy at school and realises that, instead of doing this himself, he could just run.

Amir finds himself in Rome, and is immediately swept up by members of a loud, proud gay community. For once, he feels as though he can fit in, that he could have a life here. But it's not as easy to run away from coming out to his parents as he hopes.

The story opens with Amir trying to explain to a US Customs official why he and his family were having a big argument on a plane. This doesn't serve a huge purpose for the story - except for a point about racial profiling - but the separate interrogation rooms do provide a way of hearing not just from Amir, but from his mother, sister and father too.

Having those additional points of view really helps the story along - we hear from the pragmatic musical theatre-loving sister, the fierce but quiet mother and the father who believes that this is a family matter, not for discussion, whilst inwardly hoping his son will have an easy life and this will all pass.

Amir is ... a little naïve. And in many ways this is a story about him coming out to himself, not just his family, as he has been hiding a way an important part of himself for so long. He initially scores himself 'gay points' as way of seeing how well he would fit in with the gay community, which he soon forgets as he learns to feel comfortable in himself.

The community he ends up in Rome is in many ways fun and supportive, but in many ways very disfunctional. And perhaps a little odd that a very young 18 year old has ended up being taken in by a community of late 20s/early 30s (?) gay men. In some way it proves that there is not just one type of gay man and Amir begins to see a whole breadth of relationships, from single men to open relationships, to committed partners. And even better, he gets to meet Jahan, a gay Iranian who takes him under his wing.

And, of course, I loved the setting of Rome. Even if some of it is clichéd, but it's a great backdrop for anyone to learn more about themselves.

There were a few parts of this book that felt as though they needed more fleshing out. And Amir himself seemed to range from being very mature to very, very young. I liked the overall message - that family matters, and families love, even if they can't understand. I wouldn't say I necessarily got much closure from the book, especially with the interrogation storyline.

But, as RuPaul says: "If you can't love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?"

Overall 3 stars for a heartwarming story with some poignance but not 100% execution.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book!

TW: blackmail, outing, homophobia, racism.


I’ve been wanting to read “How It All Blew Up” for a while now, we definitely need more queer Muslim MCs in YA, so I instantly added this one to my TBR.

I loved the writing style and the story was very fast-paced, but overall, this wasn’t really for me. I enjoyed the layout of this book, with the interrogation room scenes and going back and forth between telling Amir’s story and then his family recounting the events too. But other than that, not much really happened.

Overall, this is a messy, fun and quick YA by an author I’d definitely read more from in the future!

I really enjoyed this book, which opens in an interrogation room and involves Amir, our hero, recounting his tale like, as he says, Iranian storytellers do in their oral tradition. He's gay and Muslim and he's run away from home but will this be an ordinary tale of coming out and being rejected?

Reviewed in full on my blog https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2020/10/05/book-review-arvin-ahmadi-how-it-all-blew-up/

I haven't read Young Adult Fiction for awhile, but this Covid situation made me look for brighter and simple storylines. With that in mind, I looked on Netgalley for something that seamed fun and joyful but with a true story. This is the reason I requested "How It All Blew Up" by Arvin Ahmadi.

We can't deny that what made us all start reading this book was not only the prospect of spending a good time reading about a runaway teenager in Italy, but also to discover what brought him and his family to a detection room in an international airport.
In the begining those bits of testimonials seamed forced to me but they engraind themselves all the way with the story development and they became the best part of it. What grabs the readers attention isn't what is said on these excerpts but what isn't. They create a space in our heart for this family and make us think how we are treating other religious and ethnic groups out of fear. I do believe a simple discussion on an airplane by a white family would not end like this. Let's not forget the story of the Math Teacher who was accused of terrorism by another passenger due to her ignorance and terror, and got him out of a plane direct to a detention room. That wasn't fiction back then and is a result of the institutionalized terror the ocidental world started experiencing after September 11th.
What we sometimes forget is the terror is way worse for someone whose origins are determined by a geographical region ou religion, because suddenly they all become the prime suspects in every ocasion.

We can get how Amir's sister, being raised in USA since she was child, feels part of that country as a wholesome citizen (as she is). Because of that, she deals with that situation with a witty eye that her parents could never have. Their answers are cautious and temerous, and even knowing they didn't do something wrong, they know what can happen if they don't cause the proper impression.

But let's get back to Amir. This could have been an amazing coming out story, but got a little sloppy in the middle. As a reader, I can accept the reason why he went to Italy and how he got there. I also understand his fears and all the try-outs to avoid the subject near his new friends (specially in a group that for the first time in his life fully accepts him and makes him feel comfortable). But Amir doesn't improve or learn anything from this experience. And remains a one dimensional character until the end.
We don't get a fully acceptance from his part. Of course there were things restraining his full-self back home, besides his family. A guy who would only come out to a some sort of boyfriend, still in search of his identity as a gay boy/man, would probably not do the things he did in Italy. At least, without any thoughts about it. The reader is inside the head of this boy and we still don't get why his interest jumps from one person to another, without giving a proper though. C'mon, (there will be some spoilers here, jump to the following paragraph), he is finally dating a guy with whom he is sharing something real and he sleeps with another one just because? When that character didn't even shown up properly in the book?
The relationships he has with the other friends also get a bit nonsense sometimes and there are scenes that make zero sense to the plot. That nipple scene can be even worse than the peach one on "Call Me By Your Name", and that's saying much.
Even Italy, that could shine a lot there, was almost reduced to pasta and a visit to Vatican. And finally, the ending was rushed and nonsense. I don't mind open endings, but they need to make sense at least and make the readers think about it. With this one I just felt there were missing pages because it couldn't end like that!
With that said, I'm giving it 2,75 because it got me back to reading, with a fast pace, which is kind amazing during this chaotic period we are living in.
Also, I've seen the potential and what it could have been. I liked the family storyline, and I wish it had shinned a bit more.

How It All Blew Up is a book about identity & the Venn diagram of communities that people can belong to - religion, culture, family, queerness, friendship groups: all of them linked together and connected with this book (& Amir) sitting in the very middle and I really enjoyed it!!

Amir is probably best described as Chaos Personified (he literally runs away to Rome, rents an apartment & makes an entire new group of friends in the space of a few weeks) and he definitely makes a few dubious decisions along the way but ultimately this book is overflowing with heart, with a rock solid core of acceptance and love as well. It perfectly captures that dizzy post-graduation “I’m free I can do everything, oh no I’m free what do I do now..” cycle, with added Rome! Bookshops, queer poetry readings, being taught Italian by your new best friend/gay mentor! What more could you want in a post-high school summer?! This book had so much humour and heart but didn’t shy away from messy reality either and the combination of the two was absolutely divine to read!

tw: homophobia, cheating, racism, blackmail, outing of a queer character without their knowledge or consent, airport interrogation room, mentions a previous airport interrogation (no detail.)

tw: The book is told in two narrative styles: as a flashback of Amir’s time in Rome and in present day dialogue from Amir (and his sister and parents) to airport officers in interrogation rooms after Amir and his family fly back to America. It is an entirely non-violent and calm process, and does not have an unhappy or unsavoury ending but please be aware that airport interrogation does play a part in this one if that is something that affects you.

I was stoked for the premise of this book! A Muslim boy struggling with his sexuality decides to run away instead of facing his family and making a hard decision - who wouldn't do the same in his place if given the choice? He arrives in Rome where he meets a group of gay men who gives him the support he needs as he tries figure out what to do. Somehow he ends up being detained at the airport after an incident on a place, and we find out what happens to lead him there.

Unfortunately, I didn't feel the book lived up to the premise. I didn't mind that the story doesn't sound entirely realistic (the framing of the airport detainment and in Rome the character just happens to meet all the right people by accident) as long as it maintains a certain amount of believability and character growth. This doesn't really happen. The main character doesn't come to terms with himself, even as he makes mistakes along the way. There are a lot of side characters that are forgotten without closure. There's no actual conflict between his Muslim faith and Persian culture, and with him being gay, I honestly think the book could still have worked if the main character is a random white American going on a trip to Rome.

I did appreciate getting the POVs from his family, and seeing them trying to reconcile who their son/brother his with who they think he should be. I thought the supporting characters are pretty entertaining. There's some hilarious and touching moments as well. But I just wish the book lives up to its potential instead of just scratching the surface.

I wish I enjoyed this more but the important themes—embracing one's cultural and sexual identity, being a child of immigrant parents, acceptance from a family, built up emotions, religious discrimination and fighting stereotypes—reflected in the story are worth appreciating. The Italian setting is beautiful and the absolute fun & self-reflection that this impromptu escape brings is a delight to read, but the lack of a strong enough plot and a different style of narration that unfortunately didn't work for me much—though, it can certainly impress many so that's an aspect you should experience yourself.

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.

A funny, bingeable, queer coming-of-age novel, with multiple first-person perspectives from the (gay) protagonist, his parents and younger sister.

'How It All Blew Up' feels like a slice-of-life sort of story. It's told with a dual-timeline of present-day interrogation room scenes and past scenes narrated by Amir - this made plot exposition more interesting and reminded me of how the TV show 'Élite' is constructed (flash-forward scenes and flashbacks). The ending (was it an epilogue?) felt really random. Was it meant to be symbolic? Will we return to Italy in a sequel? Who knows. I did like where we left off on Amir's family's story: poignant, lovely, frazzled and bittersweet.

The writing style in the flashback scenes felt a lot more 'tell' rather than 'show' in comparison to the interrogation scenes, which is the opposite of what I would have expected. Sometimes it felt like I was being told a list of what Amir was doing in Rome, which I think prevented me from becoming totally immersed by what must have been a very enchanting month for Amir in a new city halfway across the world. Amir's wonder did shine through most of the time, though!

All the characters in this, even Amir, are flawed and felt like real people. Even the queer boys in Rome who readily accept Amir into their friendship group aren't perfect. The disillusionment was shocking, if however necessary and believable.

I liked that we got to peek into the perspective of Amir's parents and sister - does that happen often in LGBTQ+ contemporaries? I don't think I've read many like that. While also a coming-out, coming-of-age story, I think this was also a coming-to-terms story for Amir's parents. Everything felt very honest - Ahmadi did say this was his "most personal book". I actually almost cried reading some of Roya's (Amir's mother) parts!

If you enjoy queer coming-of-age stories, with a side-helping of wanderlust washed down with some belly laughs, I would recommend!

3.5

”Life not about keeping score like that. It’s just not. It’s about finding people who see you- because the minute they do, everything else goes away. All points even out.”- How it all Blew Up, Arvin Ahmadi.
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How it all Blew Up is a beautiful coming of age YA that features one extraordinary trip to Rome, new found friends, and gelato.
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I love the character of Amir. Yes I simultaneously wanted to hug and scream at him but that’s besides the point. Amir is 18 years old, gay, and Muslim. When he’s left with no choice but to come out to his parents, Amir decides to hitch a ride to Rome instead. Here he embarks on a wild adventure as he makes new friends, explores both his sexuality, and gay culture, all the while finding himself. I LOVED HIM. I love that he makes mistakes and his innocence towards things made my heart melt. The author is not afraid to write Amir as he is- young, gay, and scared.
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The side characters were just as developed as Amir and I specifically love Amir’s sister and his friends- Jahan and Neil. Family is a big theme throughout the book, as Amir’s parents find out he’s gay, and we’re reading their reactions from their POVs. Even though at times it was heartbreaking. I loved Amirs family. They clearly love their son, and it shines through, especially towards the end.
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The plot was so entertaining and I loved the descriptions of Rome. I’m a big art head and so when Amir described all the sculptures and paintings he saw, I was glued to the pages. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I’m so happy that we have this own voices story out there. There isn’t a lot of own voice queer Muslim stories and I’m so happy we’re getting more and more.

How It All Blew Up is a poignant coming-of-age story that I was able to breeze through. It's a quick and moving read about prejudice, acceptance, and family — themes we love seeing in YA novels. <3

While I did love these themes, I'm afraid my expectations were a little dashed on the character front. Other than Amir and his family, I felt like all the other characters were pretty one-dimensional. They weren't fleshed out as well and left a lot to be desired.

My favourite bits in this novel were all focused around Amir's family and his relationship with them. Their interviews with the Customer and Border Patrol particularly while brief, were some of the best and most powerful parts of the story.

While some of my expectations were dashed, I'd still recommend this book because it's a fast-paced, moving read.