4.5 Stars

I absolutely loved this book. Despite being about a Muslim boy facing coming out to his parents, it manages to feel light and full of joy. It is a really uplifting read about found family and finding yourself, knowing that even if the things that you are might feel like contradictions, you can still be your authentic self and love life.

I really enjoyed the format of the book as Amir (our protag) and his family recount the series of events that lead them to be interviewed by immigration officers at the airport.

This book would be a 5 Star read except for the fact that I had a really visceral response to the "nipple story" and I found it difficult to get it out of my head for the remainder of the book - the fact that this only reduced the overall rating to a 4.5 should serve as testament to just how good this book is.

Well, where do I start. I have some feelings about this one.

Lets start with the good shall we?

It started off really strong. I really liked the premise of Amir, an Iranian muslim boy being blackmailed by a guy who was going to out him to his parents, running away and ending up in Rome. I also really like the dual timeline between them sat in the customs office talking back over exactly what happened. I really liked Soraya and Roya's narratives.

However thats where the good ends.

The bad?

As has been pointed out by several muslim reviewers, Amir is not religious. This book has been marketed as a muslim gay guy, when he explicitly says in the text that he is not religious. The book could merely have talked about his iranian culture vs his homosexuality, and instead I feel it used the muslim faith as a bit of a buzz word.

I found most of the book slightly too easy to be believable. Once he got to Italy everything fell into place, he just found somewhere to live, was accepted by a group of gay guys ... it was all just a little too easy.

And also. The nipple thing? Totally totally not needed.

I won't be leaving feedback on this title, as I was uncomfortable with the way the author recently harassed a blogger online over their honest review of this book.

This is a story about finding yourself and the importance of learning who you are, rather than a coming out story. It is important for me to tell myself this as otherwise the ending, where Amir is finally reconnected with his family who are starting to come to terms about their son's identity and what this means for them going forwards, seems quite rushed. I personally would have liked to see this explored a little more, maybe with a paragraph at the end being set a couple of months after this, giving the reader an insight into how the family dynamic has changed, and whether the rift between them has started to heal, as this would give some nice rounded-up closure for the reader. But again, this story focuses a lot more on Amir coming to terms with his identity and learning to merge his two halves of ‘gay’ and ‘Muslim’ and learning how he is going to make those two labels work together, so that he can start to feel like a real person again, rather than the aftermath of him coming out.

The story is split into two sections, the current day where the family is being held in interrogation rooms at the airport due to getting into an argument on the plane whilst they are bringing Amir back home, and the story that Amir is telling the border-control officer about why he went to Italy and what he was doing there. I enjoyed these parallels as it allowed a switch between the different perspectives of Amir’s family members as the story unfolds, however for the most part Amir’s father remains silent. I understand that this is a reflection of the characters reluctance to accept that is son is gay, along with the fact that Persian culture teaches that family matters are to be kept private and within the family rather than being aired out. However this justification does not stop me from believing that it would have been interesting to hear more from the father as it would offer a different perspective, particularly because he has deep-rooted Muslim beliefs whereas Amir doesn’t seem to be very involved in the religion and its practices himself, and thus this feels like something of a missed opportunity.

It is important that I am transparent here in that I am not an own-voices reviewer, I am white and straight and female and very privileged in the case that I have never had to worry about whether or not I will be accepted by those around me. But I have found that many own-voices reviewers have been vocal about issues with this book and the lack of influence that the Muslim religion has on the characters considering that it was marketed as a Muslim book, and thus this has been taken into consideration with my own review.

I loved this novel - funny, charming characters, a stunning backdrop and a relatable dilemma - how to open up to your family about a relationship you know they won’t approve of. You will follow Amir on his journey and celebrate the highs of love and friendship while also wishing you could support him through the traumas. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

2.5☆ A Story about Acceptance.

How It All Blew Up gave me mixed feelings, it was an easy and quick read but for me it just lacked depth.

The blurb had so much promise and I was really looking forward to reading this book.

The story is about Amir a 18yr old who is being blackmailed for being gay.
He is petrified of being exposed to his Muslim family, that he feels has no other choice but to run away the day of his high school graduation.

He runs away to Italy where he meets a group of friends that are also Gay. They help make him feel welcome and give him the confidence to be free and open to be who he really is. Even if he is living a lie and they don't always have his best interest at heart.

The story goes back and forth between interview interrogations at the airport after an incident on the plane which led to Amir's family finding him and bringing him home.

I have to say there was a fair amount of build up to the plane incident which when it came to the reveal felt lack luster and a little disappointing.
However I did like the interview styles and how each snippet of interview moved the story along.

How It All Blew Up is a story about acceptance, openly coming out as being Gay, prejudice, family and learning to love.
The characters are complex and not all entirely likeable, or relatable. The only character I did warm to was Amir's younger Sister.
The plot had potential, but I just wanted more, there was so much missed opportunity to develop the story further.
Overall an ok read, if you enjoy LGBTQIA & YA books then you may want to give this one a try!

Thank you for the opportunity to consider this book for review. I found that it wasn't for me and I will not be reviewing it.

How It All Blew Up by Arvin Ahmadi is a YA novel about how difficult coming out can be when your family is Muslim and being gay isn't something your family is likely to accept or forgive.

Amir is in his final year of high school and something he never imagined could happened has. He finds himself hooking up with Jackson, the cute football player who gave him the school tour when he transferred schools at the start of the year. But while they both clearly like each other, neither of them are ready to tell their friends and families that they are not 'straight'.

When a fellow student catches them locked in a steamy embrace inside Jackson's car, he secretly makes sure he has proof of it, before using it to blackmail Amir.

When Amir isn't able to raise enough money to avoid his blackmailer's latest threat of telling his parents on graduation day, he decides to run away. At first he only plans to go to another state, but before he knows it he finds himself in a totally different country.

Here, he finds a whole new life and identity where he has friends who embrace him for who he is. He doesn't feel like he has to be ashamed for being gay. He also might have found someone he could imagine himself getting serious with.

So how has he ended up detained in an airport, being questioned by customs officials, his parents & sister in tow?

Amir's life has taken some very unexpected twists and turns and he certainly didn't see this one coming!

This LGBT novel had a bumpy start, but it quickly eased into a much enjoyed story about self acceptance, family expectations, and finding your way along the most unlikeliest of paths.

If I ignore the bumpy start this book easily hits a 4/5 🌟 for me.

A big thanks to NetGalley, Bonner Books UK and Hot Key Books for giving me a copy of this novel in exchange for an impartial review.

Set your calendars for the release date of 22nd September 2020!

Firstly, thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

I'm not going to leave a long review for this one, mainly because I really don't have many thoughts on it. It was an okay novel, with an okay story. It had some of the usual tropes and themes with a Muslim twist and an Italian backdrop. Sounds amazing, doesn't it? Wasn't amazing. What I looked forward to when I picked this up was reading about how the author tackled sexuality, religion and culture. Unfortunately it just felt like a tale of the main characters escapades in another country with his new friends.

The positives were that it was a quick and easy read, and I liked the back and forth interview perspectives interwoven throughout the story.

All I know was this book has stuck with me, but not for a good reason. There is a nipple story. It's disgusting, I hated reading it and it won't leave my mind. It was unnecessary to the story and I honestly don't know why it was even included. I suppose it makes the book memorable, just not in a good way.

Apparently there are also a lot of issues with the author, which I don't know a lot about so I cannot comment.

I thought I was going to really enjoy this and whilst it was a quick read with some good parts, the majority of the book fell flat. The characters and story lacked something. It had potential but for me it didn't quite work.

Unfortunately there are still people out there who still do not feel as though coming out the closet is a good thing. In the case of Amir, this seems the case, especially with his Iranian Muslim background and the fear that his parents will come to disown him when they finally find out. This sets a series of events that lead to blackmail and an spontaneous decision to travel the world and get away from all the hate back home, while still trying to save face with his family.

There are some points in the book that feels as though there could have been more detail about certain characters, rather than simply talking about them in passing. This is so then it is easier for the reader to understand the motives to why certain characters act the way that they do. Otherwise, what is truly the point of going through a book without any real development of characters? I think there is not really enough pages to be able to show any of this detail, as it is quite a small book in general.

When it comes to Amir, I think that I have come to despise his choices and what he does to people. I understand that he is coming to terms with what it means to live freely as a gay man and there is no way to dispute that, but he does it in a way that is hugely wrong and silly. He makes out that his family will come to hate him for all his worth and the best thing to do is to run away to another country. This is not the way to go about it. In any circumstances this would make the situation worse. It is clear from the beginning with his family's interviews that they care a lot of Amir and keeping them in their lives, rather than his life choices. So why does he feel like he has to make all his relationships around him even harder? It just doesn't make any sense. There is not really any implication of his family's culture upon their thoughts of being gay, so why was it mentioned? It doesn't really move any of the plot, but rather a kick in the teeth for the Muslim community and to pad the book out.

The plane scene was just annoying on my part as well. I really felt sorry for his family, when it was clear that Amir wanted to cause a fuss and make out he is victim to a captive audience. He was not a victim in any way to his family. They have had a short period to get around the concept; he has had his whole life. I wanted to shout "Please just leave them alone! They accept you as you are and still love you why are you doing this to them?"

However, there is one person that I did come to care about and I feel like she was given a lot of jip for her actions, Soraya. She seems like a lovely and understanding sister, which I felt like Amir kept pushing away. It's sad, especially when she states she is ok with it, as she works with gay actors. But one thing that I really felt sorry about is how she was the one who got the backlash, as the only way to put her parent's mind at rest was to tell them the truth about Amir.

The ending, well, the ending was intolerably dull. What was the point truly? It kind of makes me angry in some respects. It was completely wrong and just was disappointing as there was nothing there to really sign off this book. In fact, I didn't even realise that it was the end until I saw the acknowledgements. So, no guys, probably not a good idea to spend a single penny on this one, no lasting impression to read this one again. Move along.

I was intrigued to read this book after finding interest in the blurb - a story about a young 18-year old man who was not only Muslim, but gay.

I appreciate the idea of how this book has been set out, switching from past and present scenes of the main character, Amir. The scenes ranged from his adventures as he runs away to Rome and meets a group of older, gay men to an interrogation room.

Unfortunately for me, I felt as though that it was missing a significant plot (and theme) as I was not excited to learn about his adventures with his new friends. It should have spoken more about his Persian/Muslim culture which is a main point in this book as this is the reason for his parents not accepting him. I also found that the characters were not polished enough, making it hard for me to distinguish each character from one another as their personalities merged into one.

‘How It All Blew Up’ was a book that I was genuinely looking forward to reading. The blurb sounded promising enough and I was excited to read an own voices book with a main character who will probably end up embracing both his Muslim/Persian side and his gay identity. The good news is, he does. The bad news is, the book probably would’ve needed some great polishing and is missing significant plot.

‘Pretty soon I realized I hadn’t just ruined my future; I had ruined their American Dream.’

This book is a coming out story, with the main character, Amir, torn between being a good Persian/Muslim son and a gay teenager. A high schooler in his final year, he can’t wait to graduate high school and move far far away from his family and the life he is used to as a closeted teenager. I quickly found myself falling for this witty, sensitive and nerdy young boy with big dreams and a big heart, and there were so many passages that made me spontaneously break out into laughter, the way the author played with Persian stereotypes and high school failures and first loves.
Just like you would’ve expected though, things never quite work out in the way we wished. Before Amir even has the chance to come out on his own terms, something bad happens and he spontaneously takes a flight to Rome. And that’s when things get downhill.
As soon as Amir sets foot in Italy, the plot starts to get messy. I loved the idea of a teenager spontaneously setting off on a journey for self-discovery through art, new people and the dolce vita, and while it might’ve worked for the first 20% of his ‘new life’, I quickly found myself losing interest in the people Amir meets and becomes friends with, as well as the Italian stereotype prompts you find in so many other novels/movies. One of the biggest issues I had with this book were the irrelevant and often dispensable relationships the main character creates throughout this book. Instead of making ‘long-term’ quality relationships, we become witnesses of meaningless hook-ups and different types of (sexual/friendship) relationships. This way, I was never able to warm up to his life in Rome, and granted it was only 30 days the main character ends up spending there, it felt somewhat off. There are also several pop culture references (both classics and modern ones) which could’ve uplifted the story but were instead lovelessly woven into the story and hence fell very flat. I did enjoy the small references to the main character’s Iranian side though, and that he finds people to share his culture with. In addition, it was very hard to see any effective character growth in Amir. Does being open to new relationships and your own sexuality make you a bigger character? Absolutely. The book did however fail to zone in on the main conflict of this book — coming clean to his parents. I wished we would’ve seen more initiatives on his behalf to reconnect with his family, but it was rather his family who had to uncover all the ‘hidden clues’. Being in his constant state of denial made it hard for me to understand his decisions that only dragged him more down.

‘You look at me, ma’am, like I’m not capable of loving my own son. And that hurts. Because no matter where I come from, I am a mother before I am anything else.’

My favourite parts of this book were the ‘excerpts of interrogations’, the part where Amir and his family ends up being detained at the airport for ‘suspicious loud behaviour’. It gave the book a very interesting twist, highlighting two things: racial profiling and moments of family truths. It’s only then that the reader truly starts to understand the family’s struggles on a bigger scale: Failing to be accepted in a world that still has a lot of biases against Muslim people, and even after all these years, people still won’t take them as a whole. It’s especially not easy to empathise with parents that cannot reconcile with the idea that their son might be gay, but the author invested enough time in it to shine a light on their fears and hopes too.

‘Many times, in this country, however, I am made to feel uncomfortable, just like this. It is normal for me, to feel that I have walked into a party that I was not invited to. To be interrogated. To have my every value, every detail of my existence, questioned.’

I do recognise the importance of this book for teenagers (and adults alike), especially those who struggle with their own family’s conservative background. The author more than once empathises that religion really isn’t the problem of the formula; it’s the conservative and strict values that young people grow up with that makes them feel unseen and misunderstood by their family. I think that was a very important and loud message, and that is exactly why the book left at a very sweet note.

Overall I wished the author would’ve stayed in one lane instead of driving the story into a mess of confusing relationships and a journey of getting everywhere and nowhere, because this is exactly how I felt once I read the final chapter of the book. I’m hoping this book will open the door a little bit wider for many other queer to come.

How It All Blew Up was a quick and entertaining read. I really enjoyed a little journey into Italy with Amir, sure it was full of cliche's and a little far fetched, but taking it with a pinch of salt it was a fun book that I couldn't put down. I'd give it 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 because it was on the higher side of the 3.5.

Amir was one of those strange characters, I feel that I still don't know much about him outside of his sexuality, yet he was immediately likeable. The unique little friendship group he finds himself in was something I've not really seen in a YA book before, and I think that's probably what really had me hooked. Surrounded by adults who are all much more settled in their own skin, Amir gradually discovers it's ok to be yourself and if your own family won't accept that, then there's a new kind of family out there waiting to be discovered.

The setting was what made the novel for me, taking me on probably the best holiday I can hope for this year. Little cafes and piazza's, the architecture of a city that is steeped in history. Cold wine, hot pizza and picnics in the park. Sign me up for it all. Ahmadi's writing was super easy to read, and definitely made me feel as though I was in Italy. 100% recommend reading this one on a hot, sunny day in a park, garden or at the beach!

I quite liked the way Amir's family had their own voices interjected into the story, via the passages at the airport. I felt for him of course, feeling as though he wouldn't be accepted, but I also sympathised with them, given that he never really gave them chance. I was pretty satisfied by the end of the book and was left with that glowy feeling that any good contemporary leaves you with.

All in all the only confusing moment was that nipple story. I still don't know if it was supposed to be tongue in cheek, but it was pretty odd! Otherwise, a lovely little summery read!

A completely different story line to my normal reading material, but I did enjoy the book. The story of Amir being Iranian and gay having to escape from family to find himself which he does in Italy I thought was a good read.

I was really intrigued to read this as the synopsis about a Muslim boy coming out as gay is something that interested me.
Unfortunately I feel it lacked beliveability, there were many points in the story that I didn't get and some parts I found very problematic, why was Amir friends with guys 10+ years older than him? Why did they allow him to stay with them etc etc.
I did like that the story was told in flashbacks and from multiple points of view of each of his family members. It starts in the airport and then looks back at what went wrong and why, including Amirs time before Italy and his families experiences while he is missing.

A short coming of age story which covers a lot of issues quite well.

Our main character is 18 year old Amir, who in his final year of high school is in a secret relationship with a boy. Amir comes from a conservative Iranian Muslim family and isn’t out to them or anyone at school. We meet at the point when the school bully threatens to out him having taken photos, and Amir takes the drastic decision to run away to Rome. When there he befriends a group of young gay men and for the first time is able to live freely, date and enjoy life. The book ends where Amir and his family are being interrogated by immigration having had a public argument on a plane back to the UK following their reunion in Rome.

This book is fine, quite funny in places and heart warming in others. It does cover a few issues, sexuality, religion, friendships and relationships. There is one moment which I assume is supposed to be witty but is actually disturbing, which involves a tendon sucked through a piercing site. This affected my whole opinion of the book, and unfortunately is what I recall most, although I wish it wasn’t. I would not want students at my institution to read this. The inclusion of the scene lowered my rating of the book.

I devoured this one. The voice, the setting - it all drew me in.

Great use of flashbacks to build instensity - Amir and his family are stuck at the airport, being questioned by the authorities, after a family argument on the plane.

The plane? They were heading back from Italy, bringing Amir home after he had ran away to for a month.

At the beginning of the novel Amir is in the middle of a huge crisis. He is gay, his Iranian family don't know. When a boy at schools snaps a pic of Amir kissing his boyfriend and threatens to out him in front of everyone at graduation, Amir panics. Italy wasn't he immediate choice. But, he got there.

The month in Italy is Amir finding independence, finding his true self and reflecting on his family. Are they really that bad? Should he have given them more of a chance?

Warm, honest and enjoyable.

(Psst: the nipple scene? I'm squeamish! Yikes.)

I'm uneasy about reviewing this book because I've heard that the author verbally attacked and gaslit a reviewer. Whilst being fully on the side of the reviewer in this, these events have largely been circulating on social media as rumour, and I don't know any of the details.

I also want to state that I am not Muslim, and cannot speak for the Muslim representation in this book. I've seen a range of different views on this, but I think it's really worth checking out Sofia's Goodreads review (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3396575824?book_show_action=true&from_review_page=1). At the same time, and again with the caveat that I am not ownvoices at all on this, I believe this is an ownvoices novel, and I know there's been a lot of important and interesting discussion recently about ownvoices as portraying a plethora of lived experiences, not all of which will be familiar to everyone. I don't know. As I say, it's not my place at all to talk about this, but it didn't feel right to review without putting forwards both sides to that.

In terms of this book itself, I did really enjoy it! It was a super fun read, I felt really immersed in the setting (and it has only increased my current Italy-focused wanderlust). There was so much freedom in the Italy scenes, which created a really good contrast to lots of the other plot points, something I feel was very effective. I liked Amir as a character a lot, and feel that we really got to know him, and to see the various things going on in his life. He definitely made some questionable choices, but I could also see why he was making them, which I liked!

I think my favourite thing about this book, and the thing that has definitely stood out to me since I finished reading, was the group of friends Amir gets kind of 'adopted' by. I wish a group of older gay people had adopted me like that when I was a baby queer!! I also appreciated the way that the friends were shown to be fallible, imperfect and, well, human- but that they were generally well-meaning. That being said, I really didn't like the slightly creepy/predatory guy, and that he was best friends with Jahan (who I generally adored!) made me feel a bit weird too.

I do think some of it was a bit rushed, particularly Amir's coming out to his family, and the last bit of storyline with Neil. I can definitely see the issues people have with THAT SCENE too, although personally I didn't actually mind it, I guess it's just kind of a squeamishness thing? So if you're very squeamish... proceed with caution.

I was really looking forward to this one, but it ended up being quite the disappointment.

Ultimately, I think my biggest issue was that the plot, in part, felt unrealistic to me. How on earth could an 18-year-old make enough money editing Wikipedia pages to afford a flight to and accommodation for a month in Italy?!

I thought the characters also fell flat: they didn't really appear very fleshed out, and relationships (especially that between Amir and his sister, when they were allegedly quite close!) seemed surface level.

There was also an incident/scene in the book which was completely unnecessary—I won't go into specifics (because spoilers) but I'm still a bit horrified by it now.

All in all, it was a fast read, but sadly not a book for me.