.Personally, I just felt as if the author didn't really give anything. I couldn't get below surface level with any of the characters, nd the plot was slow and uneventful.

I chose his book because of the location. I was interested in reading something authentic from that country, as I always try to read about foreign countries in their own voice. The issue of homosexuality made me curious, as I suspected there might be a lot of oppression in a country of the Middle East.
But this book was totally different from what I expected. There's not really a story, but a series of dialogues where Sami talks about being gay in Lebanon or anywhere else. And it's fascinating to see the world from a perspective totally unknown to me.
I must admit that I was surprised by his take on the LGTBQ+ movement, stating that "lumping together completely unrelated groups, and making more and more provocative demands are gravely impacting perception of gays all over the world as these absurdities are being associated with us." I guess he is right.

this was such an interesting concept, its one I'll have to sit with for a bit to fully grasp my full opinion; it wasn't my favourite book but not my least either

This book was less than a hundred pages but it was a struggle to read. It is less of a fictional novel and more of an extended debate about gay (and later trans) rights in Lebanon and in the US.

The main character, Sami, is an out gay man, who is incredibly judgmental towards other gay men who are more promiscuous than him, and also gay men who are closeted. Actually, his view was contradictory to me, because he talks about how gay people are discriminated against and learn to hate themselves from the beginning, and even their legal rights to existence is debated, but then still judges people who don't come out? Still, at this point I was still going to give this book 3 stars, because I was trying to come at this with an open mind for a man whose cultural experience is very different from my own.

But then it just goes into shitting on trans people, honestly. The two main characters claim they aren't transphobic because they support "genuinely trans people", they are only against "trans ideology in the West", like "men deciding to be women" or trans women wanting to be in women's sports - so really, I don't really understand which part of trans people they support? The characters also insist that gay people must separate themselves from the harmful trans ideology because being gay is not the same as "constantly changing pronouns".

So, yeah. I tried to take this with an open mind, but as a fictional book it's unenjoyable and badly written, and as an essay/debate/whatever it is very judgmental and transphobic.