How It All Blew Up opens Goodreads in a new tab

My thoughts

4/5stars It is such a privilege, you know? To get to be yourself, all of yourself, in this great big world. This is a story about a gay muslim teenager's journey of acceptance as who he is by his family. Basically him trying to convince his parents to accept him for who he is and all the while also trying to be himself while his time away from home. QUEER STRUGGLES 101 especially with regressive families. That portrayal was very real, hit very close to home. Now I did see a bunch of comments about how this book isn't "Muslim enough" because the MC doesn't practice the religion but I don't think that is how it works? The idea of "gay and muslim identities cannot coexist" is not his own, but something that has been planted in his head over all these years and thus he has grown up to think of that. Again, not my position to speak over muslims on this, if you want more details about this aspect, read some other reviews. But I do think this book is a good read for anyone who is closeted or trying to come out or trying to cope with a similar situation. It feels almost liberating to see the protagonist's journey and the way he has grown to be comfortable and bold about who he is. Tho the writing style is kinda sketchy with the whole interrogation theme but over it's still a solid 4 for me. Trigger warnings for the book- Racial profiling, homophobia, blackmail, threatened outing