This book handles the concept of blackmail and coming out really well for the most part. These are some heavy, sensitive topics, and I think it helps that it's such a unique take on the situation. Usually when we see storylines like this they involve the protagonist giving in to their blackmailer, but this time we got to see Amir actually leave the country and spend a month away from home and away from some of the things that scared him most which I think in the end was good for him. I really enjoyed this book.
It was a quick read, with interesting characters in a lovingly described setting. It is diverse and it handles culture and queerness carefully and honestly. It doesn't shy away from real world prejudice. It's not a book that focuses on romance, although there are aspects of that which run throughout. The focus of How it All Blew Up is on family, bravery, and honesty. It's about how running away from your problems won't solve them, and that you have to be brave and face them head on sometimes, but for me it also shows that sometimes leaving is the right thing to do. I don't know how everyone else feels, or if this is what the author intended, but for me Amir made the right choice to leave because that's what he felt safest doing. He was true to his own feelings and wants. Amir thinks the way a lot of queer people do-- a points system forever building in our heads to try and tot up if the people we love will still love us when they know the true us. We are often surrounded by coming out horror stories, and so it's no wonder that when Amir felt trapped he chose to leave it behind, and in doing so he found himself in the freedom that gave him. I do wish we'd have gotten to see slightly more retaliation against the people who tried to blackmail him in the first place, and i'd have liked to see more of what happened to the characters after the events of the book, but it was a well rounded novel which was written in quite a unique format with the way it interspersed scenes in Italy with scenes from the present. It really felt like a story was being told. Overall I would recommend this to anyone who wants a story about self discovery. It is a coming out story but in a very unique format and though Amir doesn't always do things the right way, he's brave on his own terms and in his own way a lot of the time. There are situations he's forced into, by family and by friends, and by blackmailers too, but he looks after himself, and that takes a lot of bravery. By the end of the novel I was proud of him and how far he'd come.
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Reviewer26. Capricorn. INFP. Hufflepuff. Archives
October 2020
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