Thank you so much @PenguinTeen, @BookishFirst & @NetGalley for giving me this physical ARC & eARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 22 September 2020)
SYNOPSIS | Amir Azadi feels like he has no choice but to run away to Rome before his high school graduation for fear of being outed to his traditional Muslim parents. Amir has not told them that he is gay.
WHAT I LIKED:
- I like how the story shifted between what happened in Rome and then current day in the interrogation rooms of US Customs
- the pacing made the story perfectly bingeable
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- the entire cast of side characters in Rome. I didn't understand their motivations for taking a teenage boy under their wing and I am still not exactly sure who is who, who is dating who, who dated who, or why I should care about them
- the jumping of scenes where an amount of time elapsed and "stuff happened" which we later hear about rather than experience first hand as the reader
- the build up to the plane incident did not take the direction I thought it would and was ultimately rather bland & tame & certainly didn't warrant being detained by US Customs for interrogation
SYNOPSIS | Amir Azadi feels like he has no choice but to run away to Rome before his high school graduation for fear of being outed to his traditional Muslim parents. Amir has not told them that he is gay.
WHAT I LIKED:
- I like how the story shifted between what happened in Rome and then current day in the interrogation rooms of US Customs
- the pacing made the story perfectly bingeable
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- the entire cast of side characters in Rome. I didn't understand their motivations for taking a teenage boy under their wing and I am still not exactly sure who is who, who is dating who, who dated who, or why I should care about them
- the jumping of scenes where an amount of time elapsed and "stuff happened" which we later hear about rather than experience first hand as the reader
- the build up to the plane incident did not take the direction I thought it would and was ultimately rather bland & tame & certainly didn't warrant being detained by US Customs for interrogation