Cute!

This book was an extremely cute read. It is, in part, a coming of age store of a young queer teen named Amir who, afraid of being outed to his parents, flees to Italy and part love letter to the country of Italy. I liked Amir a great deal, I thought he was funny and at heart kind.His decision making on the other hand not so great, but that is what can happen when you are under stress and feel as if your hand is being forced.
Overall I loved that we got to see him find himself, stumble and yet triumph. I loved seeing him develop a new family of friends and how much they cared for him and I loved seeing his family try and reach out and come around.
The reason though that I cannot give it five stars all comes down to one scene and that is that freaking tendon scene! Even though I objectively know that, that cannot happen, that it isn't physically possible, I could not help but gag when I read that. And the worst part of it is that it really had nothing to do with the story or Amir. It was just a side story. And while I assume that Mr. Ahmadi was probably attempting for that to be humorous it wasn't funny at all. Just disturbing.
Overall though it is a cute read. Cut out that one scene and it would have been pretty much perfect.