I had really mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it’s really unique - what it’s like to be homosexual and/or a woman when living under a repressive religious regime. Like, a truly repressive regime, with state-sanctioned murder and everything. That Sahar and Nasrin have to go to such lengths to hide their relationship is heartbreaking and the descriptions of the repression in Iran is pretty horrific.
The main problem I had with this book is that it was far too short. At 247 pages, it just didn’t have the space to deal with Sahar and Nasrin’s relationship in any great depth, or to give much of an impression of Iran, other than ‘It’s pretty oppressive’.
Sahar was a heartbreaking MC. She was so desperately in love with Nasrin and tried so hard to find a way of stopping the wedding. I felt that her decision to go for gender reassignment surgery was somewhat hurried and not terribly well thought through, especially as she didn’t actually identify as a man, but I could see why she felt it was her only option. When she found out what the operation would actually involve she seemed so surprised, and I guess it just seemed a bit weird that she hadn’t even Googled what the information involved.
The ending to the book was very emotional and ultimately I felt it was quite believable. This was a pretty good book and I think the author is talented, but it could have done with being a bit longer to actually explore some of the themes of the book in greater detail.
3 stars