This Way Out

Well told story trope is a bit overused these days but this rest is not one of them wonderful read

Unwilling to continue keeping his sexuality secret forever, and still grieving the loss of his mother, overwhelmed and struggling Amar decides the best way to let his strict Muslim Bangladeshi family know he is engaged to Joshua is through a group WhatsApp message. When sharing his truth sends shockwaves through his family, Amar is forced to question everything he once believed. As cracks begin to show in his relationship, and his family seem more fractured than ever, can Amar find his happy ending?

First, I'll say the story of This Way Out deserves five stars. I have never before read an Own Voices book about a gay second-generation British Muslim Bangladeshi man, and I thought the author did an excellent job at navigating the nuances of identity; sexuality; culture; religion; microaggressions; grief; and much more. Not to mention addressing mental health through cultural, religious and gendered complexities. Amar is a complex and troubled protagonist, and I thought he was characterised very well; the love for his family battling with the inherent need to live truthfully and without shame. I loved seeing open representations of therapy on the page; showing a committed couple working through deeply complex issues in supportive and loving ways; and seeing Amar attend the inclusive mosque with his LGBTQIAP+ friends.

Unfortunately, I really disliked the narrative style of the book. This comes down to personal preference, in the end. Absolutely everything is told to the reader, which makes it a very easy read in some ways, but also a fairly detached and emotionally flat one. It might be sensible to consider This Way Out as a series of journal entries, or a long inner monologue, because everything is told from a psychological distance, I found it quite a shame, because the content and depth of the story itself gets richer and richer as the book goes on, and I do think this is a fundamentally important book to read, but I wish it had been written in a more engaging style, to make it more like a novel and less like a report. That's why I've averaged out my rating to 3.5*, rounded up to 4.

I would say that I think the book is somewhat mis-marketed. From the blurb, I was expecting a kind of romcom, but actually the book deals with very deep and tough topics. While important, they are not light or fluffy in any respect, and from the beginning of the story it's clear that the crux of the conflict will be concerning the matter of whether Amar can manage to stay true to himself without having his family turn their backs on him for religious and cultural reasons, which would obviously be quite complex and difficult reading material for some.

cw: religious trauma; racism; Islamophobia; f-slurs; homophobia; grief; depression