Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian is probably the book that has left me behind the most confused I have ever been. Did I love it? Hate it? I’m still not sure, but it sure as hell has been stuck in my mind for days now.

Like a Love Story

Like a Love Story tells a tale of three teenagers each looking for their place in life and searching for love. Art is a rich young man whose family has very high expectations for him. Being gay, participating in protests to lower the price of AIDS drugs, and wanting to be a photographer aren’t exactly part of their plans for him. Reza recently moved to the United States after his family fled Iran and accepting his feelings for other men isn’t easy for him at all. At the same time, he has to find his place in his new family now that his mother has decided to remarry. Judy’s parents have worked hard to get her into an expensive school, and they are constantly pressuring her to be more like other girls…and to lose some weight. Judy is fully focused on becoming a famous fashion designer, though. That is, when she isn’t falling head over heels for the cute new guy in her year.

This story was…unexpected

To be honest, this book didn’t go at all the way I thought it would go. I started to read it without having read the blurb in a long while, and I fully expected a cute, YA contemporary LGBTQ+ love story. Boy, was I wrong. There was nothing cute about it, and it wasn’t very contemporary either. It was set during the height of the AIDS pandemic and if I have to be very transparent, this would have been a dealbreaker for me if I had realised this before starting the novel. I grew up looking for books with queer representation and feeling depressed that all the books I found centered on characters that were beaten up or even killed for whom they loved, or who died because of AIDS. I was so relieved when YA books began to be published in which queer characters were treated like any other character, so the LAST thing I need now is more tragic queer love stories that make me feel bad. On the other hand, this book does show a very important part of our history, so in that sense, I do absolutely get why it was written (and this was also the reason I decided to stick with it until the end).

What I liked best about this book were all the insights and cultural references to what it means for each of these characters to be gay or different. It truly felt like reading a book that mattered, like it was telling “our history”. At the same time, there were a lot of references that were hard to follow, and I’m 31. I can imagine that for actual “young adults”, they must have sounded ancient.

Another reason why I stuck with this book is the fact that it contained numerous beautiful, heartbreaking quotations. For example:

Love might just happen to them, but for us, it’s not as easy. For us, it’s a fight. Maybe someday it won’t be. Maybe someday love will just be … love. But for now, love is the four-letter word they forgot we care about ever since they discovered that other four-letter word, AIDS, the disease formerly known as GRID. Gay-Related Immune Deficiency. That’s what they called it at first. They changed the name eventually, once it became clear we were not the only ones who would die. But the stink never wore off. It never does when they want to control you.

I also loved the passion with which Art pursued both his artistic dreams and his activism.

Acting, activism, action, they’re all based on creating authenticity in an artificial world.

I immediately felt a connect with Reza when I started reading, but I have to say that connection lessened a bit over time. Moreover, I wasn’t able to form any real connection to any of the three main characters, if I am truly honest. All of them made decisions that I really didn’t understand and which made me feel a bit alienated by them, although there were so many things that we shared in common.

I still feel like historical settings for LGBTQ+ stories aren’t for me. The fear that came from AIDS, the attitude of society, it made me want to puke at some points. This is truly a heavy story to read. I constantly had the impression that the book was going to rip out my heart and stomp on it, which made me hesitant to read on the entire time. Yet, apart from one thing, nothing truly bad happened. I’m glad it didn’t, but at the same time, it made the whole thing feel very anticlimactic.

In conclusion, I wasn’t sold to this story, but I cannot seem to let it go nevertheless, and it did feel like reading “our history”. So because of that, three out of five gemstones:

Age Category: Young Adult

Representation:  Curvalicious Female MC, Queer main characters, POC main character

Trigger Warnings (click here, may contain spoilers)

Warnings for homophobia, fat shaming, racism, terminal illness.

Do you want to discover more?

If my review inspired you to pick up the book, don’t hesitate to check it out at Goodreads or at the below online stores.

Amazon.nl: Hardcover Edition

Amazon.nl: Paperback Edition

Amazon.nl: eBook Edition

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Next on my TBR-list of books by this author, is The Authentics. It’s the story of an Iranian-American girl, who is part of a circle of friends who call themselves “The Authentics”, because they pride themselves on always keeping it real. But when she learns something shocking about her past, Daria enters a whole new journey of self-discovery.

If you are looking for queer books that will not give you a heart attack, you might want to check out Boy Meets Hamster by Birdie Milano. It’s exactly the opposite of Like a Love Story. It’s fun, quick, and uplifting. This book tells the story of a boy who longs to experience a true dream holiday romance. But when his parents decide to spend the family holiday on a cheap caravan park, he believes his dream will have to wait until another year. Worse still, he soon realises that the park’s mascot, a giant hamster, seems to actively sabotage any of his attempts at romance…

Looking for a trauma instead? Check out Oscar et la Dame Rose (Oscar and the Lady in Pink) by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt. This book contains letters to God, written by a ten-year-old child who is dying in the hospital. I read this book in high school and it totally terrified me, and the note cards written by one of the supporting characters (who is dying because of AIDS) of Like a Love Story gave me flashbacks to this.