Reviews

Guapa by Saleem Haddad

staysickvic's review

adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

lampost15's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

lautreamont's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

gripping and emotional read, I usually don't really like non stop forward/backward in books but I found it wonderfully done in this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Police brutality, and Homophobia

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Islamophobia, Alcohol, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Sexism, and Bullying

Minor: War, Stalking, Terminal illness, Sexual content, Drug use, and Adult/minor relationship

youshouldreadthisif's review

emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

rhiannonflint's review

hopeful sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

itsalexmark's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

An incredible book! Shows the adversity and troubles of being LGBTQ+ in the Arab world and it gives an interesting insight in which people who are not from that area of the world are aware of. Great author. Great story. Great characters. Thank you for this book🫶🏼

nightlight_reader's review against another edition

4.0

Other than a really tough lull at the halfway point, this was incredible. Except Cecile. Fuck you, Cecile.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation, Death of parent, Islamophobia, Sexual content, Cancer, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Homophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Police brutality, Terminal illness, Alcohol, Bullying, Racism, Grief, Infidelity, and Outing

Minor: Vomit

thecandidbookclub's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.75

selinaleona_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

hilaryreadsbooks's review

5.0

Saleem Haddad’s GUAPA happens just over the course of a day in an unnamed Arab country, begins with the moment Rasa’s Teta catches him in bed with another man, ends with the aftermath of a wedding for an old classmate that he has been dreading. All the while, Rasa loses himself in his thoughts, haunted by an increasingly violent regime, an opposition he has fallen out of love with, his parents, the list of eib and sins he has committed (eib translated to shame, though as an interpreter Rasa is quick to tell us it means so much more than that). Haunted by the man he loves who refuses to promise their future together. Haunted by the ways he feels betrayed by everyone and everything around him (including himself)—how being gay and Muslim and Arab makes him an outsider no matter where he goes: here, America, even the hidden space behind shuttered windows and closed doors where he thought he could be his authentic self. 

GUAPA is such an important and incredible read for many reasons, one being how it examines under harsh light American exceptionalism, saviorism, and Orientalism in the U.S.’s rhetoric and policy around Arab countries. At one point, as he reflects on his studies in America, Rasa wonders: “And so what did it mean to be Arab now, under America’s harsh gaze? What is Arab or Muslim if not a fabrication, one invented and reinvented by politicians who engineered meaning behind these words to suit their history.”