Reviews

The Loophole by Naz Kutub

mesy_mark's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

 Sy and Farouk broke up when Farouk was off somewhere in the world while Sy is in America. Then he meets Reggie who offers him three wishes and it is his chance to get his love back.

This is a fast-paced book. Ubfortuebtly I think the pacing was too fast as it only allowed surface-level stuff of some very traumatic shit just to occur and then be moved on with like it was a change of the channel. We're talking abuse and riots. But I was able to lose myself in the book as it was interesting to see what next big thing would happen next. Reggie, a problem drinker, with connections everywhere, is our Jinn for this book takes on a mathyology approach having some chapters telling the story of the Jinn.

I can see where this book isn't for everyone where the traumatic situations are way too glossed over and believe me they are, but I was looking for a book to just have fun in. And while this book is more of going from event to event without any depth for this time point of my listening to it it was what I needed. 

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rogue_leader's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective fast-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

smalltownbookmom's review

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4.0

This was a REALLY great YA second chance romance debut featuring a gay Muslim boy who suffers physical abuse when he comes out to his family and takes off in search of his ex-boyfriend after meeting a magical jinn who offers him three wishes.

Fun, with a good balance of whimsy, found family and heartbreaking reality, this cultural coming of age story was great on audio narrated by Shaun K Jain and perfect for fans of authors like Jason June or Mason Deaver. I'm excited to read what this author writes next!

readwithatlas's review against another edition

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2.0

i kinda of hated this but also i couldn't stop reading so // frtc

oliverocco's review against another edition

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

3.0

paragraphsandpages's review against another edition

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1.0

Honestly, I’m at the point where the only thing I need to hear about a book to be interested is that it’s queer. Bonus points if it’s diverse in other ways, from disability rep to a BIPOC author. So I was already sold on this book before I even found out it was about mythology, another one of my favorite things. Of course, I still tempered hopes, since I’ve been burned by hyping a book up too much before, but I didn’t think there was any way this book could let me down that much. Unfortunately, I was very wrong.

This book felt messy and shallow, in so many ways. There are a lot of hard topics being touched on here, more than could ever reasonably fit in 336 pages. However, it seems like the book doesn’t want to actually discuss or think on these topics, and it literally just felt like they were added for shock value. Almost everything seemed to bounce off the MC, with very little time spent actually growing from or reflecting on anything. Every once in a while, a small reference would be made to some past traumatic event, but never in a way that actually mattered. It just added up and gave the whole book this ridiculous air, even though these are real issues that affect real people. This wasn’t helped by the main side character, Reggie, also being entirely impossible to take seriously. She was also clearly going through something, but we kinda sorta ignored that? Which I guess you could just say about everything when it comes to the ending. Nothing feels actually resolved, or at least resolved well, and it almost kind of felt like the journey was a bit pointless in the end? We just never saw the plot actually impact the MC all that much, so it just felt like we were going in circles.

Also, for a book that hinges entirely on love as the MC’s driving motivation, I didn’t find the romance all that convincing. The flashbacks only revealed how poorly Farouk and Sayyed seemed to treat each other, and there were so many moments where either Farouk felt super manipulative or Sayyed was just ignorant to the point of being extremely insulting. This just meant that there was nothing really keeping me invested in Sayyed’s journey, because I just couldn’t understand why he would go through all this based on the flashbacks alone.

Overall, I feel like the idea of this book was quite strong, but just wasn’t executed well. It needed to focus a lot more on the relationships between characters, and just the characters in general. It’s rare that a book suffers from way too much plot, but that was, in the end, the core issue here. There was just too much constantly happening for any of it to actually mean anything, and the characters never had a break to really grow or learn from anything before they were whisked away to the next traumatic event. It just did not work for me at all, even though I wish it had.

justinbaumann71's review against another edition

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5.0

Anyone who follows me knows I am chinsey as hell when it comes to giving out genuine 5 star reviews that are not rounded up from a 4.5 etc. HOWEVER, this book delivered. I do want disclaimer that I am not Indian nor muslim but I am gay and was able to resonate with all the themes in this book even though I am not an own voice reader/reviewer.

This is a powerful story with so many of the themes intertwining and being woven together to tell a compelling story of love and identity. The character of Sy starts of timid and afraid of the world in a lot of ways due to his sheltered life and abuse at the hands of his father (check the TW which are also labeled at the beginning of the story), but by the end feels like a believably transformed character who was able to find themselves and find their sense of self and family in the world by the end of the novel.

The pacing is spectacular in this novel. It is not a long book with an audiobook of only 7 hours, which feels like this barely made the cusp between short story/novella and full book. However, the author is very skilled in his word choices and how he conveys the story especially through the use of short chapters which allow us as the reader to move through the world quickly while still feeling connected to the world. It helps that Reggie is basically able to justify anything the story needs through her abilites/connections/powers however you want to define her. Speaking of Reggie, amazing and fun character! I loved her! Her connection to Sy by the end is heartwarming and the subtle ways she connects to him throughout the novel allow us to see her changing without throwing it in our faces.

Now I will see the gaslighting/manipulative ultimatium that the love interest puts upon Sy was really messed up and can taken away from your enjoyment of the novel. I think bc of how Sy ends of resolving the novel it can be perceived he grew from it, but no matter how you cut the context of Farouks actions it just wasn't cool, but his character is essentially in exestential turmoil so what he did does not shock me.

I could continue to gush about this novel, but I think I have said what needs to be said. This novel currently has a spot in my top 5 of the year.

wenwanzhao's review

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

2.5

Well, that sure was a book! The dialogue felt off to me the entire time, the themes didn't land, the parallels didn't make me feel anything. I just finished it to know the end. It felt like the book was trying harder to be something new and different than something solidly good and enjoyable.

aotora's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Man... I really wanted to love this one because it sounded precisely like something I'd enjoy - but I hated it with passion. I didn't mind the characters but gosh I hated the pacing. The book felt all over the place. We get chapters talking about a certain legend, we get chapters where we get a really dark and awful situation then a page later it's suddenly all sunny and cheery... and I hated how all of that travelling didn't really lead anywhere. It just wasn't for me I guess. 

silenthillda's review against another edition

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4.0

Trying to put my thoughts into words but have lots to say. For this review though I will be simple and avoid spoilers. I’ll start with pacing, I did appreciate that it was at brisk speed but felt as though maybe some moments needed to slow down. Being an adventure tale of a boy and a djinn I expected the fun but the dramatic moments didn’t have time to completely breathe. So it losses some of its depth especially with the fun neat characters and the ride we’re going on. I did enjoy the 3 different storylines and the ambition for this story. Also enjoyed the humor and antics of djinn Reggie. She was a highlight. It doesn’t completely fall flat but, (this is objective) the ending portion didn’t land. To me endings are crucial to overall enjoyment. Therefore the trouble with words and ratings for this review since I did enjoy the overall journey of Sayyed. Somewhat got the intent the author wanted to accomplish with the lesson, just felt it wasn’t executed well. Great discussion though to have with other fellow readers to see how they feel with character actions or motivations. I was just left slightly dissatisfied and that’s okay because that’s life. Can’t elaborate more without spoilers.