Reviews - Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion

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683 reviews for:

Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion

Bushra Rehman

4.04 AVERAGE

littlerthings's review against another edition

3.25

emotional funny reflective

" I realized we were all like the ducks. We would do anything, even go against our natural instincts, so we could be taken care of."

Enjoyed this read even though I was somehow expecting the queer storyline to be more..centered? (It's not) Maybe I had a wrong expectation.
And yes, this hit close to home as I was expecting. It also reminded me of Never Have I Ever!

Content Warnings

axu's review against another edition

4.0

4.5 stars. Really enjoyed this character-driven coming of age story. You get a really great sense of the community and people in Corona and how Razia fits into it all. This was super readable and everything felt very natural and very real

booklys's review against another edition

5.0

emotional sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Content Warnings

lezreadalot's review against another edition

3.5

There was nothing new about this. Our parents had left their homes, and the thread had unravelled, then been woven again with us. This was how it always was, an unravelling and a ravelling of the earth, the ground we stood on. Nothing was sacred. Everything was sacred. Everything changed. Everything stayed the same.

3.5 stars. After a short period of not quite clicking with this, I ended up really liking it. It was both more and less than I expected it to be. We follow Razia, a young Pakistani-American girl growing up in Queens in the 1980s. We examine her life through her family, a series of intense girlhood friendships, queer awakening and romance, her relationship with the Pakistani community and the wider neighbourhood around them.

This was slow, but also intense. While the book sometimes felt like it was trying to find its footing and not quite managing it, by the end, it felt revelatory and powerful. The story is told through a series of vignettes, some of which could almost stand on their own, they were such vivid snapshots of a place or time or situation. I liked the stories about inter-community commingling and clashing with the Italians, the feuding within the Pakistani families, Razia's struggling as she bucked against tradition and the things expected of her. Like any coming of age story, it's really concerned with identity, and I loved how that self-discovery was handled. (Random, but I really loved that most of Razia's crushes on male celebs turned out to be queer ones. IDK if it was intentional, but it was fun.) Lots of discourse on music and culture; lots of little touchstones about life in the 80s, and how Razia experienced it as a Muslim girl. The writing wasn't always striking, but when it was, it really hit. Especially in the intensity of the romance.

Not everything gets a resolution; some horrifying things are mentioned and passed over, and the ending is abrupt and not quite satisfying. I don't think that was a bad choice for this book; I just wanted more. Especially between Razia and her mother. It was a complicated relationship, and while I was always on Razia's side, I wish we could have seen more of their attempts to understand each other. I always enjoyed the moments when they got along, and when her mother would tell stories.

Listened to the audiobook as read by the author, which was pretty good. Definitely hope to read more from her in the future.

Content warnings: <spoilers>child sexual assault, animal cruelty and death, domestic abuse, racism and death

shas's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring slow-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

i try not to give anything a 3, a mid point score, but this book really was mid to me.

the beginning of the story was exposition heavy, reading more like a memoir than a story. i enjoyed the flowery, poetic writing. the characters in this half were well-written, specifically julio. there's always a kid from our childhood we never see again or hear updates about but kind of wish we did in our adulthood.

the book then followed razia in a coming of age story that took as long as we age in normal years. the pacing changed, but i feel like not much else did. razia explored the duology of who she was and who she was expected to be. she was supposed to be grateful to be getting an education before being married off to a man. instead, she was discovering her sexuality and being attracted to a woman that eventually made her choose the biggest ultimatum: her life or her family?

some plot points i don't get. like the ouija board scene. "razia you must pray" is such a wild thing to have a ghost say. the implied foreshadow that a demon was at her bed and then follows her here to announce that is CRAZY.

anyways, it's a good story. muslim main character. pakistani main character. it's got a strong, independent, educated, gay main character in razia. it's diverse, crisp, funny, and serious all at the same time.

it was good, but i was expecting more.

Content Warnings