“It is one thing to have a body; it is another thing to struggle under the menacing weight of its meaning.”

I marked more than 30 sentences in this quietly beautiful novel. I read a finished copy, and I could quote from it all day.

The Thirty Names of Night explores the burdens, limitations, and expectations of our bodies. The protagonist is a Syrian American trans boy whose struggles are not only related to gender identity but also injustices in his immigrant community. Birds throughout this book -- many, many birds -- represent what it would mean to get rid of the weight and soar freely.

“…my truth isn’t inscribed on my body. It lives somewhere deeper, somewhere steadier, somewhere the body becomes irrelevant.”

Outstanding book. I really savored this one.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing me with an excerpt in exchange for an honest review.

First finding out about this book, I thought it would be just about the main character finding themselves and dealing with grief and yes, that most certainly did happen. But I am pleasantly surprised at all the other things Zeyn Joukhadar gave us!

First, to start with the protagonist, who later goes as Nadir. Throughout most of this book, I would say 70-80% in, the protagonist hasn't named themselves Nadir yet. They were going by their deadname, but what was wonderful about this book is how when it was their POV, their deadname was blacked out. You never have an idea to what their deadname is and the protagonist doesn't have a name until they find the name Nadir. Nadir during the book is likable, you see the struggles they go through the book and you enjoy the journey with the character.

With Laila, the second POV, throughout the book I genuinely enjoyed reading about her and the characters you saw in bits and pieces during the book. Also, unexpected lesbians/bisexual folks hello!

The grief and mourning is definitely a big part of it but it's understandable due to the circumstances but along the way, you see Nadir deal with it easier and easier which was nice to see, the way it was done was something that I haven't seen before.

Another topic that's semi big and honestly surprised me with the bigness of the topic was periods/pregnancy. There are mentions of pregnancy + miscarriage and there are multiple mentions of periods. The periods more with Nadir and relatable if you are someone who gets periods but you are not a cisgender woman. It's something I haven't seen in a book before where periods are described in details multiple times, even birth control (for Nadir, birth control clearly isn't the right option) but it steers Clear away from feminine terms or explanations when addressing towards Nadir so that I actually. Enjoyed reading and was intrigued due to never seeing that before.

All in all, a definite recommend! It was certainly a book I liked reading.

This novel was so exquisitely written and had such an intriguing storyline - it won the 2021 Stonewall Book Award! I read it a bit slow because I wanted to sit with the content, writing, and story. This novel not only illustrates loss but truly evokes the feeling of sorrow. The author did an impeccable job, he truly made the reader feel the characters' emotions through the page. The author, Zeyn, truly used his own experiences, as a Syrian-American as well as a transgender man, to shape this novel and bring even more emotion and life to these characters.

This novel follows two individuals - a closeted trans boy in the modern-day, and a famous artist in the 1920s. Both are of Syrian descent and mostly live in the New York City area. Their individual stories unfold side by side, assisting the characters' exploration of and ultimately embrace who they are.

There were so many lines in this novel that have sat with me and I thought were so important. One of my favorite parts of the novel is when the main character chooses his own name, the meaning behind it is so poetic and an all-around beautiful scene. I highly recommend this one to anyone, especially those who are interested in reading more own-voices transgender characters. I can't wait to read more of his work in the future!

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the gifted e-book in exchange for an honest opinion!

This was a beautiful book, and the characters were written with an endless amount of grace and love. However, the plot didn’t quite do those characters justice, particularly in the present-day timeline. I couldn’t get a grasp on the mystery of Laila Z. and her mysterious drawings, and the amount of time spent on the mystery element of the book needlessly took away from the character development. I should also point out that I’m not a bird-lover, and it was hard for me to focus on all of the detailed descriptions of the birds throughout the book. I think a stronger nature/animal lover than I would devour those passages though!
I would recommend this for fans of Elizabeth Acevado, people who love birds, and anyone who wants to really dive into the Syrian-American experience during the Great Depression (the most interesting part of the book for me!)

In The Thirty Names of Night, Zeyn Joukhadar has written such beautiful and thought provoking book. The imagery and symbolism of birds in this book was phenomenal and so thought provoking.
The two main characters and their friends are depicted with such detail and charisma, I really loved reading about them.
I really loved both of the different timelines equally and couldn’t wait to return to the other perspective once I finished reading each chapter.
Lastly, I have to mention the culture that this book represents. The Thirty Names of Night is filled with Syrian and Syrian American culture. It’s about friendship, family and finding yourself. This is such an amazing and beautiful story that I think everyone needs to read. I also very much enjoyed the ending. I would highly recommend this book!

An interesting, original story of family, mystery, and finding yourself. I always appreciate complex queer characters.

I cried a lot.

This work is profoundly profound. It touches on so many themes, colorism, queer spaces, the mixed privelege of being light skinned, the diversity of Islam. But yeah, mostly I cried. So well though out, well researched, so deeply personal and intimate. The feelings of betrayal, the betrayal of the body. I think I need to lie down.

I got an ARC of this book.

My biggest complaint about this book is that it read so slowly. That was both a strength and a weakness in the end. I couldn’t imagine this book being any different than it was. Despite me grumbling about it taking forever to take off, I really wouldn’t change the pacing now. The speed was deliberate. I needed to know the characters and feel the time differences in a way that a faster read would not have given me. This story was meant to be savored, not devoured.

I got this book because the cover was funky and I try to read everything trans I can get my hands on. I was not prepared for any of it. The cover which I was not really sure what it was until I was really into the book grew on me. I loved the cover and it is so meaningful now that I have finished the book. It is wild just how different it appears now. The trans aspect was a big part of the book, but it was also a minor details. There were small details that I really enjoyed, like the MC’s chapters not having his name until he was ready to announce it. The way that he came into himself, despite his grief. There were things I didn’t appreciate, like the comment about “mourning” him. It hit me so strongly just how awful of a thing it is to say to a trans person. I knew it, but I had never really heard it before in this way. I had never felt so connected to it. I have been told that my family had to mourn me when I came out, but I already was beyond caring (yay depression). So seeing the MC get hit with it was unexpected and painful. If I hadn’t grown to close to all of the characters maybe it wouldn’t have hurt me so much.

I loved the dual narrative. For most of the book I had a clear favorite. I would rush through the other chapters to get back to the one I really cared about. In the end I loved both narratives, but Nadir’s narrative took me longer to adjust to. He was just so full of pain that it was harder to breach. Laila Z was fascinating from the beginning. I loved how the stories fit together, not quite intertwining messages, but fitting together into more of an epic. It felt more complete having both stories.

The ending was one I was not expecting. I probably should have expected it, but I just let myself be taken along by the story instead of figuring things out. I wanted to experience things like I was reading the journal for myself, instead of a reader of the book. I wanted to feel everything. I am really impressed with just how much this book made me feel.

Thank you to the publisher via NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I DNF at around 20%. There was too much confusion for me with the back and forth between characters and I felt that I have no idea what the book was about and what was going on.

I wanted to read this book because I loved the beautiful writing in [book:The Map of Salt and Stars|36373417] by Zeyn Joukhadar. This novel is also beautifully written. It’s also structured around two time frames and it is about Syrian immigrants. But there is much more here in addition to the Syrian immigrant experience. It’s about grief and loss, about creativity, about coming to terms with who you really are, belonging. There are beautiful love stories here. All of these are stunningly layered and woven together in two time frames, two narratives . It’s about journeys - of people from Syria to America, of birds from one place to another, about the individual journey to one’s true self.

I don’t usually connect with stories told in the second person narrative, especially if the “you” is not identified, but I totally connected with this one because we know from the start that our narrator is speaking to his dead mother. I’m usually put off by unnamed characters, as well, but we eventually learn the new name the character gives himself to acknowledge who he is as he seeks acknowledgment and acceptance from his family and friends. The past narrative in a journal, letters to the love of her life also uses the second person narrative and it worked beautifully here as well.

A little about the history of Syria, of Syrian immigrants in New York City, an intimate depiction of a transgender young man’s journey to acceptance. It has such an intimate and true feeling. Later I found out how intimate and true with this NPR interview (link is included below) with the author who himself is transgender and has traveled the same road as the character in the novel in many ways. An amazing connection of the past and present with secrets held and secrets revealed in a beautiful way.

NPR interview:
https://www.npr.org/2020/11/30/940196969/the-thirty-names-of-night-a-story-of-self-discovery-and-self-acceptance

I received a copy of this book from Atria through NetGalley. I’m very late in getting to this as the novel was published in November, 2020, but I’m very glad I read it now.

I love stories with people and lives so different than my traditional American upbringing. So much compassion and admiration for these characters

4.5 stars, rounded up

This novel was so exquisitely written and had such an intriguing storyline - it won the 2021 Stonewall Book Award! I read it a bit slow because I wanted to sit with the content, writing, and story. This novel not only illustrates loss but truly evokes the feeling of sorrow. The author did an impeccable job, he truly made the reader feel the characters' emotions through the page. The author, Zeyn, truly used his own experiences, as a Syrian-American as well as a transgender man, to shape this novel and bring even more emotion and life to these characters.

This novel follows two individuals - a closeted trans boy in the modern-day, and a famous artist in the 1920s. Both are of Syrian descent and mostly live in the New York City area. Their individual stories unfold side by side, assisting the characters' exploration of and ultimately embrace who they are.

There were so many lines in this novel that have sat with me and I thought were so important. One of my favorite parts of the novel is when the main character chooses his own name, the meaning behind it is so poetic and an all-around beautiful scene. I highly recommend this one to anyone, especially those who are interested in reading more own-voices transgender characters. I can't wait to read more of his work in the future!

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the gifted e-book in exchange for an honest opinion!

This is a beautifully written novel that was immediately engaging, but it took me awhile to read because of the slow, meditative pace. (I must admit, I'm much more drawn to plot-driven works since COVID started...). That being said, the journey of the narrative was still incredible, and the prose remained gorgeous and transportive throughout.

I very much wanted to love this book. It ended up moving too slow and there wasn’t any urgency to the story until the final chapters. The author has a beautiful way of selecting words, however this time it’s all beauty.

As queer protagonists and #OwnVoices books go this one is stellar! I was hooked on Joukhadar's writing after reading The Map of Salt and Stars and interviewing them for a book club conversation. Heartbreaking as much as it is heartwarming, #Thirtynamesofnight follows Nadir, a trans boy in his search of the missing painting of a unique bird by Syrian-American artist Laila Z. This elusive bird connects generations of Syrian-Americans crossing from New York City to Michigan and beyond. Joukhadar’s composition is positively lyrical and absorbing, a masterful storyteller who effortlessly weaves together the lives of two distinct and seemingly unrelated people separated by generations. I found the characters endearing and well drawn. Though some points were a slower pace than I prefer I appreciated the unfolding of the mystery. Highly recommend! Thank you for my review copy in exchange for my honest review.

A moving meditation on the nebulous worlds of gender and sexuality as well as the power of community. Joukhadar is a talented storyteller and an important voice in fiction!

This book follows a dual POV; the first is Nadir, a closeted Syrian American trans boy and Laila Z, a Syrian American queer artist who painted North American birds and who went missing sixty years before Nadir's perspective. He finds her journal and the book goes between Nadir's life and Laila's journals. Let me start off by saying that this book was beautifully written. The prose is lyrical with lush descriptions, and you feel like you can see, smell and taste everything that Zeyn is describing. This book is definitely a literary character study, the plot is not as important as the characters journeys and figuring out how they connect. While I really enjoyed the writing, I did feel like the slow plot affected my enjoyment of the story. This is definitely a personal preference, as I am the type of reader who prefers a faster, more detailed plot. I also preferred Laila's chapters to Nadir's, I found myself wanting to get through Nadir's chapters quickly so that I could get back to Laila's. I feel like this book could be someone's favourite, but it just wasn't mine. However, I would be interested in reading more by this author because his writing is just gorgeous.

What an incredibly rich, beautiful, moving book! I loved the alternating perspectives and the way the past and present come together. I loved the birds and the way they bring an almost magical-realism feel to the narrative. I found the characters compelling and the writing just gorgeous.

I really enjoyed A Map of Salt and Stars, but this book!, Wow I absolutely loved. Joukhadar writing is seemingly effortless. This book helped me to better understand the deeper, more personal meanings of sex, gender, equality, love, and what it means to be a caring, thinking human in our modern world. I highly recommend. Thank you, Atria Books for this gifted copy.

3.5 stars.

This is a rich and complicated book with a lot going on. It is a colorful and intimate exploration of sexuality and community. As far as a book for representation, I thought this was wonderfully handled. The diversity is great and the attention to issues based on both race and gender identity were presented and explored in a way that was immersive, yet not judgmental in any way. There is a lot of internal insight into the protagonist as they work to discover how they feel their sexual and gender preferences might be most accurately expressed. It is a sometimes heart-wrenching read.

Because of how much is packed into this novel, it is a necessarily slow read. The organization into alternating narrators can make things slightly disorienting and there is a lot to take in and a lot to consider. The writing is lyrical and beautiful, displaying emotion in a very moving way, but there are moments where it can be convoluted and confusing.

I admit that this is a fairly new foray for me into understanding the trans experience. My ability to comprehend the feelings and complications of the situation was (and really still is) quite naive. I was able to gain some insight from my read, but I still left the situation feeling a little unclear and lost. It was a beautiful read, but my lack of exposure made my reading experience a little clunky. I do think that I would glean more from a second read and...now that I've had time to sit with the experience...would likely have a higher rating to give at that time. It's just so very much to process.

* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *