In This Way Out, we follow Amar, a young man on his journey to gain his deeply religious family's acceptance of his fiance, who happens to be a man. Amar is a troubled, but loving, main character who struggles with his family's lack of acceptance and how that will shape his relationship with his fiance, Joshua.

This book was a very deep and thorough dive into Amar's thoughts and experiences. It was very raw and emotional, and I found myself deeply invested in Amar's life. Majority of the gay romances I've read were more lighthearted and comical, but This Way Out is a perfect example of how reality isn't always as nice as fiction. Amar deals with real family issues that aren't often addressed in LGBTQIA+ fiction. Nothing is swept under the rug or is simple, there's always more to the story.

Highly recommend This Way Out. It is a brilliant novel, and shows the rough reality that a lot of gay people of color or of religious background have to go through. However, this is a tough read and I think the beginning was hard to get into. And the main character Amar was flawed - but that's how it is in real life. No one is perfect, and This Way Out is definitely filled with unperfect people. I also felt the ending was a little rush, and not as realistic as the rest of the book. While I absolutely loved that Amar's family ended up being there for him at his wedding, after all the harsh things they said, I didn't think it was the most realistic unfortunately.

Please note that I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a honest review :)

I'm very, very conflicted about this one so I shall require a few days to think things over...

So it's been a couple of days and I finally feel comfortable enough to sit my ass down and write a proper review, or as proper as I could get, about This Way Out.
I'm still very much conflicted about this book as a whole, and I strongly believe that that feeling won't be going away anytime soon.
Do I recommend This Way Out to other readers? Honestly, yes I do.
This book was fresh, certainly unique and very much refreshing to see in a sea of white people books but let me just say that if you're Arab, Asian, or you come from anywhere near said areas and you're queer, you're going to have a tough time with this book.

This Way Out was a book I did not expect to find out in the world.
Yes, books are more diverse nowadays but I still didn't expect to find a story about a South Asian (that's where Bangladesh is, right?) gay man coming out to his rather extremely religious Muslim family and getting his heart absolutely shattered at the vitriol that came out of them.
Was that a lot? Yes, but that's how I felt when I was reading it.
I related so strongly to Amar, to this book in general that I got overly emotional several times throughout the reading process.
It hurt so fucking much seeing how his family turned against him, especially the unforgivable shit that Asad threw at his younger brother after he came out to them. That's the fear of every Arab queer person, to have their family turn against them if they ever found the courage to come out so yes, that was extremely hard to read for me.
Did the majority of them recover by the end? Yes, in a way, but it was very hard to overcome what had happened at the coming out scene.

Amar as a main character wasn't the most likeable one.
Self-absorbed, extremely whiny and bitchy throughout the whole book, he spent the entire time being overly dramatic, extremely sensitive, complaining about white people and judging them which I completely understood. White people can suck ass a lot of the time, but how hypocritical can you be when you don't want them to judge you and make assumptions about you when you're doing the exact same thing to them throughout the entire book?
He just wasn't likeable to me, which was the first strike for this book.
The other characters that were introduced here were certainly... Interesting.
His bestfriend, whose name I forgot, was fun if a tad one dimensional because she never had too much to do beside comfort and be there for him whenever he was losing it, which was for the majority of the book.
His fiance, Joshua, was the most bland of all the white men I've ever read about. Plus, he was Amar's punching bag throughout the book. He literally had no character traits, and he was always blamed for not understanding where Amar comes from or a lot about his culture, and while I get that... He's a middle class white man from England, if you're not there to helo educate him about your culture, how is he going to learn anything about it?
I did very much enjoy the queer Muslim group he joins in the second half of the book, mainly because it made Amar feel seen and that he wasn't alone in this.

Very big fan of the therapy aspect to the book, which felt necessary since Amar was a MESS.
What I wasn't a fan of was him being prejudiced against therapy, saying it's for white middle aged women and that it's not for people of color like us.
Yes, I get it, he wasn't wrong when he said that we were expected to bottle everything in and not discuss our emotions, but this book was written and set in 2022 so that was an unacceptable way of thinking.

This book felt very personal to me, because I related, heavily, to a lot of it, but at the same time I can acknowledge how problematic and just generally not great it was in a lot of places (don't get me started on the Tiktok storyline, because that's probably just a me thing being annoyed at it for being too modern lol).
When I say it felt personal, I mean that it felt very personal. No, I am not a Muslim queer man from Bangladesh, but I am a queer man from a Muslim country so I've seen all there is to see when it comes to how queer men are treated if discovered, so I can confidently say that I get it.

The ending worked, even though I still didn't buy Joshua and Amar as a couple, but it worked.
Most of Amar's family being there for him at his wedding really made me emotional, because even if it wasn't 100% realistic, it gave me hope that shit like that could still happen in today's world.

It’s time everyone knew the truth, and what better way to announce you’re getting married (and gay) than on your family WhatsApp group?

Amar can’t wait to tell everyone his wonderful news: he’s found The One, and he’s getting married. But it turns out announcing his engagement on a group chat might not have been the best way to let his strict Muslim Bangladeshi family know that his happy-ever-after partner is a man—and a white man at that.

Amar expected a reaction from his four siblings, but his bombshell sends shockwaves throughout the community and begins to fracture their family unit, already fragile from the death of their mother. Suddenly Amar is questioning everything he once believed in: his faith, his culture, his family, his mother’s love—and even his relationship with Joshua. Amar was sure he knew what love meant, but was he just plain wrong?

He’s never thought of his relationship with Joshua as a love story—they just fit together, like two halves of a whole. But if they can reconcile their differences with Amar’s culture, could there be hope for his relationship with his family too? And could this whole disaster turn into a love story after all?

Read it in a day with barely any breaks, but the breaks that I took just meant that I was thinking about it and wanted to get back to it! With such believable characters because they are far from perfect, a really gripping read.

This is a story about Amar, a Muslim Bangladeshi guy, who was born in London. His mother died three years ago, and that's why Amar became depressed. One year later he met Joshua and started dating him. Two years after that Joshua proposed to Amar. Now it's time for Amar to come out to his Muslim family as gay. How does he do that? He sends a text to his family WhatsApp group that he's gay and he's going to marry a man.

I'm not really into contemporary romance books. That's why writing style wasn't exactly my cup of tea. There were way too many (for me) descriptions, flashbacks, etc. But I stopped paying attention to it because I just fell in love with both plot and characters.

I'm an aro ace in a pretty homophobic family so Amar's first conversation with his family about being gay was so relatable. I'm glad that the author mentioned all those things like "you're going to hell for being gay", "then why did god create me like that" etc. I think, almost every lgbtqa+ member had a conversation like this at least once in their life.

Also, I really loved Amar and Joshua's relationships. They acted like adults, and their communication was just great. It was nice that Amar went into therapy. Things like this one should be in the media, so everyone could understand that it's okay to ask professionals for help.

This Way Out is a sweet, gay love story that contains multitudes: it features friendships and family relationships that hold depth, an extended coming out story that isn't simple, a character learning to set healthy boundaries and to challenge his partner on racism, and finding meaningful belonging and community. Additionally, anyone who's been on booktok will enjoy the way this book talks about Amar's experiences with booktok.

3.5

THANKS TO NETGALLEY FOR THE ARC!

This book is really interesting because the mc is a Londoner Muslim man and all the novel is from is pov! It’s not a romance, it’s a contemporary literature, but there is a love story, that is very cute! The two, Amar and Joshua, deeply love each other, but they are in an interracial relationship and it’s not simple. The issues are a lot and they are not great at communication (especially Amar). But they grown and learn and became a better version of themselves.
Beside the love story, this novel is the story of Amar and his journey to lean to love and accept himself and connect who he is with his religion. This is not a simple journey, but it’s necessary for Amar.
As I did it, the book is interesting. And it’s cute. But it’s a bit immature. This is a debut and have a lot of ingenuity. But the author is good and I hope the next book will be better!

Focused on Amar and told from his perspective, this story recounts his coming out story: via text. Having recently dropped the news in a family text chain with his siblings. Having done so, he has to deal with the fallout, as well as his upcoming wedding. Balancing the expectations of his Bengali Muslim family with the love of his life, Joshua, with his job and friends on top of it proves to be stressful - to say the least!

The confessional, first person perspective style of this story makes for an intimate peek into the main character's life and thoughts. The book is one that mainly people could relate to: looking to balance found love, acceptance, family with the traditional expectations and pressures of blood relatives. Young people could come to love this book because it holds nothing back and doesn't censure any of Amar's experiences or thoughts.

However, because of the first person POV and the intense focus on the main character, there is a narrative distance between the diary-style story and settings and other characters. Intense introspection takes the place of delicious description of place. We move with the character from a pub to a bookstore, but there's no notion of the smell of the books, the sounds in the pub. The reader gleans characterization from what characters say or do, rather than the timbre of voice, their individual quirks given in beautiful metaphor.

The overall positive message was helpful for those going through a similar experience, but the writing itself could have used much more polish.

dnf (25%?) for now. maybe i'll pick it up again, maybe i won't.

i was bored from the get go, and just couldn't get into the story. I didn't care for the main character, and that really disrupts the entire story for me - why would I read about someone I don't like. Personally, I don't like constant mentions of real life media, and the featured, such as the mention of Little Life (a book I dislike for a fair few different reasons), sounded cringe to me. The prose was very repetitive, and all I felt like I was learning, was that this main character was unhappy, there was no other personality or character depth.

Maybe I have to be in the right mood, and maybe I'll eventually give this another go, but for now I'm putting it down to focus on other books I might enjoy.

This read a heavy but very educating read for me. I feel like it should be required reading for heterosexual people so that they understand all of the nuances, emotions and reactions that people within the lgbtqia community face when coming out. While I had a hard time (at times) connecting to Amar it was necessary to truly grasp the journey he was on. Truly a great read!

This story tells the aftermath of Amar coming out to his Muslim family via group chat. There's a LOT of homophobia in it so it's really hard to read sometimes. It hurts a lot before it starts to get better. I'm writing this as a white girl with no religion, so I have no idea what's like being Muslim, but I could feel the pain he was going through. Amar had to deal with breaking expectations his family had of him, so he got estranged from some of them, split with his white fiancé, but he also found a group of people who he could relate to, and friends to help through it all. Not an easy read but I liked reading his journey.

Thank you netgalley for this ARC however i got it after publication but im still going to write my review because i LOVED this book so much. This book touched down on so many important conversations regarding cultural traditions, Identity, and just very important conversations this is a very very needed book. This book took such a turn that i was not expecting but its a spoiler so i will not go in detail. I loved the message behind this novel. This book starts off with the romance between Amar and Joshua and amar coming out to his family through a whatsapp group message and the reaction was not the best so basically amar is having to navigate the aftermath of his coming out and the culture beliefs that his family has and religious beliefs which is a huge thing that alot of lgbtq+ people deal with thats why i think this book is so important to have in the world because it could help someone struggling with their identity. It also follows Amar and his new friend group and also touches down on the stigma of therapy in different cultures so it was really beautiful to see the GROWTH that amar took in this novel. Amar was honestly such a great character i loved him! Also he works at a bookstore and the book owner is in jeopardy of losing his bookstore so Amar tries all in his doing to save the shop will he save it? Find out and read this book i loved this book so damn much. The writing was amazing everything was just so good such a page turner. I really love romance novels like this when it has so many twists and turns and its not just your basic romance. ROMANCE LOVERS READ THIS! You will LOVE IT!

Amar and Joshua are engaged after two years of dating. You see they met in a bookshop a year after Amar's mother died. Amar has finally decided it's time to come out to his family. He knows it won't be easy especially because he is Muslim and their strong beliefs against same sex marriages. The next year however will prove to test Amar's inner turmoil between blending his religion and sexuality.

This was book was nothing short of beautiful, everything Amar had to endure family he lost as much as family he gained. At first it felt slow but it was as if it was a steady paced read, for the reader to truly understand what Amar as Muslim and as a human being had to endure to feel accepted by himself. Self acceptance is such an important feeling. It touched on diversity, LGBTQIA and mental health, grief. I highly recommend this book to anyone.

5⭐

Thank you to Netgalley, Tufayel Ahmed and Amazon Publishing for this ARC.

In this novel, a gay Bangladeshi Muslim London man uses WhatsApp to announce his upcoming marriage to a white, non-Muslim man. As you might expect, this sounds shockwaves through is family. The novel adeptly, but no heavy-handedly, touches on issues of race, religion, and sexuality.

I believe this book would have benefited from being told from a third person and incorporating viewpoints of more characters. Also, a more extended timeframe of events that could incorporate the seperate nuances of the characters.

This book is written beautifully you could tell from the first few pages. Amar is a gay, Muslim, Bangladeshi man who at the beginning of the book is engaged, has not come to his family yet, is struggling with his religion, and dealing with the grief of his mother's death.


This book portrays the aspect of seeking out help for mental health in his community and how it is stigmatized. Which I thought was done beautifully. It also does a great job of depicting depression and isolation.

It also does a great job of portraying an inter-racial relationship and how it takes more than just the couple to be understanding. Love isn't all we need to make a relationship work it's understanding each other and each other's cultures and unconscious bias'. The book is about turmoil and forgiveness. It takes you on the MC's journey, it's a heavy book in my opinion not light reading by any means. It took me a few days to finish it as I had to break it up I couldn't read it all in one sitting like I usually do. But it was great nonetheless.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I found it to be a quick read, with a captivating story and a great cast of supporting characters.

There were times where the writing style didn't really jive with me; it would occasionally slip into a little bit more elementary of a writing style, but I was invested enough in the plot to power through. The story suffers from a little bit more telling than showing at times too, but still I found myself captivated by Amar's journey of identity.

This felt like a really solid draft that maybe could've used a touch more finessing, but I loved the heart of the story.

Amar is at a crossroad in his life. He just got engaged to Joshua and needs to tell his Muslim family about their relationship. Like he expected, this doesn't go well at all. What happens next is a spiral of negative events: his relationship comes under great pressure, he's about to lose his job and mentally Amar is barely holding things together. However, this is not a sobbing story only. Without spoiling too much: it gets better for Amar. He reconciles with his faith and his personal growth is very touching.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Ahmed Tufayel's writing style is very descriptive, which immediately invited me, a white reader, into the culture and environment he's writing about. Amar's struggles are portrayed in a very moving way and I really felt for the character. I read that some reviewers find Amar whiney throughout the book, I disagree. The cultural differences between Amar and Joshua are portrayed heartbreakingly beautiful and gives a great insight in how, in Western society, we've come to see certain things as so normal that we don't even think about it. The ending, though a bit sappy, had me in tears.

I highly recommend reading this book!

This one unfortunately was not for me. The writing is pretty bad, the pacing all wrong and I couldn't get into the story.
Such a shame.

TUFAYEL AHMED – THIS WAY OUT *****

I read this novel in advance of publication through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This debut novel is interesting in so many ways. Told simply by Amar, this is the story of his wedding, his family, and his friends. His gay wedding. To white Joshua. Weddings are notorious, especially in comedies, for bringing out the worst between families. For Amar, the worst comes out long before the wedding.

He expected a confrontation with his family, especially his father, with his traditional beliefs, and one of his brothers, but not from his other siblings.

Nor did he expect a massive confrontation with Joshua’s well-meaning but over-bearing mother, determined to put her white middle-class stamp on the proceedings.

Into this mix comes the gay owner of the bookshop where Amar works, various family members and friends, and a group of gay Muslims who have already gone through what Amar is going through and come out, more or less whole, the other side.

Apart from the simple, easy to read style (perhaps because of the author’s journalistic background) this novel makes you think about your own attitude. Most white people, I would guess, aren’t deliberately racist; they just don’t know enough about other cultures and religions not to make faux pas. Seeing our own attitudes reflected back through Amar’s thoughts is what makes this novel profound and thought provoking. Recommended.

“People are more concerned by what two men or two women do in bed than about love. Love is companionship, feeling content and safe in the arms of another person. It is the mundane moments when you know the other person is there but you don’t need to speak-their presence is enough, the meals shared, the walks taken, not just sex. What is so wrong about that?”

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

Release date: July 1st 2022

Pages: 268

Representation: Bangladeshi Muslim, LGBTQIA+ (Gay MC, Pansexual side character).

Trigger warnings: Homophobia, Islamophobia, parental death, depression, anxiety, Racism, mention of AIDS, mention of COVID pandemic.

Summary: *This is the official synopsis provided by publishers, as it’s relevant to the review below.* Amar can’t wait to tell everyone his wonderful news: he’s found The One, and he’s getting married. But it turns out announcing his engagement on a group chat might not have been the best way to let his strict Muslim Bangladeshi family know that his happy-ever-after partner is a man—and a white man at that.
Amar expected a reaction from his four siblings, but his bombshell sends shockwaves throughout the community and begins to fracture their family unit, already fragile from the death of their mother. Suddenly Amar is questioning everything he once believed in: his faith, his culture, his family, his mother’s love—and even his relationship with Joshua. Amar was sure he knew what love meant, but was he just plain wrong?
He’s never thought of his relationship with Joshua as a love story—they just fit together, like two halves of a whole. But if they can reconcile their differences with Amar’s culture, could there be hope for his relationship with his family too? And could this whole disaster turn into a love story after all?

This way out shows us that all types of love can be found in the most unexpected of places; no matter how complicated and messy.

As a white, non-religious reader I will never understand the struggles of the main character in this book yet it still resonated with me. I don’t want to comment on any of the representation of Bangladeshi Muslim experiences, and would encourage you to find reviews by members of this community. I looked at other reviews for this title, and was surprised by the amount of low-rated reviews by white women because they expected the book to be a romantic comedy from the synopsis. That felt ironic, and entirely representative of the message of the book.

Amar was a realistic, imperfect character. He made choices I didn’t agree with, but he never shied away from confronting his own issues.It hit me with a wave of emotion. I nearly cried more than once-with both heartbreak and joy. Him and Joshua were such a loving couple, despite their differences, and I loved watching them grow together. I loved the de-stigmatisation of therapy as a self-help tool and the commentary on its inaccessibility. I loved the inclusion of forums as a tool-because they are still alive and well in 2022, and are such a valuable tool for finding community. I also loved the focus on the importance of independent bookstores. They really are an important part of all communities.

The plot was easy to follow and made it hard to put the book down. I read the entire thing in less than a day because I wanted to know what happened next. I wasn’t disappointed, and I honestly couldn’t predict what was going to happen.

By the end, it left me with a warm fuzzy feeling inside. It didn’t end perfectly for Amar, but it ended happily. It’s an important distinction and I hope that everyone eventually learns what he did. That It’s okay to be imperfect, and no matter how alone you feel there is always someone out there with similar experiences. You’re good enough, no matter your sexuality, skin colour, religion and family history. In the end, nothing should stop you from being who you are.

Its shining glory: The story and writing style made it a beautifully emotional read. It strikes a chord that leaves behind a hole when it ends.

Its fatal flaw: At moments it felt like Amar's breakthroughs were rushed; he went through a huge emotional journey in a short amount of time, and as someone that has struggled with depression and anxiety it felt very rushed. It almost

Read this if: You want a hard-hitting LGBTQIA+ read about someone coming to terms with himself. You like books with realistic characters-that make questionable decisions even if they’re a good person.

Skip this if: You don’t like character-driven stories that heavily feature internal monologue. You don’t like books that focus on personal issues or where the main character makes imperfect decisions.