This was unfortunately a DNF for me. I thought I might puck it back up at some point but I haven't yet. I might eventually finish and give a more detailed review. I just really struggled trying to get into this book.

Very beautifully well written chalk full of imagery. With that said though, at times it felt like it was written in a dream which made it kind of hard to follow at times. The story is more about a father and a son's relationship rather than a love story. I wasn't a huge fan of the father's perspective, he fell flat for me. I wish the whole story had been told through the son's perspective. I found him more enjoyable. All in all in was a good read.

Sixteen-year-old Fahad’s father insists that he spend the summer in Abad, at the family’s feudal estate in rural Pakistan. Rafik hopes it will toughen up his sensitive son and make him a man. Rafik enlists a friend’s son, Ali, to help. Instead, attraction grows between the boys. Decades later, Fahad receives a phone call from his mother asking him to return to Pakistan to help his family. There, Fahad is forced to face his past.

I felt like there was a curtain between me and the characters as I was reading this, that I never really got to know Fahad and those in his life. The narrator switches POVs between Fahad and Rafik, and I must say I preferred the parts from Fahad’s perspective. Homer Todiwala did a nice job narrating the audiobook, although in this case, I think I might have preferred reading a physical copy of the book, so that I could drink in the writing at my own pace. This is definitely a book to linger over rather than speed through.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an audio ARC of this book.

This was heartbreaking and wild and intense and really slow at times and taking place in two different places and times and honestly, a lot going on. Great narration; I read this on audiobook. A lot of the writing feels very surreal or dreamlike, especially in the first half, but the second half feels more sharper and feels more like it's about Relationships. It's relatively short, coming in at 256 pages, and I wish the second half was longer and the first half was a little shorter. I think this author is going to go on to write books that I will like a lot more in the future, so, four stars.

Other Names for love at its core is a story of familial relationships, masculinity and acceptance. The book has 3 sections to it. Part 1 begins with our main character Fahad as a 16-year-old theater loving boy being forced to go to Pakistan with his father, Rafik (our other MC), instead of London with his mother. His father wants to claim a seat in the government he feels is his birthright and he wants to introduce Fahad to the family farming business. Rafik is drawn into a power struggle with his cousin Mousey who also feels he is owed what Rafik is after. He will stop at nothing to try to take back the lands he feels he is owed as he has been the one growing and tending the land. While the elder generation goes to battle, Fahar is introduced to a local boy who his father hopes can show him what a real boy with work ethic looks like. We see

Part 2 is quick and moves us forward in time to Fahar in London where he has been since being sent away from Abad after his teenage visit. We see Rafik's rise to political power and we see the father and son meet again as adults.

Part 3 finds Fahar being beckoned back to Abad to help his father. Rafik is losing his mental edge along with his power and he has bit off more than he can chew and the family lands need to be settled. Fahar needs to come home to save the family by saving the farm or more likely selling the farm. On his return he remembers his time spend in Abad as a teen and can't help but look for his old friend Ali. We also see a little more background into what happened with the falling out of Rafik and Mousey when they were young men that may have contributed to their differences early in the book.

Overall it was a fine story. It just was a little slow for me. The third person narration floated between characters but sometimes it felt like it went on a bit too long in dreamlike scenes. I would read future books by Taymour Soomro after this one because I am intrigued by his style but I feel like this one just wandered a bit much at times for me.

A low-key, emotional coming-of-age about a repressed teenage boy growing up with immense privilege, which then shifts into adulthood that nicely juxtaposes the themes introduced at the start.

I think the first part will be a bit plotless for some people, but when you get through that and the contrast becomes more apparent—just as it does to the protagonist—things click into place. It’s a very quiet novel, with no bombastic or melodramatic conflicts occurring. But it’s well constructed and hits home regardless; which I would argue takes more skill.

The audio-arc I got from Netgalley had a great narrator as well. I recommend it. He does a great job differentiating the characters’ voices without devolving into caricatures for female voices, which too often happens.

Beautifully written and the imagery is amazing. It made me feel the sticky heat so intensely. I loved the scenes from the boys perspective but unfortunately I didn’t much enjoy the fathers. I think it would have been better if it had all been from the boy. I really wanted to love this book and the story about a relationship between father and son.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

This book told the story of a teenage Pakistani boy, who is forced by his father to spend the summer at the families Feudal Estate, which will be his one day. During his summer in rural Pakistan the boy grapples with what it means to be a man and his sexuality. The book jumps between the boy’s perspective and his father’s, which was confusing at times. The second half of the book is many years later, when the boy is grown and his father’s heath is deteriorating. What should the boy do with the country estate his father loved so much? I enjoyed learning more about rural Pakistan and it’s cultures and traditions in this book. But I wish it dove more into the boy’s internal struggles with things like his LGBTQ+ identity in Pakistan. I did struggle to follow the different characters at times, but I was listening to it and that can make it harder for me to keep track of the characters and their relationships.

I read this beautifully written novel in print and audiobook and found the lyrically narrated audiobook to be my preferred format. The novel, taking on toxic masculinity packs a punch, but I found it a bit confusing in print.