I think most of us love the honorable thief in fiction. Stories abound over the generations that feature a good person forced to steal by an unjust system, by a pressing external need, or just to redress the wild imbalance of power over one's person. Robin Hood, Locke Lamora, Aladdin, and their literary kin are enshrined in the cultural conversation. Mythology's trickster gods, those agents of chaos, are...witness Loki as embodied by Tom Hiddleston here and now...endlessly popular because no one doesn't love a funny, witty piss-take.

Then there's Jean Genet. DEFINITELY not a comfortably admirable character to most people, a petty thief and prostitute whose actions as a very incompetent thief (he kept getting caught!) earned him the 1940s French version of a three-strikes law conviction. No one ever tried to pretend he was in the Resistance. Who cared what language the jailers spoke? He stole and sold his body because he didn't like the other options...wholly self-motivated, probably a narcissist, but magnetically interesting and embodying anti-establishment Cool.

Now, after years of disuse, we have Anjir from that mold. He and his love Zal must be together. Funds for transitioning to female aren't coming from the government that demands he take this step...which, to be fair, isn't one he resists...so he steals.

Living in theocratic Iran is awful enough for AFAB women.Think how much more horrifying it would be to be an AMAB man-loving man who, deliberately and consistently, acts "like a woman"...has sex with and enters into romanitic partnerships with men. A complete affront to Male Privilege! An assault on God's Will! God put men on top! DON'T BOTTOM!! Or, if you really must, then transition to female.

I totally support trans rights. I am not in any way trans, have no desire to be female, dislike pretty intensely my culture's hideous fun-house mirror idea of "femininity" and would strongly prefer to be dead rather than forced to conform to what I see as a ghastly disfiguring joke of an identity. Yet, if gay men want to live and love their partnered lives, that is what their theocratic government tells them to do.

I live in fear of the US right-wingnuts figuring out their transphobia can be redeployed.

What I enjoyed about my ride through modern Iran was the sense I got of a society on the boil. Stuff is happening in this book, stuff that's out of most people's sight, but is building up pressure and will blow a hole in the status quo. The author has crafted an avatar of selfish anti-social action who represents, just by his existence, Resistance!

Told in beautiful sentences, this story of Love, Passion, and Honesty draws on millennia of models for its men's identities. It is a read I won't soon forget or easily allow to slip under the newer reads to come.

Medusa of the Roses follows Anjir and his childhood best friend and lover Zal, navigating life in Tehran where homosexuality is criminalised. After a brutal betrayal and abandonment, Anjir searches for Zal and grapples with what he needs to do to have a future with Zal.

I was really excited to receive an advanced copy of this one because I am a big fan of a complex queer tale and have been trying to diversify my reading more. Unfortunately, I was a little let down by this.

The main issue I had with Medusa of the Roses was the lack of a fleshed out and well-explored internal journey regarding transitioning to a woman. Even though it is stated in the synopsis that this is a longstanding plan for their future, the first mentions of this felt plucked out of nowhere in the text and I wish it were explored in more depth.

“Perhaps if I were a woman, I would know how to keep a man. The thought is arbitrary enough to stay.”

I do, however, understand the significance of Anjir’s willingness to undergo this huge transformation just to be with the man he loves freely. Sinaki’s bold and poetic political commentary shines a light on the modern reality for many queer people in countries where they continue to criminalise LGBT groups.

Despite a few issues with the book, it was still an enjoyable read and I found the pacing well done. The prose is quite nice and the title was perfectly apt, I was fond of the mythology themes. The characters each had some form of moral deficit, yet still tolerable and understandable. Thank you NetGalley for the copy.

A deeply sad, psychologically rich, and truly gripping read. Sinaki’s writing evokes the lush and bitter language of Ocean Vuong, the sharp storytelling of K-Ming Chan’s shorts, and the sociopolitical irony of Kevah Akbar’s Martyr.

There are a few moments of clumsiness—notably, details of setting and plot motion that feel unclear or ambiguous, which I think slows down the fast-paced noir as the reader struggles to keep up. While much of the prose is gorgeous and maddeningly honest, there are also several lines that feel like they’re doing too much, or trying so hard to cut deeply they end up falling flat. These moments are pretty infrequent, though, and ultimately don’t really stand out against the lines that do truly sting and echo in the mind.

While I wish some of the characters were explored more deeply, I do think the deep psychoanalysis of Anjir serves its purpose to ask the questions Sinaki seems to be asking—mainly, how can something so frivolous and constructed as gender compare to the incomparably physical and tangible experience of first love?

Ultimately a great debut from a super smart artist and I am excited to see more fiction from him!

Medusa of the Roses is a story that follows Anjir whose lover is attacked by a group of men who beat him because he is gay. Anjir finds out that his lover Zal was with another man and that was why they were targeted. This puts a huge kink in their plan to leave so that they could be together openly.

This novel is written also like an ongoing letter from Anjir to Zal explaining his innermost thoughts, revealing the obsessive love that Anjir has for Zal. I thought this was beautifully written, taken from a unique vantage point through Anjir's love for Zal. In this you see how toxic and detrimental Anjir's love is to himself and how Zal does not feel this way. You get so wrapped up in their love story and the toxic obsession that it is almost detrimental to the plot because you get this feeling of wondering around in a fog. I thought it was beautiful but lacking concrete prose to give it a little stability in the narrative as Anjir is a very unreliable narrator a this juncture in their story. 3 Stars.

A beautiful book, quite unlike anything I’ve read before.

After a violent attack on Anjor’s lover Zal, Anjir, who I would say falls under a form of non-binary, transitions to live as a woman, as in Iran being gay is punishable by death but being trans is acceptable (though never easy or fully accepted). That’s just the very general gist of the plot - the story itself is much more complex and feels almost dreamlike. It weaves together mythology, past and present, Anjir’s relationship with Zal as well as a trans woman called Leyli and various family members.

The prose is beautiful, as is the imagery. I especially liked the depiction of Anjir’s relationship with his mother and uncle - I feel like familial relationships were explored really well and I found them to be the most touching part of the book.

I mostly requested an ARC of this because as a trans person I was curious about how it would approach transition motivated by social circumstances rather than gender incongruence. In Anjir’s case transition is a matter of safety, but it also seemed to me that while they were happy as a man, they would also be happy as woman. I don’t really know how to articulate my thoughts in relation to gender in this book, but it was an interesting perspective and written respectfully towards trans people.

This book sucked me in and didn't let go until I finished reading. The prose was beautifully written, and the story was thought provoking. I will be honest, this was still kind of difficult to rate though. There were times the prose became too abstract or wasn't clear that the writing had shifted to a thought instead of the main plot. It made it tricky for me to know what was going on at all times. The 1st person narration from the main character can be kind of intense sometimes. He's quite a sexual person, so I felt some of that inner dialogue had some moments that were a bit uncomfortable. It had me wondering how much he really loved the person he was with instead of just feeling lust. That being said, I did enjoy this book. I do think literary fiction readers will likely love it as well. The story was incredibly emotional and tragic. This was my first LGBTQIA book based in Iran. It was hard to read about the reality for queer people living there where it is more culturally acceptable to come out as transgender than to be in a same sex relationship. Definitely feel it is important to continue to read about and listen to people experiencing this in other cultures.

A dark and compelling look at the perils of being your true self in Iran. Zal and Anjir have been committed to one another since their youth but Zal first married Mahtob and then later was seen with a younger man, putting their plan to move to Isfahan where they hope to live as man and wife after Anjir transitions. But Zal disappears and Anjir must hunt for him through the nightmare. This incorporates myth and Persian cultural mores in a way which Impresses. If the prose feels purple in spots, remember the Persian respect for poetry. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of literary fiction.

This was a tough one for me. I liked the writing, the imagery, and the exposure to the brutal anti-LGBTQ culture of Iran. The book felt like a nightmare from beginning to end. The story is told from Anjir's point of view in present tense and his lover, Zal, is always addressed in second person.

The plot seemed drawn from US noir novels and films from the 1940's. There is much lying, cheating, murdering and other violence going on--and that seemed to take away from the main plot concern--how do two men who love each other (do they?) survive under extreme religious oppression. No one here is innocent. The bleakness and cynicism may work for some. For me, the author focused too much on mythical parallels (Tiresias is the main one) and fate. I ended up not caring about any of the characters and confused as to the point of the overly-convoluted plot. What could have been an excellent study of two gay men living under an oppressive regime got lost along the way.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC.

I reached for this title because I wanted to branch out and read more literary fiction. I filed it as a DNF, because I think "difficult" queer books are just not my thing - I'm a gay who likes happy gays - but as a bookseller I absolutely endorse this Medusa of the Roses.

As a lover of sad books, I found "Medusa of the Roses" to be an 'enjoyable' read.

This is a lyrical story that follows Anjir, a gay man in Iran. We focus on Anjir, as he discovers both his partner's infidelity and their attack on the same night, unraveling the story and actions that led to that moment as we read through. Sinaki creates a captivating world where the past and present meet, highlighting the persecution faced by queer and trans people in modern-day Iran.

The main character's journey is deeply engaging. The author’s poetic and descriptive language bringing the story to life, making it feel both magical and real. Some readers might find the heavy use of metaphor and symbolism a bit much, but for me, it was beautifully curated.

Thankyou to netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Please check the tws before reading this book as it deals with some distressing themes.

Not really sure how I feel after reading this book.

Zal and Anjir were just boys when they became friends. That friendship grew into love, until Zal married a woman. In Iran, being gay could get you killed. So Zal would sneak away from his wife for precious weekends with Anjir. But when Zal was attacked by a group of men when he was caught with another man, Anjir is devastated. When Zal gets out of the hospital, Anjir nurses him back to health.

That's when Anjir decides to make plans for their future by undergoing surgery to become a woman. Then they wouldn't have to hide their relationship anymore. But when Zal leaves Anjir's place with a cryptic note that he doesn't understand, he starts looking for him everywhere. Soon Anjir's being followed but has no idea as to why.

"Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC.

This was extremely literary. The writing style at times reminded me of a noir film. The author is a filmmaker and poet and that comes through pretty strongly. While we are following Anjir in the forward plot, he often goes spiraling down memories of his and Zal’s lives. We get to see their whole relationship through things that remind him of Zal, usually of a sexual situation.

All of the murder and thrillery stuff happens very quickly near the end, though Anjir has been investigating the whole time. The whole story is tragic, and no one in this book, except for Anjir’s mom, is likeable. Myths were promised and delivered in vague terms through Anjir’s conversations with his mother who has suffered a TBI. Less myth and more noir tragedy?

I was hoping this would be for me, but it wasn't quite. The writing was beautiful and tragic but the format of the story wasn't one that I gravitate toward.

Wow! So beautiful! I had to force myself to slow down reading this one. I wanted to see what was going to happen next. It got a little rocky there around the 80% mark to the point I thought was reading a different book, but it recovered with that ending. Just so beautiful!

Thank you NetGalley, Navid Sinaki, and Grove Press for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Medusa of the Roses by Navid Sinaki releases August 13, 2024!

I was really sucked in at the beginning of this book. The writing and the characters were instantly compelling. But I found as it reached the halfway point the story started to drag and the characters grew to be more frustrating and the writing more confounding. At such a short length it's tough to feel a book is dragging. While it illustrates a life and oxymoron of policy that many are trapped to abide, the characters here did not carry enough to keep the story interesting. When the final act came, the more thrilling scenes felt dropped in from a completely different story. All together, I found the book confusing and disappointing.

I thought this book was brilliant! I didn't know what to expect but was pleasantly surprised. Great debut. Looking forward to teaching this along some Greek Mythology.

This was a thriller, but it was also literary and thought provoking. I really enjoyed the diversity in characters and getting a glimpse of a culture different from my own. At times this was a bit too confusing and literary for me, but I really enjoyed the time spent.

I would recommend looking into triggers, and there was a lot of focus on sexual acts. This isn’t really a negative but something I want to mention so you know going in case it is something that bothers you.

I got this digital copy for free from NetGalley, and really appreciate the chance to read it early.

This is an interesting and confident debut, a queer noir set in Tehran. The references to Greek and Persian mythology and classical Hollywood films built in a sense of allegory and unreality that contributed to the sense of dread. Anjir is a compelling narrator, amoral and driven by fear. The depiction of LGBTQ+ lives in Iran was sensitive and illuminating. Unfortunately, I found the other characters underdeveloped, and the noir plot that kicks off the novel comes in and out of focus in a way that I found a bit frustrating. I wish it had been a bit more evenly paced and more tightly plotted, as everything sort of explodes at the end in a melodramatic fashion that felt at odds with the slow drip of dread that characterizes the rest of the novel. More atmosphere would also have helped make this one a truly effective literary thriller. This wasn’t my favourite, but I would be interested in reading more of Sinaki’s work.

thank you netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book!
this is a great debut as far as they go and i did really enjoy it!

This novel was truly excellent, The prose was spare and beautiful and yet the novel had a sustained power and tension that was almost unbearable. The characters contemplate love and obsession, desire and identity against the backdrop of modern Iran, where homosexuals are discriminated against and brutalised. This novel doesn't provide easy answers, none of the characters are wholly good but they feel more realistic for that. This will be my first choice for a book club book when it's released, there is just so much to be explored and appreciated.

The writing was very confusing for me, hard to keep track of what was happening and which charcter was in the spotlight, I am sad to say it was very hard for me to get through this book.