Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this novel.

Anjir and Zal have been friends their whole lives, and in adulthood are in a relationship, but in Iran being a gay man is dangerous, and when Zal is attacked, Anjir decides to persue a transition to become a woman because in Iran, although being gay is criminalized, transitioningin order to live life with your partner is preferred and legal (although still comes with an element of danger).
The exploration of homophobia and how it effects members of the community who don't conform to heteronormativity is well done, and prompted me to descend into a Google hole researching Iran and the politics that influence the way people can live their lives.
I found Anjir's relationship with gender and attachment to mythology to be deeply interesting and even relatable on some levels.

I found the writing style of this book to be quite lovely and that has me very interested to read more of this authors writing in the future. Sinaki's way of describing elements in the story is lush and lyrical, and the allusions to various mythologies and literature were nicely done.

I did find it a bit overly sexual but I don't prefer books that are very sexual so that's a problem with me and not the book itself, and the prose and plot kept me interested and reading.

Looking forward to more from this author.

I haven't read a book in 1st person perspective for so long. This was fun and confusing. I enjoyed the overall story as best as I could understand it. The different scenes were interesting and I learned a lot about different people's lives.

My biggest complaint is that I still don't know what the main character's motives were. Or even why they did what they did. Right before writing this review I read through the premise again and that's when everything made more sense - which feels like a writing issue. Someone shouldn't be dependant on your blurb/summary to understand the contents.

My secondary complaint is slightly more nitpicky - I wish they included more description of settings. There's plenty of descriptions of sex and what reminded the main character of a sexual memory, but not enough of the scenes and life around. Occasionally these sexual memories are out-of-pocket or unnecessary but they don't add life to the scene. I understand the main character is a very sexual person but all I know about certain areas is where they jerked off, not really what they look or feel like.

Very interesting read!

~Thanks Grove Atlantic via Netgalley for the ebook.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free e-arc. This was such a special story with a rawness and tenderness woven into it that touched me so deeply. The language was lovely, the pain of the main characters both relatable and terrifying.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Let me start by saying that I really wanted to love this. And I tried. The synopsis intrigued me to no end, and I was so excited to start reading it, but the story fell flat before I was halfway through.

Medusa of the Roses follows Anjir, a gay man living in a very homophobic Iran, where becoming - yes, becoming - transgender and living as a woman is accepted but being gay is not. In fact, the government prefers men surgically transitioning to women over a man being gay. Anjir spends most of the novel looking for his boyfriend, who disappeared right before the beginning and who flickers in and out of Anjir's life throughout. Being gay in a country such as Iran is unimaginably tough, and this review is in no way intended to undermine that experience.

Sinaki's prose is cinematic and poetic, containing lots of allusions to different mythologies and classic literature. And while I enjoyed his style, it also felt as if he was determined to put as many memorable quotes into the novel as he could within 240 pages. The writing style is extremely somber and melancholic, which, after a while, becomes dense and more difficult to read.

The plot itself was heartbreaking, which fit the style of narration perfectly, but even for someone who often reads sorrowful novels with unhappy endings, this was a bit much. There is not a ray of sunshine in Anjir's life, even at the moments he reunites with Zal - his lover. However, the plot itself was not the element I had an issue with. In fact, together with the imagery of Iran and allusions, it saved the novel from a two-star rating. That, and the very unexpected plottwist. The main problem I had with this novel is the over-sexualisation. Anjir found an internal sexual relation to almost every character and object apart from his family and because of this, his character fell a little flat. His only characterisation is that he is a very sexually active gay man, and I wanted more than that.

Perhaps I went in with too many expectations or this novel just wasn't meant for me, but I expected more. I will say, however, that Sinaki is a very talented artist.

The book start very strongly and I was directly invested or more specifically disturbed - and as a result I wanted to understand
But the more the story progressed the more I find myself not liking the book
I was intrigued by the synopsis, but the actual content was over the top. I read a lot of gay books with a destructive-codependent relationship, and this one was definitely push to the extreme.
anjir’s transition felt unexpected and simply to feed the plot of the book, this is a touchy subject and I’m not directly concerned so I’m not going to speak any further
I can’t say that I love the characters but I was really intrigued by their story
Thank you net galley for the copy

I started the book with an expectation, of course I did. I wanted to read something queer. The book was different from what I had expected and gave me quite something to chew. Nevertheless, I found the story of Anjir and Zal touching and disturbing. The story felt like the first time I saw "Drive" in theater. Poetic and calm and then out of nowhere something ugly and bone crushing.

I can't say how much of the story is Own-Voice, in parts it certainly is? Maybe? At the same time, it's literature that I think is meant to entertain rather than shake people up, although it certainly does the latter. Because violence against queer people exists and it forces people to make drastic decisions and live complicated lives in dark corners. It's also important to me to say that the book is quite cruel towards women, that Anjir decides to change his nature for questionable reasons and that the contempt and spite he shows towards his lover is heavy in places. The book may not be suitable for those who are sensitive to such topics. As I said at the beginning, Anjir is very ruthless with everyone, including himself, and his view of the world is very melancholy and morbid. The reasons for this are understandable and emotions in both directions are strong catalysts. Linguistically, the story is poetic and abysmal, emotional and ugly and in some moments so unpleasantly disarmingly direct that it hurts.

I liked the book. I cannot say I enjoyed it, bc that sounds so wrong, yet the same time it was a world I never saw before, bc I am so safe in my bubble and in my world and therefore I liked it very much. A book feels good to me if it moves me, and this story certainly did. I thought about it for a long time after the last page, I dealt with the fables mentioned in the book and the politics of the country, I googled the author and learned a lot. Of course I wish there were more queer stories with beautiful endings, but who am I to judge this aspect. Of course, there has to be room for these narratives and, detached from this aspect, the book is impressive in terms of the images and metaphors and dialogues.

TY for giving me the opportunity to read this before its officially published.

yeah but no. i really wanted to love this, but unfortunately medusa of the roses lacks a /lot/.

the plot itself is interesting enough, despite how misleading/poorly-written(?) the blurb is. it is set in iran and follows anjir and zal - the latter is brutally hatecrimed in the beginning of the book when he is caught with another man, and then suddenly vanishes leaving only a note. the book takes more of a mystery-ish turn when we follow anjir as he figures out where his lover is and who hurt him, and consistently keeps this tone throughout the novel as he falls deeper and deeper down this rabbithole.

considering how interesting it sounded, and the fact that persian and greek mythology is interwoven into the story, i thought it would be very much up my alley - but i had a couple of issues with this book.

first of all, anjir's transition felt purely transactional. he literally states multiple times that he had no issue with being a man and that it was just the circumstances that he was in that pushed him to do it (ie. the government only accepting trans people while condemning homosexuality - sounds familiar to where i live!) and the fact that he's willing to do it for zal. i felt like this kind of propagates the harmful stereotype that some people simply transition for the "benefits" of it, so trans people must not /really/ exist. but then again, this scenario might be a reality for some people, so i can't really speak for everyone.

second of all, EUGHH THE OVERSEXUALISATION..
i understand it as a writing choice(?) or that anjir might simply be hypersexual, but i genuinely could not stand the way he brought up sex in the most random of ways. it was just uncomfortable and made him seem slightly unhinged in his obsession. or maybe thats a personal issue.

complaints aside, i did enjoy the writing for the most part, and this was easy to get through. the ending/twist was interesting, although i think i was supposed to feel sympathetic for zal and i absolutely did not which kind of detached me from it a bit. overall meh, i could see myself possibly recommending this to someone but it definitely wasn't for me.

This was an ARC provided by NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. Medusa of the Roses is to be released August 13th 2024.

I rated it 3.5. I feel like this story was not meant for me, and the writing style wasn't something that I'd usually go for. I also finished it in a rush while I was sick before it expired.

The story was interesting and got me hooked at times, but it felt dragged out. I wanted to know more, but was always 'stuck' in a scene that felt irrelevant. Sometimes it became relevant later on, but it still made it hard to read at times. Because of all the stuff that happened throughout, I wasn't sure what the story was anymore. I felt like the plot drowned in all the other sub-plots, and not in a good way. Honestly, I can't even tell if the book was too short or too long. I didn't get what I felt like was promised in the summary, and that disappointed me.

It was easy to read as the language Navid uses isn't too complicated, but the setting of Iran made me search the meaning of a few words here and there. It didn't disturb the flow of the story, as most words were familiar. Navid also used an easier vocabulary, which made it easy to read.

I know the review makes it seem like the book is bad, but it truly wasn't. It just wasn't for me - the writing style and the way the story was told wasn't to my taste. I couldn't put the book down when I hit about 40 percent, so it was obviously good in some regards.
The title of the book is also really clever, but you'll understand more if you read the book.

If you want a unique book about queerness, it's most definitely for you.

This book follows Anjir, living in Tehran, as he unravels a plan made with the love of his life so they can be together. Things don't exactly go as planned when his boyfriend is seen with another boy, gets assaulted, and ends up in the hospital. For the majority of the book our lovebirds are not together, so we mostly learn about their relationship through Anjir's memories and thoughts.

I found this book fascinating to read! While the book is quite poetic, breaking grammar rules and sentence structures, giving it a rather heavy feeling, I found it beautiful and raw in a mesmorizing way. I have never read writing quite like this before, and I found that very enjoyable. Some sentences stood out to me and I just found them utterly devastating and amazing, while others felt mildly forced.

The whole story feels very illusive. As the book jumps from scene to scene, we have no sense of how much time has passed and how the main character got there. Multiple characters are introduced and it feels like we are always getting plunged into the deep end with few connecting dots. To me, it felt as if the story was always slipping through my fingers. I don't think I will remember much about my experience of reading the book or the plot in a year, but while reading it, I was fully invested. In many ways I can read this as intentional. A reflection of how their love is on such fragile grounds. They give everything with no security, and I felt that through the story structure.

I enjoyed how the author didn't spend any time educating the reader. I enjoy looking up information on my own and learning that way. In that sense, it felt like the author was writing to someone who shared their culture, and I think that is excellent.

While I expected the book to be more about the mystery and thriller, it read more as a personal journey through love and desire. A part of me wanted the book to have more unexpected plot points, to surprise me and another part wants it to have more reflections from Anjir on how he feels about the choices he has made, his body, his life and so much more. But at the end of the day, the book does a balancing act between these, and I am torn as to wether I wanted more commitment from the author to a specific goal in the book or if I like the more illusive story and writing.

I enjoyed this book a lot, and would definitely recommend checking it out. Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Press for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is so painful and powerful and beautiful to read. I really struggled with the violence that the protagonists were faced with, but it's important to remember that their experiences are not entirely fictional - this is exactly the danger that queer folks face in certain parts of the world. This was a wonderful reminder to check my own privilege, and a beautiful tale of two young men in love in a society that will not accept them.

DNF. I couldn’t get past 50% due to the dense and somber writing style, which, while suitable for the story, didn’t compel me to continue 😬

I was very close to putting this book down, it has an interesting premise and setting. However, I found the writing hard to follow and the main character too unlikable. Fortunately, this book has a great plot twist at the end that make you feel better about finishing it!

This was a novel that felt like it was mad it was not a poem. Plot developments often got lost in a swamp of lyrical descriptions, with scene transitions drowning in endless descriptions of flowers and city streets resulting in near-constant disorientation. It was a short book that took forever to get through and felt like trudging through quicksand until about the last 20%, at which point the stuff actually started happening but then it was mostly just baffling and weird. I wanted to feel for the main character, because this man was going THROUGH it, but it was simply so pathetic reading about a person changing their entire body and life to try and be with a guy that cheated on him and then left him that I couldn't dredge up a lot of sympathy.

And please pardon my momentary misandry, but: it's fascinating to me how poorly men often write about sexual desire and sex. When I read sexually explicit writing it's usually written by women and AFAB people, and even the nastiest, filthiest, and most deranged works are still generally hot as hell. Yet somehow, even at their most base and id-driven, these works never approach the raw, ugly VULGARITY of men's writing about sex, the way that men are able to strip away everything sensual, erotic, interesting, and just sexy about sex and leave behind nothing but like, sweaty dicks and cum in leg hair and the grade school feeling that boys are gross and all have cooties. It's published on paper but it's giving nifty.org. It's the literary equivalent of spray painting a dick on a dirty wall and really feeling like you've done something. It makes everything about sex ugly, boring, disgusting, and meaningless.

It's cringe, to put it simply. And every time the writing in this novel veered into explicit territory, which was frequently, it felt like the narrative equivalent of being shoved out of an overwhelming but still reasonably pleasant and fragrant rose garden and onto the sidewalks of 1970s Times Square where you're forced to lick the pavement. I am a bisexual person and reading this book has left me less attracted to men.

Two stars because there is writing talent in here, but man I'm glad this book is over.

My thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the ARC.

I went into this thinking it would be right up my alley, and I unfortunately ended up being a bit wrong in that assumption. I don't at all regret my time spent reading this novel and I found the writing style to be absolutely beautiful and the author's voice unique, but something just felt a twinge lacking in the sense that some parts felt slightly repetitive. I'm a mythology nerd, so I naturally adored the incorporation of such themes and felt that element was very well done. Overall, "Medusa of the Roses" is a dark, devastating poem of a novel, but I won't be rushing to reread it anytime soon.

Thanks Netgalley & Grove Atlantic for the ARC!

Wow, what a powerful story.

As someone who gravitates toward sad, tragic stories, I wasn't expecting to be as.. devastated as I was? I wasn't particularly invested in the characters, but somehow the writing made it so melodic and emotional that I felt really affected by it.

About two young men in love, living in a country that would kill them for their passions, one boy transitions into a woman in order to continue their relationship safely. The story follows Anjir as he narrates his romantic history with a childhood love, and ponders a safer future after a brutal assault leaves him hospitalized and unconscious.

This was so interesting to read as a Westerner (American) because I would argue that trans people face more contempt and face more violence in daily life than queer folks who are simply sexually attracted to the same gender. It's a new perspective and a dark one.
I hate to be that person that says the story is beautiful because of it's tragedy, however, the writing is filled with so much longing and almost wonder, that it has that old-movie warm, soft glow to it that reminds me of hot summer nights spent outside. It's a tragic story, and if you're sensitive to homophobia/transphobia (etc) and the bury your gays trope, please be cautious going into this. It's a short book but not a simple read, and definitely something I'd recommend reading the synopsis to before going in. The book is gritty and graphic in a way that definitely wont be for some audiences. It's very much adult and not for the faint of heart. 

Wouldn't per see recommend this one because it's not generally something I'd read for fun, but I'm sure there are plenty of people that might relate and feel seen through this novel.

"Medusa of the Roses" is a novel like no other that I have read before, I can swear that much.
The story is set in modern-day Tehran in Iran, where homosexuality is illegal and punished by death. However, we are quickly informed that transitioning is vastly more accepted and encouraged, a difference so stark from what we see on the Western news nowadays, where trans people are demonised and persecuted instead.
Sinaki's writing is dark and rich, sensual and provocative, and it was aptly referred to as a cinematic story.
Anjir and Zal's love is marked by death, grief and violence. It is surrounded by these dark and powerful emotions that stem from the society they are raised in, one that does not accept their relationship and forces them into hiding.
Violence to oneself, to one's body and mind, to the people around is a central theme of the book.
Anjir, who is our narrator, descends into violence and vengeance as much as Camus' "The Stranger" descends into madness: slowly, led by misplaced feelings, by mischief and trickery. You're also going to love this if you've enjoyed "All of us strangers" with Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott, mark my words.

I appreciated the snake imagery a lot as well, perhaps as a reminder of the Ouroboros, the fictional snake that eats its own tail to represent an eternal cycle of destruction and rebirth. Anjir sheds his life for love, but he is also tricked and bitten by the proverbial snake.

I don't really know how to feel about this book. It's depressing but I was very engaged with the first half. I didn't really love the characters and sometimes the writing felt a bit random and I didn't really know what was going on. The homophobic language was uncomfortable but I guess that's the point as this is how so many people are treated every day around the world. I'm not a mythology girly so the references were a bit lost on me but I can imagine it worked really well for those who know a bit more about it.

I think the main con for me is that it is a little repetitive. Especially one word (which I won't repeat cause it's rude) which seemed to be used on literally every page for a big chunk of the book. Felt gratuitous.

A bit of a mixed bag but I would recommend to anyone who enjoys LGBTQIA literature.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.

Wasn’t sure how I would feel about this book so I was hesitant to start it, at the end I’m glad I did. This book probably isn’t for everybody but I do hope people are opened to something different because it’s definitely worth the read.

This book surprised me, it was such a great read for me, very well written. I’m interested in looking into more of Navid Sinaki’s books.

When I read the description of this book, I really wanted to like it. I had a hard time getting into this book. I almost didn't finish it. The story itself was good. Homophobia in Iran. But I found the writing dry and the characters were hard to connect with. This book wasn't for me.

In Iran, being gay is illegal, but transitioning in order to live a life with your partner as husband and wife is not only preferred, but legal as well. This is the path Anjir chooses to follow in the aftermath of an aggression Zal and an unnamed lover are subjected to.

The book explores the homophobia that pervades the country and how it shapes the lives of the people that choose to not conform to heteronormative standards, for whatever reason; it’s paired with a lyrical, Siken-esque language and many references to Greek and Persian myths.

The story is sound and the characters (especially the protagonist) have a very clear voice, something that makes their choices very understandable. Also there is a scene towards the end that I did not see coming (although I probably should have) that made me audibly gasp. Still, I struggled a bit to keep my interest up.

I do believe the book could have an expansive audience, with its quotable sentences and its portrayal of a grimy and violent reality.