DNF at 33% - this book was not for me. The writing style was overly lyrical, and I didn't feel connected at all to the main character. I feel that by the time I get into a third of the book I should be able to understand at least part of the character's actions.

This was unfortunately a DNF :( I couldn't get into it, which isn't a fault of the author or story, just that it wasn't for me. It stinks I have to give a star review on something I didn't finish, especially considering this book will definitely be loved by others.

The cover was what attracted me to Liquid, but it ended up being just ok for me. The prose wasn't terrible, but largely too academic and pretentious for my taste. I did enjoy learning more about Iranian culture and thought the ending was sweet. It's advertised as a romantic comedy, but I couldn't find the romance or the comedy.

Thanks to NetGalley & Algonquin Books for the ARC.

Jaded academic spiraling sad girl lit with a side of identity and belonging issues A combo like this is my catnip and I will never stop picking up variations of these tropes. I think the subtitle “A Love Story” sort of adds genre expectations that don’t get met in the classical sense. There is a quest for love (or at least a good pairing), but it definitely comes through in the form of figuring out one's self and this one is heavy on the lit fic. Rahmani’s does something unique here. Things are very different and more carefree in the LA part of the book and the shift to Tehran comes abruptly and with a tone change. I can see this being a bit jarring to some readers but it felt very realistic to me given the context. Rahmani used the contrast as an opportunity to explore how who we are gets impacted by circumstances and location.

Imagine if your PhD thesis on marriage led you to dating for a summer. That's the quirky, chaotic heart of Liquid, Mariam Rahmani's debut that is equal parts sharp social commentary and laugh-out-loud satire.

Our unnamed narrator - an Iranian-Indian American academic - is stuck in adjunt purgatory, so she does what any rational person would do: she decides to date 100 people, marry rich, and make a project out of it. From dodging bad breath on awkward dates to matching wits with trust fund socialists, she dives headfirst into the shallow end of romance, armed with spreadsheets and lofty ideals.

What starts as a funny social experiment quickly spirals into something more profound when the narrator is forced to confront her own contradictions - academia, love, family, identity - all as she races toward Tehran. Rahmani's prose is bold and witty, but under the laughs, there's a deep sadness lurking that makes this more than just a rom-com romp.

I was lucky enough to receive an advanced digital copy from Algonquin Books ahead of the release date, and while I loved the wit, charm, and complexity, I ended up giving Liquid a solid 3.75 stars (rounded up to 4).

I love books like this that really dive into an imperfect narrator/main character. This book is great for fans of The Coin by Yasmin Zaher.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7406875013


Liquid is the smartest novel I have read recently. Rahmani’s use of beautiful prose is effortless. She speaks to the millennial dating experience in an honest way that hearkens back to the best 00’s romantic comedies. Liquid also honors the grief and pitfalls of modern life. The love story of its’ title pays off massively In the book’s final pages. This book marks the emergence of a fantastic new literary voice. Highly recommended.

This book felt simultaneously very familiar and creative. Underemployed academic dates in order to find a rich spouse, while dissecting her family's cultural inheritance and watching a lot of rom coms.

This book is a rom-com turned out its head. It follows a struggling adjust professor in LA who studies culture decides to go on 100 dates in an effort to marry rich. In the end, it turns out to be about much more about her Muslim identity.

This book was possibly too smart for me. It also felt like two separate books and the pacing was strange. By the end, the 100 date thing was barely a plot line, which I didn't mind, expect for the way it was marketed. I also thought the ending of "who she ends up with" was a bit predictable, but maybe that's the point.

Overall, this felt a bit disjointed and I'm unsure about how this one came together plot-wise. But I found Rahmani's writing engaging and even a little sexy. I would try another book by her.

Some beautiful writing here for sure, but definitely think the back cover copy is misleading. I wasn’t expecting this to be a rom com, but I also wasn’t expecting it to turn into such a somber reflection on grief. For me, the first and second halves of this book just didn’t work together, but I think this could appeal to those looking for something a little more lit fic.

✨ Review ✨ Liquid by Mariam Rahmani

Thanks to Algonquin Books, Hachette Audio, and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

The Iranian-Indian American narrator of Liquid is an underemployed adjunct professor with a best-friend poet Adam trying to figure out how she’s going to survive in Los Angeles without a job. She decides golddigging is the solution -- she decides to go on 100 dates over the summer to try to find a rich spouse, but ultimately, her dating finds LA’s rich men and women are predominantly white, boring, not adequate, etc.

The story shifts after her dad has a heart attack and she ends up on a plane back to Tehran, living in his home, while he’s in the hospital. It explores her relationships with her mom and her dad, and a neighbor who she hooks up with multiple times while staying there. I really appreciated the reflection on 21st-century Tehran, and the legacies of its fraught relationship with the US (lack of access to hospital equipment, uneven gendered rights, etc.).

This is a hard book because I loved it and I hated it - it made me laugh so hard and roll my eyes at the portrayal of academia, because it's so on the nose! But it's also so highbrow and critical that sometimes it over-the-top frustrated me. I loved the idea of a golddigging underemployed academic, whose PhD is in marriage and literature. I am obsessed with the focus on the dating spreadsheet (and even more with the spreadsheet excerpt that appears between parts of the book). But I also wanted to put this down and quit repeatedly too and that makes it hard to rate. In the end, I'm glad I stuck with it, but it was not an easy journey...which is maybe some of the point. This is a book to read and struggle with, but it's not for the light of heart.

Genre: literary fiction
Setting: Los Angeles, Tehran
Pub Date: March 11, 2025

I was excited to read Liquid because the description sounded fun and BOTM selected it as one of their March reads, but this one was a big miss for me. I did not enjoy the experience of reading what felt like an unedited dissertation / failed dating experiment. I know the author is a woman, but it felt like she was mansplaining the PhD process for the first half of the book. Calling this book high brow is a serious understatement. My other issue was the jump from LA to Tehran. It came out of nowhere, and the Tehran portion of the story was just a bit flat (perhaps because she wasn’t a particularly endearing main character) yet it somehow is the catalyst for her eventual life / relationship epiphany. Bottom line, I just didn’t buy it. Thank you to Algonquin Books and NetGalley for my ARC.

An introspective book that kept me captivated throughout. An important perspective that everyone should read.

I cannot stop raving about this book—it’s that good. Liquid follows an unnamed Iranian-Indian American scholar who, fed up with the instability of adjunct life, embarks on a hilariously ambitious plan to marry rich. What starts as a structured, spreadsheet-driven experiment quickly spirals into a whirlwind of absurd, awkward, and unexpectedly emotional encounters. But as her summer of dating unfolds, reality—and a trip to Tehran—forces her to confront the contradictions in her life.

This novel is completely unique, beautifully written, and so, so funny. It’s a sharp, satirical take on love, class, and academia, but it’s also deeply romantic and emotionally resonant. I couldn’t get enough of it.

The unnamed female narrator of this book is working as an adjunct professor, making a low salary and is wondering when her dream of a middle-class future will come to fruition. When her best friend, Adam, jokingly suggests that she marry rich, the narrator takes this idea seriously. She commits herself to 100 dates, creates a spreadsheet to keep track, and hopes to have a proposal before fall.

This book takes an unexpected turn about halfway through. Due to a family emergency, the narrator must go to Tehran and put her dating project on hold.

This is not a traditional love story. However, it examines the love between parents and their children, spouses, and best friends.

Does the narrator receive a proposal before fall? You'll have to read to find out.

If you're looking for a new literary fiction novel from a debut author, then this is the book for you!

I received a #gifted copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review.

This book is so charming and funny. Our unnamed narrator graduated with her PhD two years ago and has been struggling to find a job or relationship, and her Iranian and Indian parents desperately want her to marry someone. On a whim, she decides to go on 100 dates in one summer. But when her dad has a heart attack and she goes home to Tehran, her plans go awry and she has to reevaluate everything.

I enjoyed this book a lot, and the pace was great. Our narrator is incredibly witty, and her inner dialogue as she goes on different dates, tries to figure out her career, and continually rethinks her relationship with her parents is very interesting. Once we get to Tehran, it at first feels like the narrative stalls, but then that time becomes the focal point of the story and propels so much of our narrator's character growth and realizations. There were times when it felt like the writing was a bit too obsessed with itself, but overall I thought this book's depiction of grief and of feeling like you don't belong anywhere was really artful and resonated with me. It's also unlike other books I've read, which is always fun.

Thank you to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an advance reader's copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I will come back to provide a review when I am able to read the book -- unfortunately, time does not permit me to give this book the attention it deserves.

What a fantastic book! The first one I have read by this author but definitely can't wait to read more! The characters stay with you long after you finish the book. Highly recommend!

An enjoyable if flawed read.

Let’s start with the good stuff: i loved Rahmani’s fluid, introspective writing, and she gives us a heroine who is as easy to root for as they come. I also loved the protagonist’s discussion of her academic work and how she tried to apply it to her personal life.

Where this book falls a bit short is mostly about the jarring tone shift mid-novel that leaves one feeling like they’ve read two books about the same character written by two different authors with two very different agendas for both message and tone. Instead of a natural progression into heavier material, the book just makes a giant, discordant leap in tone and subject matter, and it doesn’t work as a cohesive story.

The book also isn’t truly funny, which makes the publisher’s summary a bit misleading. The summary also leans heavily on the first half of the book (the superior half, in my opinion), which makes the leap the second half takes even more jarring and inapt.

Still, I love the way Rahmani writes inner monologue, as well as the way she ruminates on the difficulty of squaring disparate cultural values, be they your own, your parents’, or your broader world’s.

This definitely was not for me. I felt like I started a book in the middle and had to figure it all out as I went. Disjointed and boring. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this copy for read and review