The title of this book is<i>Liquid, A Love Story</i>. And yet, I left this book wondering what the actual love story in this book was. It certainly doesn't read or finish like a romance. Perhaps it is actually about falling in love with yourself? But this feels far too cliche.

Liquid is a book written in 2 parts. The first part reads a bit like a romcom. Our unnamed Iranian-Indian-American narrator is fed up with her lack of future in academia and decides to go on 100 dates to find a rich husband. Cue a lot of chaos and hilarity. Abruptly, the tone is the book shifts in part 2, as our narrators dating experiment is interrupted by family tragedy, and she immediately goes to Tehran. Cue a lot of exploration of belonging, family dynamics, culture, grief, and even a few more dates.

The writing in this book is beautiful. It's lyrical and poetic and feels fitting for someone with a PhD in literature. The book is very satirical, often funny, sometimes thoughtful, and also a mess. The MC is a mess. At times, she is deeply unlikable. Obviously, their is a level of entitlement and desperation that comes with trying to marry for the money. She does not do it in a cute way, but rather, leans into the problematic nature of everything. Other times, her commentary on the world around her is profound. Despite not knowing her name, the MCs characterization was really well done. The messiness of it all made her feel very real.

My favorite part of the book was the second part. I think the most common criticism this book will get is the jarring change in tone. It goes from a cynical and satirical rom-com straight into grief and family dynamics. Personally, I loved abrupt change. The reality is that you are not eased into a family member having a heart attack in real life. In fact, it is the abruptness, the distinct before and after, that makes any sort of sudden onset illness so difficult. It will drag you out of whatever life you are in with no warning, and things will not be the same. There is a level of authenticity and honesty in this book that feels so real. I had to keep reminding myself that this is fiction, not a memoir.

Especially after moving to Tehran, the book really dives into our narrator's family and culture. There are many heavy things our unserious narrator begins to process: the lack of basic medical equipment in Iran thanks to the sanctions, the overt racism and colorism her Indian mother experiences, the lack of rights for women, her own place of belonging as an Iranian-Indian-American bisexual woman, her abandonment issues due to parents who both weren't there for her, and grief. I enjoyed the character ark of our narrator as she tried to process everything around her.

The ending of this book was, unfortunately, anticlimactic and disappointing. It felt so obvious throughout the book that I thought, surely, I'm missing something. I understand it is meant to be ironic. Despite our narrator going through some stuff, she didn't magically evolve into a different person. She's still cynical, unserious, and mess, but end the book with a bit more understanding of herself and what she wants.

One last note on the narration: this book is self-narrated by the author. While this often doesn't work well, I thought the author did a pretty good job. There were a few points in the book where I felt the narration could have been a little more emotional, but most of it worked for me.

Overall, I enjoyed this. I would recommend it to folks who enjoy more satirical litfic, or folks who enjoyed books like <i>You Exist Too Much</i> by Zaina Arafat.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hatchette Audio for an ALC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Life isn't going quite as planned for our narrator. Her entire life she marched through the cycle of academia dutifully chasing the ideals it promised her and and echo of the success her parents themselves had sought. Two years after gaining her PhD she is no closer to securing a permanent teaching position or turning her thesis based on the depiction of marriage and love in eastern and western culture in the realm of cinema into a book. Like the rest of her life so far, she feels wedged between too many directions.

In her youth it was finding her identity between three cultures. In her work it is to choose which direction to aim her professional goals. With her parents passive aggressive suggestion of the alternative, marry rich and move on from a dusty dream, is floated by her best friend she sees a new opportunity. She starts a project to seek love over 100 dates and use each to assist in supplemental research to help prove the points in her book. And, if she's lucky, she'll nab someone to help her float through life and take her work wherever she wants it.

The problem? It's hard for anyone to add up when they are subconsciously being compared to a standard set by a particular person. Plus, pursuing what you think you want based on parameters while at the same time wanting to avoid the stereotypes you are writing about, are going to create a few bumps. Working through them as an unplanned obstacle in the form of family tragedy pops up, leads to finding answers to a test the narrator didn't realize she was taking.

"Liquid" is quite a lot to handle. It's juggling a lot of conflicts under one umbrella. I find it slightly ironic that while her best friend is a noted poet, this book is dripping with a deceptively 'natural' lyrical way with words that I've found stylistic in in other works both from Iran and India that I've read. In this sense even the prose echo the mixture of influences. It creates an further interesting element when the topic of translation itself comes in later in the novel.

I quite enjoyed the way it showed the spread of cultural experiences. I was just as invested to see the ways in which her mother absorbed her husband's culture. I'm intrigued just as much by the idea of her mother seeming to distance herself from her own family even though she was clearly not embraced by her husbands. It opens a discussion about other patterns of behavior, self isolation, that her daughter has picked up with her parents' example. I have to wonder if part of her daughter's tendency to lean towards that part of her heritage despite a later revelation about her relationship with her father and hints that she is closer to her mother than she would like to admit.

The question of what it is to be a Muslim in America is also possibly more fine tuned in discussions about how her parents met. Our narrator's own personal shows of protest and slow shedding of certain ideas all seem to carry the same undercurrent of anger fueled passion and confidence. That's not to say they are performative or ingenious. It reinforces her overall personality. The conversation continues in slightly more subtle ways as matters of racism mix in when the conversation is shifted over seas.

Then there is the abrupt shift in tone of the book. Up until that point there has been a fine focus on this not-love story love story. I confess it seems like quite a narrative bump. It may be a bit of an extended beyond welcome section for some readers invested more in the project than the character's personal journey and settling of deep seeded issues. For myself personally, I loved this love-hate perspective of someone seeing the country for all its grit, its beauty, its flaws to down right problems, and nostalgia. It painted a beautiful picture that I imagine is a real struggle for someone who loves a country and hates both that system and how other governments' treatment influence the disparities. I am not Iranian, but I think it taps into something many accounts fictional and from those currently with ties to the country have both been dealing with and tried to express.

As to the promised primary plot of the love experiment, much of how you receive it will depend on being able to see the irony in the narrator's approach and the elements of romance in cultural staples that she condemns or breaks apart. It will also matter how much you connect with the lead who, to be frank, has a rather cynical and prickly nature. While in context you can see what has molded this view outlook from family modeling to defense mechanism, there was more than one time I found myself thinking: 'and just how do you think you come off, miss?' in her dismissals of some of the dates. even if I had sympathy for her, this is certainly not your standard romcom cinnamon bun protagonist.

Overall, "Liquid" was a book of a lot of concepts. was it the most successful romance? honestly I think it depends on the reader. For those who read more of the genre it could very well be an interesting change of pace. I can imagine it working well for people who enjoyed books like Graeme Simsion's "The Rosie Project" or based on synopsis Hoang's "The Kiss Quotient" looking for a lead who's not a standard. There is a snarky parallel between her critiques of romance films between her own that was appreciated. For me, I enjoyed it more for the personal and cultural exploration. I'm not sure these two things really meshed perfectly. I do know it is a novel that I will think about on and off for a while.

All of this leads me to the narration as I received this ARC as an audiobook courtesy of the publisher and netgalley. It is also the most difficult part of the review. Having a narrator read their own work quite often goes one way. They have a background and a knowledge of the text that makes it an unforgettable experience. Or their mastery over words just does not translate into speech. I'm afraid this is far more of the later.

While having a sardonic tone works well for this type of character, it is important to still be able to inject a pace and subtle tonal differential between dialogue and inner thought. There were times in the dialogue where I feel they started to relax and open up. The words came more naturally. The more rhythmic segments did carry over their beauty from time to time. Overall there was just a rigidity that really did a disservice to some very gorgeous and hard hitting material. There were times where the text was providing a very dramatic, anguished or panicked, or even excited contentment that didn't come across in any nuance or seem like a performance.

In no way do I mean to discourage the author. There is nothing to say that this skill can't be improved. It is, like anything, part talent part practice. Even if he listening experience didn't blow me out of the water, the story itself is really provoking. They are a very promising creative in general. But this was a better novel debut as a story than a production.

‘Liquid: A Love Story’ by Mariam Rahmani is a refreshing and insightful debut that explores love, marriage, and the intersections of capitalism with modern relationships. The story follows a young woman navigating her life in a capitalist world, looking for a rich partner to provide financial security while grappling with her ambitions, family dynamics, and cultural expectations.

The protagonist's journey is framed by a series of dates — each one highlighting different aspects of modern dating in a world where love, marriage, and money are deeply intertwined. I particularly appreciated the biting critique of the capitalist lens through which these relationships are viewed. For example, there's a humorous yet poignant moment where the main character goes on a date with a man she likes, only to find out he's polyamorous, revealing the complexities of modern love and its constraints. Rahmani also integrates the aesthetics of a spreadsheet, symbolising how dating is often treated like a transaction or something to be calculated.

While I found the prose to be quite lovely and reflective, the story did lose some momentum in the middle. The book's resolution is a mix of satisfying and unsatisfying — almost as if it mirrors the confusing nature of the protagonist's journey. That said, I think ‘Liquid’ will resonate with many 20-somethings who are navigating similar questions around love, career, and societal pressures.

This debut novel is a clever, introspective look at modern love, and I believe it will strike a chord with readers who enjoy thought-provoking stories with a bit of wit and irony.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Audio for the advance audiobook.

I'm quite surprised by how much I enjoyed this. We have our narrator who navigates their life in all aspects while weaving in social and cultural aspects. I do think it lost me a little in the middle, but the prose is really nice. The resolution was kind of both satisfying and unsatisfying. But I think all the 20-somethings of the world would find the main character relatable. A wonderful debut from Rahmani!

Thank you to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for the eARC!

The first half of this book has more vibes than plot. Thankfully, the narrator is really interesting. She talks about her PhD dissertation on the introduction of love as an aspect of marriage vs. arranged marriage. She reflects on her experience living in LA as a half-Iranian woman and growing up Muslim in Michigan amidst 9/11. She reflects on her friendships, past relationships, and media that have impacted her understanding of love. There are a lot of interesting descriptions of academia and cultural analysis in this book. Los Angeles is like a character in the book, so if you’re from there there will be a lot of references and street names that you’ll recognize. Her rundowns of the dates she goes on bring a lot of humor. 

The book takes a more serious turn halfway through when she travels to Tehran to care for her father after his heart attack. This section of the book is heavy but beautifully written. She reevaluates her relationship with money, with love, with her friends and family, and with her career.

I listened to the audiobook which was wonderfully narrated by the author.

Prose ?⭐️
Audio Narration: 2⭐️

I am going to come back to rate this properly as I need to read the physical book. This is a case where the audio narration is affecting my enjoyment of the book. The bigger problem is that I think the actual prose is really good and impactful and therefore important. But I can’t get past the completely monotone and lifeless narration.

This is why authors should not even narrate their fiction books as it doesn’t work and it’s a shame. The blurb in the book promises humor which may absolutely be there but with its delivery I can’t find it. I actually write an email to the publisher asking for an eARC of the title because I really want to like this book!

So I’ll be back to update once I have read it through again in a different format.

I am thankful to have gotten the ALC for free from Hachette Audio through NetGalley to read which gave me the opportunity to voluntarily leave a review.

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars and I rarely round up.

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again

I was excited to receive this ARC and had high hopes for a thoughtful, nuanced exploration of life and love through the perspective of a Muslim female protagonist. While there were moments of entertainment and some valuable representation of both Muslim and LGBTQ+ experiences, the book ultimately didn’t meet my expectations. The protagonist, unfortunately, exhibited racist and classist tendencies, which, combined with her preachy and self-absorbed demeanor, made it difficult for me to connect with her on a deeper level.

Additionally, I’ve realized that I prefer when authors don’t narrate their own audiobooks. While their passion for their work is clear, the performance often doesn’t do justice to the material. With so many skilled narrators available, I feel that the author’s love for their story may not always translate into the most compelling audiobook experience.

Thank you NetGalley and Hachette Audio for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.