As I recently told a friend, I'm really into the micro-genre of "brown girl kinda loses it but also kinda finds herself" and this book is a prime example! This was a highly entertaining whirlwind of dates across genders, socioeconomics, and more. The story is held together with self-exploration around culture and loss with sharp wit and truly delicious prose. I bookmarked so many cutting quotes in this audiobook! I definitely want to get a hard copy to annotate!

This started out very promising but as the book went on I got bored because this is a no plot just vibes kind of book. And the vibes are not great. The main character is insufferable and painfully millennial. This book is marketed as queer but out of her 100 dates maybe one or two are with women and whenever she talks about relationships she centers men. She tries to be funny but it comes across as “oh honey you’re deeply depressed.” I dnf-ed at 35% in and my prediction is that she will marry her man best friend (lame, predictable, so centering men of her). This was not for me but maybe it will be for Sally Rooney fans (personally I grew up and don’t like her anymore).

I liked this but it wasn't what I was expecting. It's very abruptly split into two halves. The first part is about our unnamed narrator dating around trying to find her perfect rich spouse, while the second turns into the main character finding herself and her identity as she spends time with her family in Iran. The switch didn't necessarily bother me, it just wasn't at all where I was expecting this book to go.

I thought the writing was good - felt almost like a memoir, in that it was a lot of self exploration - but I found the main character pretty irritating. She got really close to exploring some great topics and ideas about societal inequities, the concept of marriage as a symbol of class status, and a bunch of other things, but never really dug all the way in. It's like we were so close to making a good point but then never quite made it. She came off as a bit preachy to me and it just didn't really feel like anything was resolved or the MC grew very much by the end. I also thought the ending was extremely predictable and not super satisfying.

The narrator's performance was perfectly fine, and I felt she did the character justice, even if the story wasn't my favorite. Thanks NetGalley, Algonquin Books and Hachette Audio for the ARC!

Our unnamed narrator holds a PhD in English, where she focuses on comparing different cultures' representations in film and literature on marriage and love. Two years since graduation, she hasn't landed a TT job yet (she's adjuncting, making about 8k a quarter). Anyway, so this hits a little too close to home. What I truly enjoyed about this book is how the narrator's voice is basically the same as mine. I don't mean it's relatable. I mean the most unrelatable thoughts I have about the world and my job somehow overlaps with this narrator. In this somehow narcissistic, self-enhancement-ish way, I think I truly enjoyed the book. I feel like the last sentence IS something the narrator would also say (but more eloquently).
I also truly enjoyed the phrase "Preity Zinta and the even prettier Saif Ali Khan" when she was talking about KHNH.
The choice of having the author narrate the book could have gone wrong in so many ways, but it didn't!!! The narration was also excellent.
What I didn't quite like is the ending. It was a bit abrupt for my tastes.
All I have to say is this book is immaculate and worth all the hype it's gotten so far and I can't wait to hear people's criticism about it (which I'll take personal offense to, maybe).

whoo this one was interesting! The concept was fun, and the narrative voice was compelling, brutally honest, and charming. I wasn't sold on the ending, but I don't think I was supposed to be, and that’s what really made this book work for me.

rep: Iranian bisexual MC, love interests of every kind

spice: a few clinical descriptions of sex

tw: unemployment, loss of a parent

I have mixed feelings about this book. It reads more like a memoir than a novel, and the fact that it is narrated by the author reinforces this sense. The premise: an academic in LA who is struggling to find a permanent teaching job decides to spend the summer going on 100 dates in order to marry someone wealthy. I thought that this pursuit would yield much more humor, but it merely left me very glad that dating apps have no place in my life. The second half of the book, set in Tehran, was much more interesting. I kept going because I was interested in knowing how it would all turn out, but the conclusion was a bit of a letdown. Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this audiobook.

An American adjunct professor of literature (ie underemployed) woman of Iranian-Indian descent can't make her rent, so she agrees to follow her mother's advice to marry rich. To attempt to make this happen, she goes on 100 dates. Not all of these dates are described in detail, not all of them happen, and sometimes it is the same person more than once. Nevertheless, by going on dating apps and "putting herself out there," she hooks up with men and women in Los Angeles and Tehran only to discover some important truths about herself. Interesting but a little chaotic. The 100 dates don't start right away and seem like a marketing gimmick upon which to promote this story of her becoming a fully realized adult. 3.7 rounded up. As a first novel, it shows promise.
My thanks to the author, publisher, @HachetteAudio, and #NetGalley for early access to the audiobook of #Liquid for review purposes. Publication date: 11 March 2025.

“Belonging was as much about who claimed you, as what you claimed to be.”

Thank you NetGalley and the Publisher for this ARC in exchange for my fair and honest review.

I came into this expecting a tongue-in-cheek satire about academia, sexuality, and murky relationships and was really taken away by the layers of sincerity alongside some laugh-out-loud, comedically messy moments.

This book really struck me. The characters were so rich and unique, even as seen through the singular POV of the unnamed main character.

Ambition and lack of direction play a tender tug of war as we watch her create a ridiculous plot in the name of research that sends her, and us, into a slow and manic spiral.

This book is what I wanted The Idiot to be. It is so clever and funny and sad and lonely all wrapped in 100 dates.

I can’t wait to read more from this author in the future.

I found this book was just meh for me. I didn't care for the mc at all. I found her annoying and very unlikable. That being said the actual plot and story was pretty solid. Overall just an okay book.

"Liquid by Mariam Rahman" was kind of just meh for me. I found the main charter unlikeable but the story engaging. I also thought that the second half of the book an interesting turn .

"Liquid: A Love Story" by Mariam Rahmani follows an unnamed young Muslim scholar in Los Angeles who, disillusioned with her adjunct professorship, embarks on a quest to marry rich by undertaking 100 dates over a single summer. Midway through her endeavor, unforeseen events lead her to Tehran, prompting a deeper exploration of love, identity, and cultural expectations.

This novel merits a four-star rating for its sharp cultural critique and engaging narrative. Rahmani adeptly combines satire with sincerity, offering readers a fresh perspective on modern romance and societal pressures. The protagonist's journey is both humorous and poignant, reflecting the complexities of balancing personal desires with cultural norms. While some readers might find the protagonist's decisions unconventional, the story's depth and wit provide a compelling read that resonates beyond the final page.

I really needed this to be a physical book and not an audiobook. I didn’t really connect with the MC and lost interest in the second half of the book craving more messy dating encounters. Ultimately I think this book was too smart for me and I truly just wanted a chaotic story of a woman going on 100 failed dates in attempt to marry rich.

Oh man I can tell this book will be divisive. If you have any negative bias towards academics, this will not be a good read. There's a lot of intellectual posturing (which in fairness to the author I believe is realistic portrayal) that makes these characters very difficult to empathize with. "Liquid" has the edge and shock-and-awe traits we usually find in British contemporary novels. If that's your thing, then this will a delight. It is by no means a fun and light hearted romance. So, for the discerning reader this may be a total hit but go in with clear expectations.

I loved this book! This was the smart, sharp romantic comedy of my dreams. The portrayal of the main character’s academic approach to marriage and relationships really worked me and I loved the references to classic rom coms throughout the book. The character’s navigation of her Indian and Iranian cultures and languages felt so fresh and insightful and I also loved how spot on the portrayal of LA was.

I listened to the audiobook and thought the narrator was great.

Thank you Netgalley for early access to this title.

This was such an interesting and modern take on a love story. It felt modern and timeless somehow, the characters are so vivid in my mind even after finishing.

The narrator did a great job. I enjoyed the first half better than the second half of the book once we were in Tehran.

In *Liquid*, Mariam Rahmani’s debut novel, an unnamed young Iranian-Indian American woman grapples with the challenges of adulthood. Having lost her teaching position, this unmarried scholar feels pressure to succeed both in her career and in her romantic life. Her best friend suggests that she marry someone wealthy, leading her to embark on a dating project akin to an academic endeavor. This project explores sexual freedom and challenges heteronormativity.

During the course of her bisexual/pansexual dating experiment, her father falls ill in Tehran. She and her mother travel to Iran to be with him, prompting the protagonist to reconnect with her family, their culture, and relationships.

However, the novel delves deeper than just this rom—com dating plot. Rahmani intricately examines the daughter’s adult perspective on her parents' complicated marriage and provides insight into both American and Iranian cultures. The narrative is neither gimmicky nor simplistic. This novel is beautifully written, witty, and captivating.

I highly recommend it. It feels like a blend of Jane Austen’s wit and social mores commentary, Kaveh Akbar’s *Martyr*, and Jeffrey Eugenides’ *The Marriage Plot*. Thank you to Algonquin and NetGalley for the advanced reader's copy.

I really wanted to get into this one, but it just wasn't for me.
I am still really thankful to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for granting me advanced access.

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.