Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian (2019): A Review

Title: Like a Love Story

Author: Abdi Nazemian

Publication Year: 2019

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐💫

Pages: 432

Source: audiobook @storytel.tr

Genre: literary fiction, coming-of-age, queer, historical fiction, romance, young adult, LGBT

Like a Love Story Abdi Nazemian’s book follows three friends — Reza, Judy, and Art — three outsider teenagers trying to survive high school, family expectations, first loves, and the AIDS crisis in 1980s New York. Reza is still navigating his sexuality and is not yet out, while Art is openly gay and politically active, refusing to hide himself even in a deeply homophobic and frightening historical moment.

There was a great deal I appreciated in this novel. First, I found Nazemian’s portrayal of Reza, an Iranian immigrant who moved from Iran to Canada and then Canada, adjusting to a new life in America, especially moving. Reza has to navigate a new country, a new school, a new stepfather and stepbrother, and, most importantly, the painful process of understanding and accepting himself in a society that gives him very little room to do so. His struggle with identity, family, friendship, fear, and coming out is handled with sensitivity and care.

I also loved the friendship between Reza, Judy, and Art, as well as their relationship with Judy’s uncle. These bonds are among the novel’s strongest elements. The book is at its most powerful when it shows how friendship can become a form of survival, especially in a world shaped by prejudice, silence, illness, and loss.

The depiction of AIDS activism is another aspect I deeply admired. Nazemian portrays the pain, anger, and courage of those living and dying through the AIDS crisis with real emotional force. The novel does not shy away from the suffering caused by homophobia, social abandonment, and political neglect, but it also gives space to resistance: the fight to live, to be seen, to be cured, and to be accepted. These were the parts of the book I loved most.

However, I struggled with some aspects of the novel, particularly the amount of sexual conversation, teenage romance, and intimate scenes. I chose this book mainly because Nazemian is Iranian-American, and I try to read one novel by an Iranian author every month. I was also drawn to the coming-of-age and historical fiction elements. But I think I underestimated how central the romance and YA aspects would be, and those are simply not genres I usually enjoy. Because of that, the book ended up being a 3.5-star read for me rather than a 4-star one. This is very much a matter of personal taste: I do not read or tolerate romance and YA particularly well, so this one is mostly on me.

I am also not entirely sure whether listening to the audiobook at 2x speed and skipping parts of the final chapters legally counts as “finishing” the book. But let us be generous and say that I finished it.