Sara Farizan

Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Children’s/Young Adult One of Rolling Stone’s 40 Best YA Novels A 2014 ALA Rainbow List Top 10 Title A Booklist Top 10 First Novels for Youth 2013 A Chicago Public Library “Best of the Best” 2013 This Forbidden Romance Could Cost Them Their Lives Seventeen-year-old Sahar has been in love with her best friend, Nasrin, since they were six. They’ve shared stolen kisses and romantic promises. But Iran is a dangerous place for two girls in love--Sahar and Nasrin could be beaten, imprisoned, even executed. So they carry on in secret until Nasrin’s parents suddenly announce that they’ve arranged for her marriage. Then Sahar discovers what seems like the perfect solution: homosexuality may be a crime, but to be a man trapped in a woman’s body is seen as nature’s mistake, and sex reassignment is legal and accessible. Sahar will never be able to love Nasrin in the body she wants to be loved in without risking their lives, but is saving their love worth sacrificing her true self?

A Novel

If You Could Be Mine

In Iran, where homosexuality is punishable by death, seventeen-year-olds Sahar and Nasrin love each other in secret until Nasrin's parents announce their daughter's arranged marriage and Sahar proposes a drastic solution.

If You Could be Mine

lamia 

My friend told me this book was going to make me cry and oh my gosh did it. There wasn't anything cliche or cheesy in this book. The story was about two lesbians in Iran who want to be together so one decides to have a sex change so she can marry her partner. It was very thought provoking and definitely well written. A worth it read.

erona

I cried for hours. I have a headache and my whole body HURTS. I am in physical pain and I will not stop crying and talking about this book. Ever.

I want to give a long and detailed review but every time I start thinking about it, the tears come back. So I’m just going to say: 

This should be required reading. I don’t understand why I had to read ‘If you stay’ and ‘Erebos’ when this book exists. Especially after seeing some reviews, I think that reading and discussing this book properly, is very important!! Since it can be difficult for someone from the western countries to understand how and why someone would behave the way Nasrin did for example. Or why someone would react the way Katayoun did. Therefore, discussing it with people that are familiar with the topics is very important, necessary and needed! And let me tell you: just leaving the country with your parent’s money, is not as easy as it may sound.

brianna

2.75. there was a lot of this book that i felt uncomfortable with. mainly the fact that sahar was mildly transphobic and being trans was treated like a disease. anyway it was decent but you can tell this is sara's first book. it wasnt bad and it was an interesting read but not a favorite of mine. i wish we got a good happy and healthy female romance but !

The writing is just straight up bad and within 40 pages there were about 6 offensive things said by the main character that include transphobia and ableism and I there are too many actually good books out there for me to waste my time on this.

Grace O'Callaghan

I really wanted to love this, but I just didn’t. I do appreciate the fact that having narratives like this one is important, I just think the execution was mediocre at best.

Sahar and Nasrin have loved each other since six years old. Inseparable, they spend most of their time together. But when it’s announced that Nasrin is engaged to marry a man, Sahar is heartbroken. To try and make her relationship accepted in Iranian society, Sahar decides to transition from female to male. But this comes with many obstacles and Sahar is left wondering if it’s worth it for love.

• I think my biggest problem with this book was my inability to care for the characters. I wish I could tell you why I didn’t, but I’m not sure why. Nasrin was very hot and cold for me. One moment she treated Sahar like she was a loyal dog, and others she was the love of her life.

• I think it’s important to raise important issues in books. Like the fact that same sex relationships are illegal in Iran and that many transition so their relationships are more accepted. This book seemed to handle the subject very well and was educational in that aspect. 

• The ending was my favourite part. It seemed very raw and very realistic.

Overall, there’s not much else to say other than this was a mediocre read for me with an important message at heart.

 Bruna Acioly Leão

I enjoyed reading this book, because it was so different from everything I normally experience and see others experience. I like when my fiction reading teaches me something about the world.

However, I feel like the writing style was lacking and it was what bothered me the most about this book. There were no real descriptions of anything, you couldn't visualize the world and the entire time the book was telling you about the main character's actions and feeling as opposed to showing them (I know that's a big cliche thing, but it is true that telling as opposed to showing creates an emotional disconnect between reader and book). The main character's voice felt flat and detached - I don't think we got a sense of who she or any of the characters really were - other than just cardboard personality charts. It was like: this character is beautiful and silly/ this other character is a sad, grieving father, this one is a flamboyant gay...

I also thought the plot wasn't very well thought out - the main character starts to seriously consider changing her sex through surgery to be with her girlfriend. That was so unrealistic. I get that their situation was hard, and maybe that actually happens to people in Iran, I don't know. But the author didn't make me believe it. And she quickly drops the whole thing at the end, obviously (no this is not a spoiler, our MC is not transgender).

Anyway, I could understand what they were going through in the book, but it was an intelectual connection, rather than an emotional one. The book was enjoyable and I read it really fast, so if you want to read more LGBT fiction or if you want something quick for a reading spree, I would say give this a shot.

Rachel

If You Could Be Mine is the story of two high school Iranian girls who are secretly having a relationship with each other and must figure out what to do when one of them is setup to be married. I liked the premise of this book and it does somewhat explore what the culture is like for gays, lesbians and trans people in Iran, but the book is very repetitive. The focus is on Sahar trying to find a way to prevent Nasrin's marriage and have a future with her, most of the book is just about her feelings towards Nasrin and being upset. I wish more focus was on what life is like for lgbt+ people in Iran and show Sahar exploring more into it while going through what she was.

If You Could Be Mine A Novel

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