This was phenomenal! Told as a series of interconnected essays, Lamya’s memoir tackles so many topics. Each essay weaves together a story from the Quran and some element of the author’s life. The essays take the reader on a journey navigating immigration and coming out (and coming out and coming out) and racism and Islamophobia and anxiety and isolation and so much more all written with an undercurrent of hope. I loved the nuance with which they approach all of these topics. She talks about growing up a South Asian immigrant in a rich Middle Eastern country and then moving to the United States for college, about their experiences wearing hijbab in non-Muslim spaces, coming to terms with their sexuality and gender, and the stuggle explaining to queer white American friends why she can’t just come out to her family.

The writing had a good flow to it and I appreciated the narrative being split into essays because it made it easy to pick up one whenever I had a small amount of free time. Though I often found that I either wanted to keep going and/or had to take some extra time after finishing the essay to think about what I had just read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I would give this 4.5 stars. I thought it was enlightening and impactful and really enjoyed how it was structured. It was fascinating, emotional, and even cathartic at times to learn about the author's experiences, and I thought the choice to parallel personal stories with those of people in the Quran was excellent. While I am not Muslim myself and not familiar with all of the characters mentioned, I have always loved learning about how different people can interpret the same religious stories in different ways. I really enjoyed the way this memoir captured that. As a queer South Asian, I found many similarities in my own life to Lamya H's story, and I appreciate the author's bravery in sharing all of this. Overall, I highly recommend this memoir as an educational and emotional experience, and wish the author all the best.

Content Warnings: suicidal ideation, racism, Islamophobia, mentions of physical and domestic abuse, mentions of transphobia and misogyny, homophobia

Absolutely brilliant. Thoughtful, creative, honesty, complicated, beautifully written. A book of loving questions, a book of grappling, a book that opens doorways and doorways. Cannot recommend highly enough.

Hijab Butch Blues was one of my most anticipated books of the year, because I love memoirs about queer religious people. I love learning about their experiences, and how their queerness intersects with their religion and race and other identities. As someone who was raised very religious (Traditional Catholic, now a pagan) I find these memoirs of queer religious people to be healing and wonderful. That it is possible for one to be queer and still feel like they have a place in the religion they love and grew up in. I’m so glad that books like these exist now for the millions of queer religious peoples around the world who desperately need to know that they are not alone.
Hijab Butch Blues did not disappoint. Lamya writes with an ease and familiarity that makes reading this book feel like a conversation with an old and dear friend. She seamlessly flows between retelling parts from the Quran and her life: drawing parallels from them to experiences from throughout her life. She speaks on how her different identities, a brown queer Muslim, all intersect, and how difficult it was for her to truly find her people. People who understood all facets of her being, and could relate to her, and the difficulties of being a brown queer Muslim in America, a country that does not love those things. She tells us about a harrowing series of bad dates, and how it all ends happily. Most importantly, she talks about her healing journey from internalized racism, Islamaphobia and homophobia. She details how she finally figured out why she held herself so cut off from the people she loved most: queer people are terrified of being left, so they make themselves indispensable to the people they love. She figures this out from a discussion of a story from the Quran with a friend of hers. That idea hit me so hard I had to take a moment to digest that revelation. I think what was most impactful was in the beginning chapters, when Lamya talked about her passive suicidal thoughts (she just wanted to stop existing.) How she would disappear in social situations. I saw my younger self in those chapters, and it was extremely emotional.
Overall, this was an absolute gem of a book to read, and I can’t recommend it enough! 5/5 stars

We need more stories like this in the world. Throughly enjoyed this work and getting to hear this perspective.

Brilliant retelling of the stories of the Bible and the Koran/Quran from a fresh point of view which humanizes the people and events described there.  Told over these is a memoir of a hijab wearing believer who struggles to accept both her gayness while seeking acceptance of herself in these stories.  Insightful and thought-provoking.

This is a lovely memoir that was truly a breath of fresh air. Told in form of essays each chapter focuses on aspects of the Quran and the author finds ways to compare it to their own life and queer, Muslim identity. I truly learned a lot reading this book and it was a new perspective that i haven't read plenty of.

Such an honest, smart, complex memoir! I loved the book being organized as memories and then studies of the Quran. Lamya H walks this thin line of being religious and then questioning and challenging the religion. I thought it was enlightening and brave and inspiring. Thanks to Dial Press for the advanced copy. What a gift.

This book made me feel seen more deeply than any other memoir ever has. I'm still reeling from the surprise of that. The author is a queer nonbinary immigrant Muslim woman of color. I am a bisexual-married-to-a-man cis American Episcopalian with skin the color of skim milk. And yet. 

At the end of a yoga practice, my favorite YouTube yogi often closes by saying "There is a place inside of you where all the Universe dwells. When you are in that place in you and I am in that place in me, we are one." Reading this book felt like that.

This memoir is deeply spiritual. It has such a rare, but important exploration of religion (specifically Islam) and queerness. It is told through small vignettes in non-chronological order throughout Lamya's life. I really appreciated her honesty, vulnerability, and candor. As someone who isn't Muslim, I can not comment on the representation. However, I do think she offers fresh perspectives and reinterpretations to stories in the Quran. 

At first, the writing style was a bit difficult to get into. I also, selfishly, wanted more from the author and felt that some essays were a little long. Regardless, I appreciated the meditativeness of the text and I gained a lot from reading this.

I absolutely adored this memoir! The prose was wonderful and once I started reading, I couldn't stop! At first, I took pause on reading it because I wasn't sure what the message would be, but I could quickly see just how knowledgeable the author is about Islam, socio-economic topics, and LGBTQIA+ issues, and intersectionality. It's been a long time since I've read a book that I couldn't put down. This is one I will definitely reread and recommend to my friends!

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an advanced adore copy in exchange for an honest review! 

I really enjoyed Lamya comparing her stories/struggles or those of people she knew to stories in the Quran. Lamya was able to tackle difficult subjects like transphobia, racism, classism, sexism, and the struggle of being a queer Muslim and feeling like an outcast wherever she went, it was an eye-opening read!

(!: Using she/her pronouns because I think that's what was in Lamya's bio page, but I'm not 100% sure since questioning of gender is a big theme in the book. CW: thoughts of s*icide, racism, Islamophobia, homophobia, religious trauma, mentions of spousal abuse)

I really loved reading Lamya's journey. As a child, she immigrated to an Arab country where no one in her family spoke the language. But even at a young age she experienced racism and sexism in the Arab country from being a female-presenting, dark skinned South Asian immigrant. She also struggled with sexuality and gender from a young age which was made worse by the strict gender roles of her culture. Despite that, Lamya loves her religion and is devout to practicing it every day.

When Lamya is 18, she receives a scholarship to a great university in New York, so once again finds herself moving to a foreign country where she experiences a different kind of racism. Despite a lot of hardships she finds a great support network of people in the queer and Muslim communities.

The book uses parables from the Quran to coincide with Lamya's personal story. I loved learning more about the Muslim religion, but since I'm not a religious person at all, it was a bit much for me by the end. But, I think if you are a struggling queer Muslim it will be incredibly comforting for you. I'm glad that Lamya is able to love her religion and still wear hijab and be so devout despite feeling a bit ostracized from her family and culture. As a queer person myself from a Christian culture, it's always sad to me how much religious trauma queer people experience within Abrahamic religions. I'm glad her experiences didn't shake her faith and she found love and community within it. 

I really recommend this memoir. As someone who is also "subtly" queer, I like that Lamya talks about her experiences with not being loud with her own queerness and how sometimes that makes her feel like she's "not queer enough". I like that she is firm (thus far in her life) about not telling her family that she's gay and talks about how it's not always safe or necessary to have a coming out story. She talks about her experiences with White Supremacy in both the rich Arab country and the US. Overall, I really enjoyed her journey and hope she continues to do well. 

Thank you to netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I feel like I've been waiting for decades for a work like this one, to hear these kinds of stories being told. I went to school at an age where voices like this were silenced, and at the age of the narrator at the start of this book, I've had similar thoughts and longings at relating to others in the literature I read, even if it wasn't explicitly spelled out on the page for me. I was so excited to read this <3

Such a warm memoir — equal parts captivating and comforting. Hijab Butch Blues is told in short, well-paced essays that pair a story from author Lamya H’s life with a retelling of a parallel surah from the Quran. 

Lamya shares both heavy and lighthearted moments of her life with a tenderness and vulnerability that I think will resonate with readers across the sexuality and religious spectrums. 4* for this deeply spiritual and beautifully queer memoir. 

Please note CW’s including: thoughts of suicide & self harm, racism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia

Thank you to NetGalley and The Dial Press for the e-ARC.

Not only is this this memoir beautifully written and creatively pieced together; it's from a unique perspective that I've never seen in mainstream publishing.

Words can't describe how beautiful and enlightening this book is.
The intersection of LGBTQIA+ and practicing Muslim was a deeply insightful, profound, beautifully spiritual read. Lamya perfectly captured the uniquely isolating experience that is being Muslim & queer. I am very much looking forward to buying this book when it comes out.

Such a great book! Lamya H (pseudonym) describes her life as a queer Muslim immigrant in several chapters of this memoir that combine interpretations of the Quran with episodes in her life that don´t only show prejudices but also her own inner development. I was touched by many of these experiences that seemed similar to what other totally different people were going through in their lives. Highly recommended!
Thanks to the Random House and Netgalley for an ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.

This was an absolute gem and I’m so glad I read it. The author writes about her experiences as a queer Muslim immigrant in short, beautifully written passages, drawing connections between her own life and passages from the Quran. Although I am not Muslim, I have grappled with the contradictions between my own queer identity and the religion I was raised in, so the author’s experiences resonated deeply with me. I also felt a strong connection with her childhood, her realization that she was queer, and the slow journey she took toward accepting herself and allowing herself to be vulnerable enough to be loved by others. In my opinion this book should be essential reading, not just for queer people but for all people - everyone has something to gain from the words within it. I’ve been on the verge of tears ever since I finished reading it, and I can’t wait for it to come out in print so that I can buy a copy and annotate it.

Phenomenal memoir. It was an honor to journey along with the author as she wrestles with her faith, her family, and herself. I'm not Muslim but felt pulled into and represented in parts of Lamya H's  experiences because of how artfully she crafted her pilgrimage into a single narrative. Highlighting her own humanity by sharing her personal hypocrisies, her complex relationships, and her heart was a beautiful observation. Thanks to NetGalley and Dial Press for an early read in exchange for an honest review.