Cover Image: Other Names for Love

Other Names for Love

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Member Reviews

Taylor Soomro's debut novel takes on toxic masculinity and packs a punch. The writing here is a bit hard to follow at times, but the overall message hits its mark.

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4.5 It's been a while since I've come across a novel with writing as beautiful as the prose in this book. I didn't actually cry while reading this story, but it ignited such a deep sadness in my chest, it was almost destabilizing. I felt a longing for a made-up city that I've never visited, and a nostalgia for an adolescence that I'd never lived. It is truly a beautiful masterpiece.

I do think that the synopsis on Goodreads is a little misleading. While the MCs relationship with Ali is crucial to the story, this is not a romance novel. It is much more about family and politics than it is about love. The most important and developed relationship is the one between Fahad and his father. This is in no way a bad thing; in fact the story was much more powerful and poignant than I was anticipating. However, readers should not pick up this book expecting a whirlwind summer romance, but rather something much more deep, complex and personal.

The one critique I have about this book is the timeline. It splits almost exactly at the halfway mark between the MCs teenagerhood and adulthood. While I understand why Soomro formatted the novel this way, considering how equally important both stages of the character's life are, it makes it a little difficult to really attach yourself to the characters. Right when you finally feel connected to Fahad at age sixteen, there's a huge time jump decades into the future and you're left feeling a little throw off. And then, because the story is now set so much later in the MC's life, you almost have to restart the whole process of getting to know him. He is now an almost completely different person and you can't exactly pick up right where you left off the chapter before. I feel that the book should have been overall longer to give the reader time to settle in with the characters, or there should have been a stronger emphasis on one of the time settings so as to not interrupt the reader's experience.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend this book and I am so excited for it to come out so that I can share this work of art with everyone.

Source: NetGalley

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This is not my kind of read, I DFN on the 20%, and I don't think I am coming back to read it. I’m sure it is a good book for some people, not for me. I'm just writing a review because I don't know how to get the book out of my library, as I said, I don't think I will be reading it.

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Beautiful storyline however, I got really lost in the choppy writing. I was often confused about who was talking, and had to remind myself of relationships/settings. I read this book slower than usual becuase of this.

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#OtherNamesforLove #NetGalley
Not much for me to say about this book. I gave it a lower score because of the choppy writing style. The story itself is beautiful and interesting. But unfortunately the style in which it was written was not as beautiful. Don't take this in a harsh way. Because like I said the story is great. Certain scenes I felt were unnecessary and out of place. Like the ones when the pov switched to the father. I found his character uninteresting and during those scenes I found myself skimming to get to the scenes with our main character. But by the time I got involved fully with the story was too far in for me. Overall 3.25 out of 5 is my final score. Not everyone will like the work of authors while other people love them. In my opinion this book fell flat, but that doesn't mean it will for others. I'm just another soul living, reading, and writing reviews on books.

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Highly recommend!! This book is a definite page-turner! You'll be left thinking about the story long after you put the book down. First book to read by this author but definitely not my last!

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DNF at 26%.
On paper, Other Names for Love sounds perfect. Promising to tell a tale of how toxic masculinity affects a young boy, a tale of father and sons, and sons falling in love with other boys, Other Names for Love fails at the most basic, and important, part of storytelling.
I'm no stranger to flowery prose—in most cases, I love it. Rich, thoughtfully crafted sentences a lot of times make a book for me. In this case, it ruined it. The prose was choppy, overstuffed with different kinds of styles that didn't flow together. In fact, it rendered the book barely readable, with the writing style coming off as pretentious, as if it is trying to be something it isn't.
Intertwined with Fahad's POV is also his father's, and his chapters are the worse. The disorienting prose becomes even blurrier, with unnamed characters appearing left and right, unquoted dialogue and a messy attempt at stream of consciousness that does nothing but confuse the reader further.
And as for the main romantic relationship between Fahad and Ali, I couldn't find it in myself to symphatize with them. One of my biggest qualms is that their introduction happens in Fahad's father's POV, which, when it moves back to Fahad's, makes their relationship feel rushed and out of place in the narrative, seeing as we didn't get to see his first impression of his supposed love interest.

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Thanks to Netgalley and FSG for the ebook. At age sixteen, Fahad is taken from London to spend the summer with his father, Rafik, in rural Pakistan. Rafik, a large landowner and regional political leader, hopes that with his guidance that he can toughen up Fahad. Fahad shows little interest in his surroundings until he meets a boy his age named Ali. Their friendship leads to a brief affair and then Fahad’s fleeing back to London. The second part of the book concerns Rafik’s rise in National politics. The third section shows us a middle aged Fahad, an author and university professor who lives with his boyfriend, who is summoned back to Pakistan as his aging parents are approaching financial ruin after Rafik’s two failed attempts to run for PM. Fahad has to try and sell the family farm, but also try and find Ali all these years after their brief affair.

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