A melancholic read that explores the decisions and sexual maturity of a young man - this is a book that I can imagine will be divisive, but I very much enjoyed - there's a direct starkness to the prose and it doesn't sugar coat the difficulties of life - I'd like to read more from the author in the future

Difficult read, basically follows the MC through his numerous sexual experiences and poor decisions with minimal growth.

3.5 stars. I mostly enjoyed this coming of age of a gay young man who is kicked out of his Lebanese parents’ home in the Toronto suburbs when they discover his identity. There was a lot more sex and BDSM than I expected, but it felt important to his growth as a man. There were two things I did struggle with: one, the writing was very simplistic and while that made it an easy read, I sometimes became aware that I wasn’t really blown away as I was reading. Two, the final relationship could’ve been built up a bit more- I assume we are supposed to believe they will be together for a long time, but it felt very rushed, I don’t know much about Calum, and running into Wyatt felt more like a reconciliation than the author maybe meant. Overall, this is probably a great book for queer children of immigrants, and I am open to reading whatever the author does next.

"Between the Head and the Hands" by James Chaarani elicits a meh response. The narrative meanders without a clear direction, and the characters lack depth, making it challenging to invest in their journeys. Chaarani's prose doesn't stand out, resulting in a forgettable reading experience that fails to leave a lasting impression.

I liked Chaarani's direct, simple writing style. They felt appropriate to the main character and kept the pace of the novel moving. However, there's no real plot. It's not even really a character study because the main character, Michael, doesn't feel like a full character. He feels like a set piece moved from scene to scene, most (though not all) of which paint queer spaces and relationships in a negative light. Michael does (eventually) extract himself from bad situations, but doesn't seem to learn anything from the experiences and undergoes no real character growth.

As a content warning, the blurb gets the bouncing between toxic relationships accurate, but doesn't include that the relationships include significant power and age differences (e.g, young adult kicked out of home shacks up with high school teacher).

melancholic and meaningful, but never quite landed. i'd be curious to read more by chaarani, but this one just didn't really work for me.

probably 2.5 stars rounded up! thank you net galley for the arc :)

A powerful, poetic story about losing and finding yourself — this book travels to both ends of the spectrum of belonging from bitterly desperate loneliness to comfort and contentment. Every single page was full of emotion to make something truly touching.

It delves into the painful truths about tradition, religious and generational trauma, self expression and sexuality - all these little things that come together to create our identity and it looks at each of them in a caring, warm lens that makes the reader feel seen.

Michael is a beautiful character — open, honest and vulnerable with a voice that immediately made me care for him. Someone who both knew himself but also had clue who who he was - a youthful naivety and strength in a way that was so relatable and authentic that I could find pieces of myself in the character despite our differences.

The storytelling overall was very conceptual at times- poetic and vividly descriptive. It had that thoughtful, introspective tone that good literary fiction just nails but without the overly flowery language to give a more accessible, friendly tone to the narrative. And even thought it was a little sentence-heavy and jumped between times suddenly and erratically in places it flowed in such a natural way that was subtle and showed snapshots of life in a way that was both mundane and meaningful at the same time.

A beautiful story about self discovery, and the hardship that journey can often bring.

The writing is similar to the likes of Sally Rooney, with the dialogue flat, passive and muted, focusing on the imperfections of the day to day. There was a lot to like about this book, and I would be interested to read more by this author.

I was disappointed in James Chaarani novel Between the Head and the Hands. The book had so much potential, and he had so much opportunity to say and do more for the LGBT community I feel that he missed his mark. The story line lacked emotion; you never really knew what the main character was feeling Chaarani should have explored that more instead of glossing over it. I feel this was a coming-of-age story that many readers could learn from, there are so many lessons here.
I didn’t mind that the writing style was simplistic and that the dialogue flat and passive, it was the detachment form the character that bothered me. I see potential in Chaarani if he works on developing his characters more and look forward to reading his future novels.

Thank you #netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book did try to capture what's it's like to be young. But I did find the main character to be confusing most times. The word choice and overall tone of the book suggests it was aiming for simplistic which didn't come with a good reading vibe because it felf too simplified for me.

Between the Head and Hands was a wonderful read. It only took me two days to read it which is unusually fast for me but I was so curious to know how things would turn out for the main character Michael. The excitement started right from the beginning when within the first few pages we see how Michael’s immigrant, Muslim family wants to have nothing to do with him because of what they think are his life-style choices. Most of the novel read like the journey of a young man from innocence to great self-awareness,it is a gay Bildungsroman. And what makes the journey so fascinating for almost the entirety of the book is that there is something slightly hidden and unknown-to the reader about each of the men he meets. They all come across as not being all there or totally forthright with their intentions. It isn’t until Michael meets his best match by the end of the book, I thought Wyatt is the character most complex,and the long section that covers Michael’s relationship is the most harrowing and painful part of the book. Even Michael’s final meeting with Wyatt reveals a part of his character which totally surprises us. But Spense is also a very odd,mysterious character throughout. It’s as if Michael has to pass through all of these stages of the disturbing kingdom before he can find peace for himself.
A big part of the book which really puzzled me was Michael’s incessant drinking. I have never met a character on the page who drinks as much as Michael does. It’s not odd because we expect moderation from a Muslim, but his drinking is endless. Certainly he is drinking so much because he is unhappy,but doesn’t it get to the point when it starts to affect his health? Perhaps in the sequel Michael will deal with his alcoholism and go into rehab.
I had never heard of this author before reading this book and I requested it because I thought it would be about the torment of a young Muslim fellow trying to reconcile with his religion. But the only struggle Michael has with that is his disconnection to his parents.
It was a very entertaining read and the plot kept me wondering what is really behind all of these very strange men. I’m happy I read it,the past two days with my nose only stuck in this book was a great experience. It’s a wonderful book about finding your feet as an urban gay man,and Michael has a lot of great self-awareness and charm. He was a very interesting hero of his own life story.

Genuinely quite a gut-wrenching read about surviving the odds, rebuilding broken relationships, and learning about the kind of love we want for ourselves. Michael is quite a frustrating character at times as he seems to be on a hellbent path of self-destruction, making bad decisions over and over again. He does eventually accept kindness and care, I found that maybe the element of religious-based bigotry from his parents was under-explored but the story wasn't really about them, so it doesn't take away from the book. This was difficult to read at times and it's a book I think you have to be in a certain mood to read, but a compelling story and interesting characters nonetheless.

DNF - Though I appreciated the premise of the story, I wasn't able to invest in the story. The approach was very simplistic & though this can work in the story's favour, to me it felt rather tedious - like I was waiting for something more.

Thank you netgalley for this arc!

I did not finish this, so I can’t fully review. However this was very blue and emotional. It was triggering for me

between the head and the hands is a complex and fascinating debut novel about a young man named mike and his journey after being kicked out of his religious home after coming out. michael is such an interesting character, and i really was rooting for him the entire time despite his passivity as a character. this narrative dealt with many difficult topics such as sexuality, religion, relationships, etc. but i feel as though it was all juggled very well—i might have liked to see a bit more of michael’s family life prior to his coming out and after their reunion, but it was still ample the way it was. i saw a lot of similarities between this novel and “paul takes the form of a mortal girl” by andrea lawlor. the overall raunchiness and sexual escapades of both the main characters were very similar, as well as the flowing prose. while heart-wrenching and tough to stomach at times, it felt very realistic—every character felt like they could be an actual person, and none of the situations michael found himself in felt far fetched.

i agree with the comparisons to sally rooney i have seen in a handful of reviews. it can be very straightforward and blunt at times, but i love that. i know some people find the style of writing boring or simplistic, but i found that the prose propelled me forward in my reading. there was also an addictive quality to the writing as well as the story itself. whenever i put it down, i was still thinking about it and i wanted to dive right back in as soon as i could. it was hypotonic in a sense. i finished it within a couple of days.

do beware of content warnings relating to unsafe bdsm/violent, explicit, and/or unsettling sexual encounters because sometimes it could be difficult to read, and these instances were even more glaring due to michael’s passiveness as a character.

i did notice a few instances where an editor would be needed such as missing words in sentences, some typos, changes in tense (-ing where it should have been -ed, or -es where it should have been -ed), etc.—but as for the actual content, i was engaged the entire time and enjoyed the story!

4/5 stars!

It's an Okay reading for a debut novel.
I love its realistic portrayal of everyday life; the book covers heavier topics such as sexuality and religious baggage. It's a meaningful and important coming-of-age story.
However, I wouldn't say I like the writing style, and it lacks more character development.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book to read early in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you, Netgalley, for the review copy!

I thought this was a great debut novel and I’d be really interested to read more from this author. The style is very similar to Sally Rooney, whose writing I love. The dialogue also reminded me a little of Fleabag, as well.

It was a great story about connections and how, when someone is left on their own, they can get into harmful and toxic situations as their is no guidance on what is normal.

I think, although realistic, I wanted the MC to be a little bit less passive by the end and to make his own decisions and ultimately realise that he deserves to make his own decisions about what he wants from relationships. There was some growth but I hoped he would have truly blossomed by the end.

Like I said, though, it was a great debut and I think this author will go far!

DNF

I really struggled to get into this. The writing feels too choppy and simple and the story straight away just wasn't what I was expecting from the blurb.
Disappointing, but looking at other reviews I can see that it was definitely enjoyed by some, just not the book for me!

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC

Between the Head and the Hands was an understated yet engaging and memorable novel focusing on Michael, a young gay man who comes out to his conservative Lebanese parents and is kicked out for it. the plot follows Michael as he struggles to find a place to live, to finish college, and to come to terms with his radically new life. I connected with Michael as a character, his aimless, headlong dive into dating and gay life mirrors the formative years of many young queer people as they’re defining themselves and just starting to grasp at their identities. Sure, he makes mistakes and sometimes behaves in an immature way, but this felt very believable given his previously sheltered background and the sudden freedom and relative isolation he experienced after leaving home. I also appreciated how true to life the story felt, there was tragedy and triumph, yes, but of the everyday variety. Michael comes out to his parents on a whim, absent any huge cinematic monologue, and he drifts through the next few years of young adulthood the way many people do, with highs and lows but without any improbable plot twists or Dickensian story arcs.

Overall, the book felt like an honest, compelling, and thoroughly modern coming of age story, I burned through it in one day.

this was an interesting novel, and not at all what i expected from the blurb or from other reviews.

michael as our narrator was so passive. there was a stark reduction in dialogue in the writing, with a lot of scenes being carried out as him describing what was happening around him, rather than connecting with his own emotions about what he felt. that was especially evident with wyatt and the other bdsm relationships he finds himself engaging in - everything about these interactions was him desperate to please and to be viewed as irreplaceable. while that felt very human and realistic, i would have liked to see more explanation of him unpacking that and his own desires to understand truly what he wanted from these situations and to show growth at the end of the novel.

the passivity was definitely a strength though in highlighting the abuse that he was putting himself through and seeking out. the way in which he engaged with wyatt especially showed his inexperience, and wyatt took full advantage of that by not engaging in two sided dialogue about what michael was getting out of it. the one-night stand relationships were just a continuation of the way that michael understood what he thought sex was supposed to look like.

i thought that the side characters though were very well done, and michael's narration meant that we only ever saw them through his eyes, which made the story stronger. the way that characters dropped off though with no resolution, like nathan who didn't make an appearance at all in the last third of this book, was just a strange choice to me.

calum at the end also felt a little shoved in to demonstrate that michael was deciding to choose something different romantically, but that choice was also made for him by calum's immediate pushiness the moment they met. i would have liked to see that connection develop a little slower and give michael a little bit more agency there, to contrast the way his desire to be needed made him immediately willing to sacrifice it.

this didn't really feel so much like a coming-of-age story as it was a twisted search for connection, warped already to begin with the moment he left his parents home and went off into the world alone. it was a good book though, and really showcased the danger that being alone can bring when navigating unfamiliar spaces.