4 stars

This is an understated but powerful read.

Shirin and Kian are close in high school, but they experience both separate and mutual traumas that force them apart. When they reconnect a decade later, their bond is stronger than ever, and readers - along with both characters - are left wondering what the future holds for these two characters, who are richly developed on their own but may be even better together.

While this book is billed as a romance, and that is undeniably a vital and intriguing part of this read, the most gripping element for me is the separate character development of each half of this couple. Shirin's story, including her experiences in the publishing industry, is particularly arresting. I expect that when I reflect on this book over time, it'll be the full development of each character even more than their compelling connections to each other that really stands out for me.

My interest in this book was piqued by comparisons to other reads I've enjoyed, and I'm so glad I had the chance to dig in. The audiobook is exceptionally well narrated, and the pacing, timbre, and measured presentation add so much to the experience. I appreciate having had the opportunity to engage, and I know others will, too.

I am so happy that I picked up this audiobook to listen to. It was the 5 star read that I needed this year. The audiobook was a great listen and I enjoyed the narrators (I can be very picky with that). The writer did a good job with the characters and finding so many things that everyone can relate to — things left unsaid between people that should have been said, career ethics, falling out of love with your career or job, the reality of racism around every corner, and the trauma you carry with yourself. The writer truly did a great job making me fall for these character and see a small part of myself within them.

There are moments in our lives that have incredible ripple effects. There are those that are obvious and immediate. What is more shattering than that are the things that we bury inside. it's the trickle effects from those large events and the things we never dig deep into or share with those around us and to ourselves. It's far bigger than just a lackadaisical pondering of 'what if's. "Things Left Unsaid" is two journeys reckoning with the fallout from these things and the path to growing beyond it. It is a novel about embracing the future while acknowledging and accepting the past.

When events accumulating in their final year of secondary school, Shirin and Kian find their fast but deep friendship torn to pieces. When they meet a decade later by chance they have taken very different paths in life that include, but are not limited to, decisions made to cope with the events that had happened leading up to and during that year. This book could very well slip into a second chance romance with events fueled by miscommunication. Instead it unwinds a very believable tale of how something so horribly common in nature with responses completely natural can create such chasms.

That's not to say that the potential of romance between the two is nonexistent. In fact, it is central to the plot. And, to be frank, that element is nearly always the least interesting element of a story in in the realm of 'women's fiction'. Usually it's what keeps me weary of it in fact. "Things Left Unsaid" tackles this theme from a refreshing angle focusing not so much on a second chance as to show how much these people have helped the other develop towards the best versions of themselves not in a wishy washy manner but in how someone who is important and sticks by you can shape your life without or before the start of what we normally frame as a romantic-physical relationship.

As vital as this was I found the way these two navigated the way their cultural spaces existed around them and how their parents experiences molded how their lives were set up to be of much greater interest. I valued how much respect was shown to religion and the choices around it. It is so common to see either characters completely rejecting faith or a book reaching nearly conversion attempt dedication. This was so much more balanced and in some ways so much more endearing.

Disclaimer, I have no connection to Iran other than an interest in the country and its people that has developed over the past few years. I've been attempting to educate myself more on the area, its history, and trying to get past the depictions of the country from the polar extremes different countries have in attitude around it. To read about a woman traveling back to Tehran so relatively openly given the current state of affairs felt so much like fantasy and at time heartbreaking in that the environment of the time was just second nature 'it is what it is' and accepted at the casual highlighting of the gaps in medical care, in judicial punishments, and graffiti. I felt it very insightful.

The other huge theme of course is the inequities within the publishing industry. I must confess that while I found it gutsy for a publisher to bring even itself into question with talks of performative inclusion being prevalent i found it incredibly curious when I noticed the publisher to put this forward into the world. While the book deals with this beautifully, I admit I hope this is not a 'get out of jail free' card or similar surface change and is rather a symbol of the publisher starting to take steps to self examine and truly correct practices.

In the end this was a highly satisfactory read that had a pleasant twist in how it paced out its story and how two people evolve inside their own lives and together.