If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This should be required reading for everyone. This is the kind of thing my teachers should have given the class back in high school rather than Lord of the Flies or The Great Gatsby, and other male dominated books that I found did not relate to my life in any way, nor give me any insight into what real life was for others. The depth of this book comes from a soul who lives in a country ruled by misogynistic males, who prize their women for what a woman can do for them. Those who follow a religion written by the same type of misogynists.
The main character of this story is an example of the least of the least people. She discovers when she is 10 that she is in love and wants to marry her best friend. When she tells her mom that fact her mother tells her it’s a sin and never to speak of it again. So she becomes spiritually and emotional alone. Even the person she loves denies her hope of continuing a relationship into adulthood.
If You Could Be Mine includes other LGBTQ beings and how they deal with the issues even our own American counterparts deal with, but in Iran and that part of the world, the bigotry is even deeper. Sara Farizan has written a believable story and opened our eyes to the plight of our Iranian sisters. I think that fiction is often easier to deal with than any other media. It is the next best thing to climbing inside another person and finding out how it is to live someone else’s life. Isn’t that how Reality TV started? We all are curious as to how others live.
I was surprised by the ending. I wanted more, yet could see it was a more realistic ending. I wish for a part two to see what happened next. Not that we were left on a cliffhanger, but because of loving the character so much I want to see more about this character’s life as an adult.
Please read this if you get the chance. It is free through Kindle Unlimited. But I plan to buy the Kindle and Audible versions when I get the chance. It is worth a second read.
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