A debut sapphic romcom with heavier themes I was really excited for, but didn’t quite work for me.
Title: Sorry, Bro
Author: Taleen Voskuni
Genres: Romance, Contemporary, LGBTQ+
Pub Date: February 2, 2023 (UK), January 31, 2023 (US)
Publisher: Pan Books (UK), Berkley (US)
Content Warnings: Outing, Homophobia, Biphobia, Sexism/Misogyny, Racism, Grief, (Past) Death of a Parent, Fatphobia, References to Genocide, (Past) Car Accident
Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the review copy.
★★★
From new best friend to girl of her dreams . . .
When Nar’s boyfriend gets down on one knee and proposes to her a San Francisco bar, she realises it’s time to find someone who shares her idea of romance.
Enter her mother who wants Nar to settle down with a nice Armenia boy. Armed with a spreadsheet of Facebook-stalked men, she convinces Nar to attend ‘Explore Armenia’, a month-long festival of events in the city. But it’s not the parentally-approved playboy doctor or wealthy engineer who catches her eye – it’s Erebuni, a cool and intriguing young woman fully in touch with her heritage. Suddenly, with Erebuni as her guide, the events feel like far less of a chore, and much more of an adventure.
Erebuni helps Nar see the beauty of their shared culture and makes her feel understood in a way she never has before. But there’s one teeny problem: Nar’s not exactly out as bisexual.
A funny, heartfelt and deeply relatable rom com about family, cultural identity, queer love, and the process of self-discovery that continues into adulthood as identities evolve, all in a fresh, humorous voice.
I wish I liked this more than I did. I had really high hopes for it, but I could not stand Nareh, or her family.
While this is definitely a romance, it did lean more toward an adult coming of age with a strong romantic B Plot. This was more the story of Nar’s identity and relationship with her Armenian heritage and culture she’s shunned most of her life, and her repressed bisexuality.
Nar is definitely a messy, flawed protagonist. I appreciated how honest her narration is, even if there was a way too much told to the reader, but I’ve found that to be common with debuts. This is also written in first person, so we are very much completely in Nar’s head and reading her every thought most of the time. Not always needed and definitely not wanted for me, especially because she’s incredibly shallow and cycles through the same inner monologues in a way that made her read like she was a bratty, spoiled, fourteen-year-old. Any growth felt fake and solely for the sake of trying to impress her love interest rather than any actual self-development.
The writing itself also felt borderline juvenile at times—it was trying too hard to be funny and quirky/endearing (but humor is subjective and romcom humor has never been my type of humor). There was also a lot of references and commentary around eating that felt like it was veering into subconscious fatphobia left unchecked. It was very mid-2000s. Nar’s actions also really did not have me rooting for her.
The pacing was also quite off towards the end. Far too many threads get tangled and jump around in the last 20%. Conflicts are very quickly brought to a climax and then resolved (some just swept under the rug) just as quickly, if not quicker.
But, I did really like her love interest, Erebuni, and she honestly deserves way better than Nar, especially with what happens with the third act breakup. I also really liked the side characters not related to Nar. Erebuni and her group who Nar becomes a part of were all great characters and I enjoyed them when we got to see them. Definitely wished the characters and those relationships were fleshed out more.
Another thing I did actually like was the brief view into Armenian-American culture. I definitely have not seen many, much less read, books with Armenian characters and culture taking center stage. I personally only knew vaguely about the genocide and the political issues regarding Turkey, but as Nar reacquaints herself with the Armenian diaspora community around her, the reader is also introduced to some aspects of the culture and history. While Nar has her issues to work through with her relationship with her heritage, the author’s love and care for her culture still comes through. And I loved the Armenian idioms at the start of each chapter.
This really just wasn’t for me but if the premise interests you and you like romcoms that feature heavier topics, I’d say give it a try. I’m still going to keep an eye on Voskuni’s future work and see if maybe her next book might work for me better.
escapistlit 