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    Life as a Unicorn: A Journey from Shame to Pride and Everything in Between
    Unavailable
    Life as a Unicorn: A Journey from Shame to Pride and Everything in Between
    Unavailable
    Life as a Unicorn: A Journey from Shame to Pride and Everything in Between
    Audiobook7 hours

    Life as a Unicorn: A Journey from Shame to Pride and Everything in Between

    Written by Amrou Al-Kadhi

    Narrated by Amrou Al-Kadhi

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    A heart-breaking and hilarious memoir about the author’s fight to be true to themself

    WINNER OF THE POLARI FIRST BOOK PRIZE 2020 WINNER OF A SOMERSET MAUGHAM AWARD

    Amrou knew they were gay when, aged ten, they first laid eyes on Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone. It was love at first sight.

    Amrou’s parents weren’t so happy…

    From that moment on, Amrou began searching in all the wrong places for ways to make their divided self whole again.

    Life as a Unicorn is a hilarious yet devastating story of a search for belonging, following the painful and surprising process of transforming from a god-fearing Muslim boy to a queer drag queen, strutting the stage in seven-inch heels and saying the things nobody else dares to ….

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins Publishers
    Release dateOct 3, 2019
    ISBN9780008306090

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    Reviews for Life as a Unicorn

    4/5

    50 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I normally wouldn't review a kid's book, but this one really affected my daughter. She was do emotional during the unicorn parts. I couldn't help but be affected too.
    • 2/5
      There's a story in here, trying to get out, but it's prevented from doing so by some pretty poor writing, some stylistic quirks and a general sense of immaturity. The author was born one of twin boys to Iraqi parents in the Middle East, brought up a Muslim and spends most of the book trying to battle with various insecurities and trying to find themselves. It could have been incredibly interesting, but failed to engage this reader, for several reasons. The writing is not terribly good. The use of a significant amount of what I'd describe as slang, assuming that it is common parlance, prevents it being entirely accessible. There is then the habit of whenever a new person is introduced of saying "let's call him XXXX". I can understand not wanting to necessarily use real names, but it could have been a lot neater to have explained up front that some names have been changed than to go through this rigmarole each time. There was also an attempt at a literary version of the stage aside to the audience, breaking the fourth wall. They don't come off terribly well. It feels artificial; the book is addressed to an audience - adding an aside addressed directly to an audience has an air of redundancy about it. It's trying to be matey and fails. I also found that some experiences were so extreme that I doubted the authenticity of the experience - and in doubting one you find the remainder being thrown into doubt. While at Eaton they are reciting a passage from Richard III. Fine, you may not be familiar with the play, but having done history you surely know enough that monarchs are described by ordinal numbers - no one says Henry eight, he's Henry the eighth. By claiming not to know this in relation to Richard III, when they have previously said that they'd studied History at GCSE, it makes you doubt what else is subject to exageration. The text only works if you can trust it, and I didn't feel I could. I'm not going to deny that there is a lot of angst and conflict contained within this person, coming from their family, religion and cultural background. Howver, it felt to lack any ability to look at life dispassionately. In the book reference is made to "A Child called It" and the so-called misery memoir genre and it feels that this is trying to follow in those footsteps. The last chapter was a more encouraging ending than might have been expected of the remainder of the book. I feel this would have been a better book had it been written by someone who was comfortable in their own skin and more mature in their ability to provide balance and draw conclusions from their experiences. They have one hell of a story to tell - but this doesn't do it justice.
    • 3/5
      I'm glad I read Al-Kadhi's interesting, colorful and touching memoir. Their relationship with their mother stands out for me- the way she influenced them and nurtured them but also how her later rejection shaped them. The writing was not awesome but it was good enough to be readable; from their bio I gather they are a rising star and maybe we'll be hearing more about them in other media in the near future.