Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

Overall Rating: 2 Stars

Man. When I got this novel, I really thought it was going to be a slam dunk. I thought this was going to be a no-brainer five star read for me, based on the rating, reviews, all the awards, etc.

Even the prologue! Cyrus Shams, high, drunk, laying in his apartment asking God for a sign that he’s real, and his lamp flickers. And he’s like “holy shit, just do that one more time to confirm”, and then nothing happens. At that moment, I w...