I almost gave up on this book because, while stylishly written, it seemed to be yet one more book about identity struggles as a immigrant/adoptee/religious and racial minority/gay man. I held on because of a shapeshifting hallucination named Brother that introduced a novel element into the usual fare. I wanted to see what Brother meant and how it was going to be used in the narrative.

I had no idea that halfway through the book the genre would change from literary identity exploration to dystopian political thriller. That whole half of the story was deeply undersold in the blurb.

No spoilers, but the religious element throughout the story was a big draw for me to begin with -- I am fascinated by gay muslim stories bc I like to see how evangelical christianity's sister religion handles the lgbt issue -- and then when politics, power, and money got mixed in I was like "this is my catjam!"