If You Could Be Mine

Sara Farizan began writing about LGBT themes for young adults while in graduate school, at Lesley University.^[1] In an interview with NPR, she said that part of the reason she decided to write about these themes was to explore the experience Iranian youth can go through in a country where homosexuality is banned.^[2]: 1:50 Farizan, who is Iranian-American and gay, said she spent several years closeted due to her parents being from Iran and fearing it wasn't safe to talk to others about her same-sex attraction.^[2]: 1:20

If You Could Be Mine was well received by critics. Kirkus Reviews called it "[a] moving and elegant story of first love and family". They also noted how the books goes to great lengths to show a diverse cast of transgender characters, and never says that transitioning is a mistake.^[3] Karen Coats praised the author's tackling of some topical issues, but disliked how Farizan "ends up telling more than showing her story", due to the main character's "purposive conversations about social issues, surgical procedures, and her options". Coats ends on a positive note, though, as she found the book's take on how gender dysphoria and homosexuality are treated in the country to be thought-provoking.^[4]

Michael Cart, for The Booklist, praised the book's "powerful depiction of gay and transexual life in Iran", as well as how it differs from the views in the West.^[5] Heather Booth, in her review, highlighted Farizan's usage of different speech patterns to help delineate the personality of each character, and called it a "moving presentation of a powerful story".^[6] Reviewing for the New York Times, Jessica Bruder found the author's prose to be "frank, funny and bittersweet", and also praised the secondary plots, calling them memorable.^[7]

In 2014, If You Could Be Mine received the Ferro-Grumley and Edmund White Award by the Publishing Triangle, marking the first time a novel won the first prize in two different categories in the same year.^[1] The book also won the Lambda Literary Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature in 2014.^[8]