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hammerhead69's review
adventurous
dark
informative
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
I was stuck between giving this book 5 stars or 1. Fantastic writing but the ending had me screaming!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Islamophobia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
carojust's review
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Adania Shibli shows us the darkest side of humanity, a reality we can't ignore, in painfully beautiful and stark writing.
The first half feels blurry, sweltering, full of smells and you feel yourself fearing, unsure what this character will do. He ends up doing the worst, and you see that you're witnessing hell.
The second half is a complete character, POV, timeline and tone shift, told through an autistic-leaning narrator who describes, in complete detail, her world as a Palestinian in recent years. With no sense of emotion, she talks about bombings that she works and sleeps through. We follow her as she retraces the events from the first half.
Shibli artfully weaves details and symbolism from both timelines into each other. It has a heartstopping effect, when you see that things haven't changed. The ending emphasizes this.
Please read this book.
The first half feels blurry, sweltering, full of smells and you feel yourself fearing, unsure what this character will do. He ends up doing the worst, and you see that you're witnessing hell.
The second half is a complete character, POV, timeline and tone shift, told through an autistic-leaning narrator who describes, in complete detail, her world as a Palestinian in recent years. With no sense of emotion, she talks about bombings that she works and sleeps through. We follow her as she retraces the events from the first half.
Shibli artfully weaves details and symbolism from both timelines into each other. It has a heartstopping effect, when you see that things haven't changed. The ending emphasizes this.
Please read this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Genocide, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, War, and Injury/Injury detail
simplyalexpls's review
challenging
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Wow I don't think I have any words for this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Genocide, Gun violence, Sexual violence, and Kidnapping
pikkumarja's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.5
Pieni, mutta suuri kirja palestiinalaisista miehityksen alla. Kirja jakautuu kahteen osaan, joista ensimmäisessä kuvataan israelilaisen sotilaan arkea, jolla etäännytetään taitavasti kauheat asiat, mitä sotilaat tekevät palestiinalaiselle naiselle. Toisessa osassa nainen lukee artikkelin, jossa puhutaan ensimmäisen osan naisen kuolemasta. Tapahtumapäivämäärän ja naisen syntymäpäivän yhteys on sellainen sivuseikka, jota ei voi unohtaa ja niin nainen alkaa lähes pakkomielteisesti selvittää, mitä on tapahtunut.
Kirja on aivan upea! Suuri romaani n. 100 sivussa. Free Palestine!
Kirja on aivan upea! Suuri romaani n. 100 sivussa. Free Palestine!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Islamophobia, Medical content, Murder, and War
nomoba's review
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
I feel like a lot of people missed the point with this book, especially the repetitiveness. For me, it represents how Palestinians go through the same struggles they did decades ago and how history repeats itself. It’s repetitive because history is repetitive.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Genocide, Gun violence, Rape, Murder, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and War
Minor: Vomit
brigg_sy's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
The best book I do not recommend, it is incredibly sad and devastating. Such a tough, but great, read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, and War
Moderate: Death, Genocide, and War
misty_kb's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, and War
Moderate: Genocide and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal cruelty and Vomit
rayinbooks's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Violence, Xenophobia, and War
akrreads's review
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Islamophobia, Colonisation, and War
readingpicnic's review
4.5
I've had to sit with this book for a few days after finishing it so that I could try to do it justice in a review. The first half of the book centers around the subject of interest in the latter half of the book, the Palestinian girl who was gang-r*ped by Israeli soldiers and then murdered. The main character in the latter half of the book, a journalist, becomes interested in the girl's story after realizing that her death date was exactly 25 years before the MC's birth date, which caught her eye and generated a need to know more about this girl. The two parts of the book connect in pieces that the MC doesn't even realize because she doesn't have access to the information from the first half of the book, and it's essentially lost knowledge/history. She wishes to feel some connection to the girl who died while not realizing that some of her actions and sensory experiences are replicating what the girl went through, and this strong desire for connection coupled with the not knowing the connections do exist really devastated me. Some examples I wrote down were the dog howling/barking haunting the MC, and the dog also seemed to be a ghost at one point on page 94? There's also a scene on page 92 where the MC spills gasoline on herself after saying that she wishes she could stay in the area longer to get a clue as to what the girl endured, even though her reeking of gasoline for the remainder of the book is part of what the girl endured at the hands of the soldiers. In the first half of the book, the parts where the main soldier in charge was frantically crushing every bug in his room every night and was losing his mind a bit also fucked me up a lot. The imagery of barriers, both physical and metaphorical was very powerful in this book, especially with the way the MC worried over them in every interaction. One quote that really stuck out to me was "By the way, I hope I didn't cause any awkwardness when I mentioned the incident with the soldier, or the checkpoint, or when I reveal that we are living under occupation here" (56). I saw a TikTok explaining greenwashing before reading this book, and I'm really glad that I went into it with that context since I saw it come up again and again with mentions of Canada Park and Israeli soldiers saying that they were going to revitalize the land because Palestinians didn't know/didn't care to take care of it (not fucking true btw).
The last few pages of the book felt so aimless and wandering as the MC realizes that she truly cannot find the lost history of the girl and that her journey cannot have a satisfying ending because of all the barriers that prevent her from this knowledge. The ending of the book was shocking, but also not shocking due to the violence of this book and the almost expected violence by Israeli soldiers. The only part of this book that I wasn't a huge fan of was how it's written with every single action spelled out if that makes sense. Like, if a character got out of a vehicle, then every single part of that action was detailed from start to finish. I'm sure there's a reason for this method of storytelling, but maybe I can't see what it is in relation to the overarching themes of the book right now. Overall, this is such a necessary read.
Also, side note, I saw that someone added this to the Autistic Reads Challenge, and I agree that I was contemplating while reading this whether the main character of the second half was autistic and/or neurodivergent due to her thought processes, but I wasn't sure whether that was intentional on the author's part. I hesitate because she may process the world in these ways and think in these ways due to trauma and the circumstances in which she lives under occupation and has to be on high alert and think through interactions carefully, but acquired neurodivergence and disabilities due to trauma are valid, so I'm on the edge with this.
The last few pages of the book felt so aimless and wandering as the MC realizes that she truly cannot find the lost history of the girl and that her journey cannot have a satisfying ending because of all the barriers that prevent her from this knowledge. The ending of the book was shocking, but also not shocking due to the violence of this book and the almost expected violence by Israeli soldiers. The only part of this book that I wasn't a huge fan of was how it's written with every single action spelled out if that makes sense. Like, if a character got out of a vehicle, then every single part of that action was detailed from start to finish. I'm sure there's a reason for this method of storytelling, but maybe I can't see what it is in relation to the overarching themes of the book right now. Overall, this is such a necessary read.
Also, side note, I saw that someone added this to the Autistic Reads Challenge, and I agree that I was contemplating while reading this whether the main character of the second half was autistic and/or neurodivergent due to her thought processes, but I wasn't sure whether that was intentional on the author's part. I hesitate because she may process the world in these ways and think in these ways due to trauma and the circumstances in which she lives under occupation and has to be on high alert and think through interactions carefully, but acquired neurodivergence and disabilities due to trauma are valid, so I'm on the edge with this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Murder, and War