Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Minor Detail by Adania Shibli

37 reviews

kestrel_of_the_pages's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 Short but difficult read.

The first half follows the point of view from a commanding officer of the Israeli occupying army a year after the Nakba, 1949, and the second half takes place in what feels like early 2000's and follows a Palestinian reporter trying to solve a mystery caused by said CO.

The commanding officer is heinous. The deeds depicted are absolutely atrocious and true to what many Bedouin, Arab, Palestinian women of the time faced. I was physically ill through most of the two stories and the end had me in furious tears. It was so difficult to read knowing this is rooted in reality, the weight of the importance is tangible despite the size of this novella.

A relentlessly true story that is approachable enough to get people to read the daily reality Palestinians have been subjected to. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

sadhbh2525's review against another edition

dark 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Vomit

sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

challenging dark informative 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation

Moderate: Gun violence, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Police brutality

lizziaha's review against another edition

4.25

Like a fly caught in a spider’s web, I got trapped without even realizing it in the minor details of this story. The mundanity of this story is the great genius of this book and yet also the thing that makes it hard to read. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. Horror upon horror. 
While I was reading the first section, I wanted so badly to get past it, and onto the next section, but as soon as I did, I found myself retracing the story’s steps, wanting to go back to check the minor details, to compare them over and over again. The experience was deeply harrowing, and yet, I think I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Murder, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and War

rachela_7's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Police brutality, 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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Murder, and War

peckreadsbooks's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual violence, and Murder

Minor: Police brutality

kristakp's review

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Confinement, Violence, Xenophobia, War, and Injury/Injury detail

emeliajane97's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Murder, Colonisation, and War

robinks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Phew, this little novel packs a punch. Adania does a masterful job of narrating from the perspectives of two very different characters. What happened and continues to happen in Palestine is horrific. #FreePalestine

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail