Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

Minor Detail by Adania Shibli

23 reviews

lectricefeministe's review

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challenging dark tense medium-paced

3.75


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npolanchik's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced

3.0

I listened to this on audiobook and felt like that was a disservice to the book, I wish I read the words on the page. 

The first half depicts the rape and murder of a Palestinian woman in the 40s whereas the second half follows a modern-day Palestinian woman fixated on this one murder, generations later. 

There’s such detail and description that I got lost with the audiobook and wavered attention in the first half. I do think there is probably much symbolism, metaphor, and connections I missed by not reading the physical copy. 

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lexihan's review

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

5.0


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amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition

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challenging informative 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? Yes

4.0


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bergha1998's review

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

There’s an old saying I’ve heard about tragedies, don’t show the faces of many tell the story of one. I think this book does such a great job of that. Giving us a main character, whose pretty quirky, and showing how hard her life is as a Palestinian. Making the apartheid Palestinians experience so visceral and personal. My one criticism is the beginning half through the soldier’s POV. I didn’t like the writing as much as the rest of the book. Although I get why it was told (for context), the rest of the story was far more compelling. 

“Sometimes it’s inevitable for the past to be forgotten, especially if the present is no less horrific.”

“The truth of it will never stop chasing me.”

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addiesbookshelf_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective tense fast-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? Yes

5.0


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readingwithcoffee's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0

Heavy book that’s not for the faint of heart but important and the author fits so much of Palestinian present and past in the short novella and I will have to reread to get the symbolism with the dogs and the smell of gasoline 

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yomireads's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0


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ecn's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25


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bookishbrenbren's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

During the Nakba, colonizing? israeli? soldiers murder a family of Bedoins without cause and repeatedly rape the kidnapped daughter. Roughly 50 years later, a Palestinian woman becomes obsessed with the report of this crime. 

I did think this book was well-written and compelling but to be honest, the second half of the book was so boring that it ruined the book for me. And the first half was so grotesque, both with violence and body horror, that I was looking for the second half to save it, so was let down doubly. While the book had moments that were compelling, especially the character development of the MC, and the portrait of modern life under israeli occupation, the vast majority of it was just a list of uneventful actions, e.g., "she got in the car, she walked into the museum, she looked at this thing, she looked at that thing," ad nauseam. Whatever the point of that particularly literary tool was, it was lost on me and I can say confidently, it was over-used. 

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