Reviews with content warning for Colonisation - Minor Detail

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Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Minor Detail by Adania Shibli

168 reviews

madelonpaige's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

4.0

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lizziaha's review against another edition

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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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rachela_7's review against another edition

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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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hammerhead69's review

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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!

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nomoba's review

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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.

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akrreads's review

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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

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aromea's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad 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? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

muchlibrary's review

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emotional reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

5.0

This is such an incredible piece of literature. Non-linear history, unreliable narrators, research barriers, and so many small details that make a sad yet beautiful story. I had avoided this book because I heard it started with a brutal rape and murder, but Shibli manages to tell this story without the voyeurism I usually anticipate in writing about rape or violence.

This is a difficult story, yet there is still humor and a wryness in the contemporary narrator's journey. I especially appreciated the utter Leo-ness of fixating on an early August birthday, and even dwelling on the potential narcissism involved, which she made a compelling argument to support.

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maiahhtratchh's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective 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

I love sad and emotional novels and yet never in my life have a read a book that caused such dread that the contents of this book settled deep in me like a stone. Current events and the books proximity to Rafah do play heavily into how impactful it was but, even without that, this novel would still evoke such strong emotions in me. The first part actually gave me nightmares of this happening to my loved ones. If anyone is wanting to read about the Palestinian experience, specifically a more historic view point, I would recommend this book. I am glad it was so short though because I don’t think I could’ve handled much more of the intensity specifically in the last two pages it really got to me. I wanted to read it twice in a row because of how short it is to fully catch everything but I think I need to take a break and read something lighter.

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acorny's review

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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