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ksallaz's review against another edition
emotional
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
estonereads's review
4.0
City of a Thousand Gates is a book that fits in with current events. It’s a book that I had to muster up courage to read. I’m mustering up the courage to write and post this review. To open myself up to an opinion that doesn’t quite follow the norm.
City of a Thousand Gates takes place in the aftermath of two events: one that strikes fear and hurt into the Israeli people and one that does the same to the Palestinians. Through the lens of roughly 30 main characters, you’ll get a story of pride, love, hate, and hope from every angle. I don’t want to summarize more than that because I think everyone should face this story with an open mind and open heart.
If there’s one thing that I got out of this book, it’s that we’re all humans with human emotions that can change depending on the time and place. It doesn’t matter who we are or where we come from. We all can understand fear and love and anger. The tension between Israel and Palestine is so tough to put into words, but Sacks manages to do this through a myriad of POVs. It sounds cliche to say that it’s nuanced, but that’s the honest truth. Throughout this book, there were moments when I cringed because of my personal beliefs but also moments where I stood beside both the Israeli and Palestinian characters. City of a Thousand Gates is messy. The characters are flawed. But through it all you see the power of a mother’s love, pride in community, the fight for power, and so much more. I will say there were a lot of sex scenes in this book that kind of threw me off track. I don’t think it was truly necessary, but it didn’t change my feelings on the book. Also, I want to give a brief shout out to the beautiful writing. Even though I kept referring to the cast of characters guide early on during my reading, I came to know these characters intimately for the little time I spent with each of them. With a mix of long and short chapters, I was able to understand them on a holistic level.
City of a Thousand Gates takes place in the aftermath of two events: one that strikes fear and hurt into the Israeli people and one that does the same to the Palestinians. Through the lens of roughly 30 main characters, you’ll get a story of pride, love, hate, and hope from every angle. I don’t want to summarize more than that because I think everyone should face this story with an open mind and open heart.
If there’s one thing that I got out of this book, it’s that we’re all humans with human emotions that can change depending on the time and place. It doesn’t matter who we are or where we come from. We all can understand fear and love and anger. The tension between Israel and Palestine is so tough to put into words, but Sacks manages to do this through a myriad of POVs. It sounds cliche to say that it’s nuanced, but that’s the honest truth. Throughout this book, there were moments when I cringed because of my personal beliefs but also moments where I stood beside both the Israeli and Palestinian characters. City of a Thousand Gates is messy. The characters are flawed. But through it all you see the power of a mother’s love, pride in community, the fight for power, and so much more. I will say there were a lot of sex scenes in this book that kind of threw me off track. I don’t think it was truly necessary, but it didn’t change my feelings on the book. Also, I want to give a brief shout out to the beautiful writing. Even though I kept referring to the cast of characters guide early on during my reading, I came to know these characters intimately for the little time I spent with each of them. With a mix of long and short chapters, I was able to understand them on a holistic level.
jennylynnwillow's review
DNF. I wanted to like this one- maybe I’m just not sophisticated enough. The premise is a little bit like “Crash”- MANY slightly interrelated characters. The writing is laugh out loud funny at times but, its choppy style, combined with the MANY characters made for a lot of re-reading paragraphs and sections. I just couldn’t get into it. Quit at page 125ish.
shaffe71's review
3.0
2.5
There were so many characters in this, I had to check the list in the front almost every chapter to know who each person was. I couldn't even keep the Israelis and Palestinians straight. Some of them could have been left out and not altered the story at all.
The writing in this was very repetitive and boring. There were some scenes that had nothing to do with the story and could have just been cut to shorten the book, such as the three pages Emily spent describing anal sex with her husband.
There were so many characters in this, I had to check the list in the front almost every chapter to know who each person was. I couldn't even keep the Israelis and Palestinians straight. Some of them could have been left out and not altered the story at all.
The writing in this was very repetitive and boring. There were some scenes that had nothing to do with the story and could have just been cut to shorten the book, such as the three pages Emily spent describing anal sex with her husband.
lpdx's review against another edition
challenging
medium-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
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Violence, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Murder, and Colonisation
bookishblackwood's review
DNF at 50%. Might come back to it later. Too many characters, and the authors attempts at making her points started to feel incredibly redundant. She was trying to show that the Israel-Palestine conflict is incredibly complex, but I understood that just within the first few chapters, and then the patchiness of the story didn’t manage to hold my attention.
isabelawith1l's review
3.0
I enjoyed this book a lot in some places and then only a little in others. I love books that have many story lines that all have connections, especially if there's one central event that brings them all together, and although City of a Thousand Gates had a lot of that, there were times where it wasn't as well-executed as I would have hoped.
ktreadsnm's review
5.0
Wow. This was an incredible book. My heart sank when I saw the giant cast of characters at the front, but it wasn't hard to keep track of everyone and follow their individual stories. She did such a great job of using all the characters to really make the reader feel the issues. I wanted more time to delve into each person's life and mind.
internationalreads's review
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
slow-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
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Genocide, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, and Colonisation