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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
Overall all a great story, well-told. Tough to read in some parts. Charlie is my favorite! 4 Bat-stars
Took a minute to get into it..beautiful poetic writing, wild story..ending stunk :(
Really well written, but I found the ending far-fetched in many ways.
I really loved this book. It was well written and compelling. Hard book to read but worth it.
3-3.5 -- this is a book that based on the story alone i may not have originally chosen to read, but when this book came out and i saw it in shops, the cover was so striking, it's been on my to-read list for along time. i finished this primarily by audio book. overall a nice story, but was not quite what i would have picked up on my own. the performance was good, but sometimes took away from the story for me.
I really liked this book. It was incredibly sad and touching. I enjoyed the way the narrative switched back and forth and gave the two women's impressions. the ending was not one that I would have expected which isn't easy to find these days.
I thought this was an excellent read. The author obviously did his homework on England's refugee system. (The end notes say that he was inspired by a true story of a father that killed himself in detention after learning that British law would not allow his son to be deported if the boy was without a guardian.) The author also did an incredibly impressive job of weaving between two very different female voices and adding levity in creative and appropriate moments. I had some difficulty understanding the motivation behind some characters, but overall thought this was a great book.
One of those books I really did not want to read but truly felt compelled to read. A hard subject matter but very compelling reading
I have no idea what to think of this book. Part of me loved it. I thought the characters were compelling and flawed enough to be believable. The story moved well, and I burned through it faster than I even realized. I wanted to know what was going to happen. I wanted some kind of resolution.
But then it ended badly. After all the build up of "We're going to make it so you're a legal citizen!" Boom. Deported. It takes three pages for the story to turn around into one that ends sadly (I think it's meant to be bittersweet, but I just thought it was depressing). Nothing is really finished. Nothing is ever resolved.
I understand that this is how it is for refugees and immigrants in real life. That you can be free and making plans one day and deported and lost the next. However, I look to fiction as an escape from sad realities, rather than a reminder.
I wanted to love this book. And for a while there, I did. But I feel like Chris Cleave took me out on a date, showed me a wonderful time, and then left me to pay the bill.
All in all, it was a good, well-written book. I'm happy I had the experience of reading it and learning from it, but I wouldn't read it again.
But then it ended badly. After all the build up of "We're going to make it so you're a legal citizen!" Boom. Deported. It takes three pages for the story to turn around into one that ends sadly (I think it's meant to be bittersweet, but I just thought it was depressing). Nothing is really finished. Nothing is ever resolved.
I understand that this is how it is for refugees and immigrants in real life. That you can be free and making plans one day and deported and lost the next. However, I look to fiction as an escape from sad realities, rather than a reminder.
I wanted to love this book. And for a while there, I did. But I feel like Chris Cleave took me out on a date, showed me a wonderful time, and then left me to pay the bill.
All in all, it was a good, well-written book. I'm happy I had the experience of reading it and learning from it, but I wouldn't read it again.