Reviews - Un detalle menor

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6.51k reviews for:

Un detalle menor

Salvador Peña Martín, Adania Shibli

4.29 AVERAGE

m_gagne's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Strong character development: No

rhi_r's review against another edition

4.0

dark reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

emmaline33's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Tough read but worth it

Content Warnings

mangoesandchouquettes's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark emotional sad tense

I have been finding it very hard to capture the feelings and thoughts in my head, both after the first half and the second half.

There was a lot of inhumanity in the first half, not overly explained as well, just present through the descriptions of the context around and behaviours of people. The soldier was giving much more thought to his own living conditions and his disgusting bug bite, than to his horrendous actions towards a little girl. I can't even put my feelings into words for this, I had to stop midway for a break once the half had finished.

In the second half, with a hugely different tone of voice and style of writing, we how the those borders between people have continued to expand physically and mentally - things hadn't changed at all, while other things changed a lot. It was devastating to look into what it might be to see war around you and think them "normal", even to the point where the protagonist of the second half internalised (without overtly saying it) the fact she was a "criminal".

I found myself looking for glimmers of hope in both halves, but the sad reality - which was depicted skilfully in this book - is that hope is so hard to find in these situations. We are taken on a journey with the second protagonist to find more information on what happened in the first half, and the fact that she couldn't find anything just shows how small an instance it was - a "minor detail" - in a bigger more tragic picture, that we still see unfolding today.