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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Complicated
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The premise is a second American civil war, that started for the most part based on oil. The book follows Sarat through her life during the war, and her role in it.
I read this with a book club, and there was a lot to discuss. It all seems quite plausible that our current world could turn into this one, and in fact many of the dystopian features of this future America are already occurring. Omar El Akkad is a war journalist, and this is evident through the writing.
I had seen this reviewed as dystopian climate fiction. While it definitely is that, since the war is caused by the decline of oil, and differences in opinion over whether it should be used, I wanted more details about the climate crisis. You see a few details about how the world has changed, but throughout the book climate change seems like something that happened in the past and not something that is still occurring.
Overall, the book is quite fast paced and engrossing. If the premise interests you, I would definitely suggest picking it up!
I read this with a book club, and there was a lot to discuss. It all seems quite plausible that our current world could turn into this one, and in fact many of the dystopian features of this future America are already occurring. Omar El Akkad is a war journalist, and this is evident through the writing.
I had seen this reviewed as dystopian climate fiction. While it definitely is that, since the war is caused by the decline of oil, and differences in opinion over whether it should be used, I wanted more details about the climate crisis. You see a few details about how the world has changed, but throughout the book climate change seems like something that happened in the past and not something that is still occurring.
Overall, the book is quite fast paced and engrossing. If the premise interests you, I would definitely suggest picking it up!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Murder
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
reading this book during the Trump era has had a resounding impact that I could have easily intuited, but could not have properly forecasted. America is changing and suddenly our organs are on the outside. we lacerate each other on a continual, habitual basis. we decry the systems that obliterate our civilian personhood but neglect the agencies that could restore it. the divisive fissures that underscore the realms of American national identity are spooling out in another fit of identity crisis. we loosen arrows into the bellies of our political adversaries, our neighbors, on the other side of the street. who are we, as a people, in this moving interim of anxiety, distrust, resistance? how does this end? does it even really end?
I truthfully can't really review this book in a conventional sense, laying out the plot like note cards on a table top to comfortably assert to a prospective reader the lessons of becoming and unbecoming that they will learn as they set out into the war-time landscape of an America that feels real and somehow isn't, but could be. the book will wrought it's own unique injuries to the reader that approaches it during an ever-growing hilltop of political unease, they will walk away with their own conscience and comfort dislodged, with their own stony disquietude as the prescient BREAKING NEWS feed churns out another presidential aspersion or scandal - typically both.
reading the story of Sarat, an individual hardened into their own mercurial armor during the upheaval that metamorphosized both her family and country, is like swallowing rocks. it's practically indigestible. the way she moves through her pain is challenging. watching her childhood innocence be liquidated in the channel of approaching war is not easy. seeing the way the war colonized her mind and led her to make intractable choices is agonizing. it simultaneously makes us understand the dignity and the abhorrence in the decisions made during times of formidable conflict. this book is farsighted while staying close to where we are; it's watchful, it's necessary, and it rings so close to chorus of tangibility that it becomes a speculative weapon we must use to expose ourselves to the fact that we can descend into a division from which we may not be able to return.
I truthfully can't really review this book in a conventional sense, laying out the plot like note cards on a table top to comfortably assert to a prospective reader the lessons of becoming and unbecoming that they will learn as they set out into the war-time landscape of an America that feels real and somehow isn't, but could be. the book will wrought it's own unique injuries to the reader that approaches it during an ever-growing hilltop of political unease, they will walk away with their own conscience and comfort dislodged, with their own stony disquietude as the prescient BREAKING NEWS feed churns out another presidential aspersion or scandal - typically both.
reading the story of Sarat, an individual hardened into their own mercurial armor during the upheaval that metamorphosized both her family and country, is like swallowing rocks. it's practically indigestible. the way she moves through her pain is challenging. watching her childhood innocence be liquidated in the channel of approaching war is not easy. seeing the way the war colonized her mind and led her to make intractable choices is agonizing. it simultaneously makes us understand the dignity and the abhorrence in the decisions made during times of formidable conflict. this book is farsighted while staying close to where we are; it's watchful, it's necessary, and it rings so close to chorus of tangibility that it becomes a speculative weapon we must use to expose ourselves to the fact that we can descend into a division from which we may not be able to return.
Envisioning a bleak future for a United States shattered by a second civil war, American War definitely will find a timely release in April 2017. Focusing on one family, and specifically one girl who comes of age and is radicalized in a displaced persons camp, all with harsh consequences for herself and her family.
Overall, I found it hard to connect with the story, as many details are left to the imagination or to be assumed by the reader. Also, the inclusion of "factual sources" didn't really work for me as it does more effectively in other dystopian or post-apocalyptic novels (see Mira Grant's Feed Series).
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.
Overall, I found it hard to connect with the story, as many details are left to the imagination or to be assumed by the reader. Also, the inclusion of "factual sources" didn't really work for me as it does more effectively in other dystopian or post-apocalyptic novels (see Mira Grant's Feed Series).
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.
American War is a novel that is set in a future America, that is war-struck, divided, and desolate. This book gave a really different account of the "futuristic" America that we assume that we will have. I went back and forth between being really frustrated with the writing style and the characters, and really recognizing how this could be an account of what our world could one day be. I'm glad I finally gave this book a try. 3.5 stars.
Set 60+ years from now, this is a dystopian tale of a second American civil war. It follows one girl and her family through the years of conflict in a story that is harrowing, no-holds-barred and terrifyingly realistic. I just read that the author has previously worked as a war journalist and I think it shows: unlike other futuristic novels there is no aspect of fantasy here, and everything feels plausible (even likely). I read it with a constant feeling of unease and sometimes fear. I think it's an important read, worth taking time over, but hard to process.
One of the most stunning books I have read in ages. El Akkad is a masterful world building, telling us so much by hinting at the wider world outside his story without letting it draw away from his tragic, deeply affecting tale. A thought provoked for the ages, American War is haunting, poetic, and beautiful. An absolute must.