Reviews tagging 'Trafficking'

Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa

20 reviews

lizziaha's review

4.25

This is a story that spans years, and yet feels like only a very small part of the overall story. It reads like a memoir, and I honestly had a hard time reading it. It was hard to wrestle with how my opinions and pre-conceived notions occasionally differed from Nahr’s. And it was difficult to witness such human suffering. My brain kept trying to negate the seriousness of the events of this book because they are fictional, so I had to keep reminding myself to Palestinians face this and more at the hands of Israel. It made reading this book a very involved process for me. Which is why I think it is a book that is essential to the canon, and should be read and studied more widely. The characters all felt very complex and flawed, and abulhawa gave them space for that. There were some moments of real beauty and lyricism in the written word. Particularly in depictions of the Palestinian culture and people. From the river to the sea 🇵🇸

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, Deportation, Grief, Rape, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, War, Racism, Medical trauma, Murder, Blood, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Sexual assault, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Islamophobia, Miscarriage, Abortion, and Ableism

Minor: Antisemitism, Bullying, Cancer, and Death of parent

abeilleabbie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Grief, and Rape

Moderate: Misogyny, War, Torture, Colonisation, Genocide, Sexual harassment, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Racism, Police brutality, Trafficking, Islamophobia, and Deportation

Minor: Alcohol, Death of parent, Abortion, Pregnancy, Sexism, Infidelity, and Infertility

tahsintries's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Blood, Colonisation, Racism, Rape, Terminal illness, War, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Confinement, Child death, Abortion, and Classism

mia_difelice's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

nahr, a Palestinian woman, has been kept for years in solitary confinement in a high-tech Israeli prison called the Cube. she tells her story from prison. 

 

born in Kuwait to Palestinian refugees, nahr's life takes her from the mansions of Kuwaiti businessmen, to the bustling streets of Amman, to her mother's hometown in Palestine. there, she falls in love not only with the love of her life, but with Palestine itself. 

 

this is an unflinching, unapologetic book that brings understanding to perspectives we don't hear, almost at all, in united states. on top of that, it is beautifully written in a simple, gripping voice--nahr's voice. her conversational tone obscures some of her surroundings but also brings out the poetry and her character more strongly. 

 

against the loveless world details the big and small violences of occupation, as well as big and small strategies for resistance. it's also a love story; a terribly bittersweet one that will stay with me for a long time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Trafficking, Death, Sexual assault, and Colonisation

Minor: Torture

chi__'s review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deportation, War, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Violence, Torture, Sexual violence, Rape, Cancer, Trafficking, Physical abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Murder, and Miscarriage

kateyhb's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual violence, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Colonisation, Sexual assault, War, Trafficking, Torture, Racism, Medical trauma, and Rape

Moderate: Religious bigotry and Homophobia

faridasabry's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Miscarriage, Rape, Torture, and Trafficking

schlady's review

challenging dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

5.0

A painful, haunting, beautifully-written story of a Palestinian refugee woman's loss, suffering, and heartbreak alongside her strength, resistance, and love. The pace of the book is a steady balance of slow and medium throughout, with lyrical passages of devastating events and details sprinkled with moments of joy and hope. This memoir is technically a work of fiction yet it is very much real and historical, a history of brutal settler colonialism that continues into today. This novel is an important book, one that fights back while dancing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Confinement, Sexual assault, and Rape

Moderate: Murder, Sexism, Colonisation, Sexual content, Torture, Gun violence, Islamophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Grief, Deportation, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, War, Trafficking, and Violence

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Car accident, Drug use, Vomit, Infertility, Infidelity, Alcohol, and Animal death

dragongirl271's review

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

“To survive by loving each other means to love our ancestors too. To know their pain, struggles, and joys. It means to love our collective memory, who we are, where we come from.”
Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa

This book is phenomenal. It's absolutely fantastic in so many ways and I've been putting off this review for over a week because I simply cannot come up with the words that can do it justice.

This is the fictional story of Nahr, a Palestinian woman imprisoned by Israel for her part in the resistance against Israeli settlers. She's in a solitary confinement cell called The Cube with her only human interaction being guards and reporters. After finally getting access to pen and paper, she spends her time writing out her life story, which are the narrative flashbacks that make up the book.

Nahr's tale is one of love, loss, desperation, resiliency, radicalization, resistance, and survival. Her story and her relationships are complicated and messy. An entire book could be written just analyzing her relationship to Um Baraq, who throughout the book plays villain and best friend and savior and confidante. There's quite a few full-circle moments in her relationships that just elevate the storytelling of the novel. Abulhawa is so good at working out all the complexities in a character that make them feel so real and human. I've thought about this book every day since I first started reading it and, were it not for the #JanuaryPagesChallenge, probably would've taken a week or two off from even attempting to read another book to simply just let it sit with me.

1st-person POV. Mixed pacing. Two timelines with the majority of the narrative in the flashbacks leading up to present day. A complicated journey of resisting oppression in many different ways.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Moderate: War, Colonisation, Toxic friendship, Police brutality, Sexual violence, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Grief, Abortion, Trafficking, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Racism, and Torture

jess_lynn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Rape

Moderate: Trafficking, Toxic friendship, and Police brutality

Minor: Miscarriage and War