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4.57 AVERAGE
4.57 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-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:
Complicated
I had to keep reminding myself this was a fictional book. It truly felt like someone's story, like their true, honest story of turmoil and war and survival but it's coming from someone who's a political prisoner. There's just so much raw emotion and ferocity, it was deeply moving and deeply unsettling. This is a book that will root itself inside your mind and soul and you'll be thinking about it all the time. I genuinely admire the main character.
challenging
emotional
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Abortion
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
The character development of Nar is impeccable. She felt real! I loved (and mourned) learning more about the Palestinian diaspora and liberation struggle. This is both a hero's journey and love story set in revolutionary and anti-colonial resistance - both exciting and devestating to read. The passage about the temporary and surprising utopia living in Kuwait under Sadam Hussein's occupation when the upper classes had fled was an all-time favorite excerpt. The book imparts a deeper understanding of Palestinian life living under the deplorable Israeli occupation. The sense of injustice is maddening! The only thing I wanted was more complexity and flaws in Bilal's character.
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Abortion, Colonisation, War
Beautiful and heartbreaking. And intense. These stories are so important because they illustrate what it actually feels like to be Palestinian - to never be able to live free in their own homeland, to be arrested and tortured and surveilled, to be humiliated at checkpoints or to be humiliated, then not even allowed in at all.
One could argue that this has always been about ethnic cleansing, and it's intensified over the last 130 days with 36,000 unarmed civilians killed. Israel has declared openly that they will never stop if there's even a hint that Palestine may get its own state.
I feel this more deeply from having read these novels. I really cannot recommend them enough, and all of them really HAVE been 5-star reads in my opinion.
One could argue that this has always been about ethnic cleansing, and it's intensified over the last 130 days with 36,000 unarmed civilians killed. Israel has declared openly that they will never stop if there's even a hint that Palestine may get its own state.
I feel this more deeply from having read these novels. I really cannot recommend them enough, and all of them really HAVE been 5-star reads in my opinion.