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Graphic: Addiction, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Classism
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Abandonment
Why did I give it another chance? I still feel the same way! I should’ve left it on the DNF shelf…
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Death, Genocide, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Murder, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Murder, War
I struggled with the first two thirds of this book, which felt like a protracted setting up of the world, characters, and backstory. I found the text impenetrable, the pace frenetic, and the storyline uneven. The second-person perspective placed me at a distance from the text, and this was made doubly alienating by what an unpleasant character the protagonist is. This perspective also made it harder for me to engage with the unfamiliar concepts and language used in the book, as I felt like my brain was already exhausted from filtering the meaning through a perspective filter.
This changed when I got to the final third of the book. I'm not sure if it just took me that long to get into the rhythm of it, or if the pacing and action substantially changed, but all of the elements came together for me and propelled me towards the conclusion. Was the last third of the book satisfying enough to make up for how much I struggled with the beginning? On balance? Just.
Other themes/aspects that came up for me when I read it:
- ethics of conflict photojournalism
- war and power
- mortality/the afterlife
- homophobia (both homosexuality and homophobia are portrayed pretty negatively in the book and the author also appears to be straight. For me this makes it a homophobic commentary on homophobia?)
- female characters (they are... Not well written)
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Deportation, Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Violence, Car accident, Murder
Moderate: Homophobia, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Torture
Minor: Addiction
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Physical abuse, Violence, War
Moderate: Gun violence, Homophobia, Suicide, Torture, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury
Graphic: Death, Homophobia
Moderate: Torture, War
Minor: Child death, Death of parent
Graphic: Death, Violence, Murder, War
Moderate: Homophobia, Suicide, Torture, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal death, Drug use
Do not be afraid of demons; it is the living we should fear. Human horrors trump anything that Hollywood or the afterlife can conjure. Always remember this when you encounter a wild animal or a stray spirit. They are not as dangerous as you
4.5⭐/5
There are books that make you dream about happy things and makes you feel excited about everything great in the world, and then there are books that keep you up at night, making you question how so much injustice can happen in a place, without anyone doing anything about it. This book definitely falls into the latter category.
I've known about the Civil War in Sri Lanka growing up, but weirdly enough, until reading this book, I couldn't grasp the amount of struggle, the people might have gone through in those periods. Especially the parts where, Maali interact with the ghosts of people killed during those times, it deeply affected me.
Even though Maali was trying to figure out what happened to him the entire book, I actually didn't care about that mystery as much as I loved the random stories in between, conversations with ghosts from various times, even though at times it was hard to follow the narration, with the author's choice of second person narration. I didn't think I would get used to it, but I did eventually and honestly it was a good choice.
Graphic: Genocide, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Car accident, War