Reviews - Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens

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870 reviews for:

Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens

Shankari Chandran

4.23 AVERAGE

emmwake25's review against another edition

5.0

emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

teacup_in_darkness's review against another edition

2.75

adventurous challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

Strong character development: Yes

duncanreading's review against another edition

5.0

emotional hopeful informative sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Beautiful book, and an apt reflection of many tensions that exist within Australia with race, ownership and disingenuous standpoints.

emma_hj's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad 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: Complicated

manjut's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

alli25's review against another edition

5.0

This book is now embedded in my heart.

shreyabh's review against another edition

4.75

dark emotional informative sad tense

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I devoured this, the first third was so cosy and transported me to Cinnamon Gardens, the second third made me so infuriated and the last third made me so so so sad.

I am so sad about Ruben and Zakhir

I know some reviews say that this book is unbalanced and not realistic which I don’t really agree with because it is a story. I think one thing that took me out of it and made it a 4.75 was that the timelines felt like they weren’t right. The stuff that was happening in present day Sydney felt more like a good description of early 2000s Sydney but because the civil war was happening and ending in the 2000s it had to be set in 2020. I guess I don’t see some of the stuff escalating like it did in the book in present day Sydney. At the same time, I wouldn’t know either.

Content Warnings