Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad

24 reviews

peppergp's review

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

Lots of really great things about this book, although overall it wasn’t my entirely to my taste.  I liked the incorporation of the playscript-style narration to record group conversations and the stage.  Hammad’s translations of the Arabic version of Hamlet are delightful to read and parse through as someone familiar with the original English text.

I think you’ll enjoy this book a lot more if you know Hamlet (and particularly the character of Gertrude) well, but it is not essential to enjoy the story or catch the more obvious parallel meanings. 

Mariam performing the Hecuba soliloquy in front of the soldiers gave me chills, as did Sonia claiming Wael as her son at the checkpoint.

The narration has a distant feel to it, even in emotionally tense moments, and Hammad leaves lots of conversations unspoken throughout the story.  Her style is not really for me, but there were moments that got to me nonetheless.  I enjoyed the subtle questions about motherhood, grief, and the ways that artists (and academics, and politicians, etc.) sometimes extract from suffering that’s proximal to them in ways that aren’t kind, but are human and possibly even necessary.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence and Colonisation

Minor: Miscarriage, Islamophobia, and Abortion

poisoned_icecream's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Colonisation

jupiterbb's review against another edition

hopeful informative reflective 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation

qqjj's review

challenging dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Infertility, Miscarriage, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Colonisation

jono_lawrence's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Self harm, Violence, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Grief, Colonisation, and War

sangsmiles's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Violence, Police brutality, and Colonisation

liesthemoontells's review

emotional informative reflective relaxing 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? Yes

4.5

I read this book for a book club. It is not something I would normally have read, and I'm very glad I did.

Not a lot happens in this novel. Instead, it follows a small group of people, creating art and pushing back against the injustices and everyday indignities inflicted upon them by a colonising force. 

While doom and oppression are constantly looming in the background of this book, it is somehow a gentle read as the main character Sonia is extremely reflective, spending as much time analysing the small behaviours of the people around her as she does the wider political situation she has entered into.

I love that the book ends where many authors would have begun it, just as the calamity occurs. Instead,

refreshingly, Isabella Hammad gives her reader space to bask in the small, day to day intricacies of her characters and their lives, instead of forcing us to witness them in extreme stress.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Genocide and Miscarriage

cassielaj's review against another edition

challenging emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.5

This book offered a perspective I’ve never encountered and a great insight into a small sliver of lived experience in Palestine. I appreciated the theme of art/theatre as revolutionary and the bleeding of the play’s themes into the characters real lives. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Gun violence, Infertility, Miscarriage, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Abortion, Colonisation, and War

vivalasvaiva's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide and Colonisation

Moderate: Miscarriage and Abortion

apersonfromflorida's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Death, Islamophobia, and Murder

Minor: Infidelity, Sexual content, and Alcohol