Reviews

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

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midwifereading's review against another edition

5.0

By far, this is one of the heaviest books I have ever read. It's a story filled with deeply hard things from cover to cover, and no simple answers. Things I can never hope to understand, but only learn to see as clearly as I can.

The writing is strong, efficient, powerful, and vulnerable. It's raw and painful.

The characters are painted with layers of complexity you can only find in real humans. Very few people are either truly good or truly evil. Hassan and Assef certainly bring both good and evil to light vividly in contrast to Amir and his father, who are somewhere in the middle. Good people with major flaws and blind spots that mire them both in suffering.

The ending is appropriately mixed. Neither happy nor sad, but both. Human. Real. Intimate even, with notes of hope. I'm glad for that.

This glimpse into Afghanistan's modern history through the trials of one small family is devastating, but hopeful. It's amazing.

jmitch28's review against another edition

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challenging inspiring reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

elusorius's review against another edition

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5.0

I went into this book blind, which was traumatizing.

The writing in this book is exquisite, the characters feel real and flawed in their own ways. Every scene was raw, realistic and most of them were incredibly emotional and painful. Please read the trigger warnings and make sure you're in the right headspace. But when you do and you are, this is a beautiful book. Devastating, yes, but beautiful.

5/5

sneha_06's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted 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? It's complicated

5.0

kjelu1022's review against another edition

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

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

5.0

sinsbly's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I think my hair turned grey reading this book. I thought this was just about the highs and lows of friendship 😭😭😭 I didn’t think it was going to get <i>this</i> dark.

I can’t lie and say I wasn’t intimidated at the thought of starting <b>The Kite Runner</b> because I thought it’d be too dense for me since it’s historical fiction. I’m not exactly surprised that this book was incredibly well-written after hearing the amount of praise it got but getting to read it was an experience. Reading it felt almost as seamless as watching a movie it only took me 2 days to finish this! This is huge in my books since I take forever to read.

The Kite Runner tugs at your heartstrings and most times, it was infuriating to read. This isn’t a perfect book by any means and I can’t say how accurate its historical depictions are but it’s definitely a worthwhile read if not for its atmospheric and beautiful writing then for the interesting character study on this insanely flawed main character.

mavefranklin's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced

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

4.75

I have never read a book that pulls on so many emotions all at the same time. This is such a beautiful novel that makes you angry, happy and your heart break all at the same time. I could not put it down. I would read it again...a thousand times over....