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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
Wow I didn't realize before that I read this book for the second time on the two year anniversary of the first time I read it :)
Reading it a second time offered a lot of insight. I was able to recognize several clues about the upcoming events that I didn't understand the first time. I like Sarat, believe it or not. I see her motivations shape as life beats her down again and again. El Akkad is from Cairo, so he has personal connection to the unrest in the Middle East. It doesn't take a PhD in literature to see some of the connections he's trying to make. When people are forced into violent, oppressive situations, they do what they can to survive. And it's not a far jump from there to see the need for revenge take root. As the book says, "if it had been you, you’d have done no different." I don't pretend to be an expert on the Middle East, but I think El Akkad is trying to show us (Americans) how easy it is to judge the people in his region as "backwards," "intrinsically violent," or "jihadists" when they are just responding to their environment. An environment, might I add, that has been explicitly manipulated by the United States for a century, and by Europe for centuries before that. So yeah, Sarat did what she had to do.
Metaphorical implications aside, the book was stunningly well-written. The prose is beautiful. His characters jump to life; each has their own alliances, motives, personalities, and ties to the land and to people. It's heavy, to be sure, but it's also engaging. The news inserts do a good job of providing context for the world-building that El Akkad creates.
Reading it a second time offered a lot of insight. I was able to recognize several clues about the upcoming events that I didn't understand the first time. I like Sarat, believe it or not. I see her motivations shape as life beats her down again and again. El Akkad is from Cairo, so he has personal connection to the unrest in the Middle East. It doesn't take a PhD in literature to see some of the connections he's trying to make. When people are forced into violent, oppressive situations, they do what they can to survive. And it's not a far jump from there to see the need for revenge take root. As the book says, "if it had been you, you’d have done no different." I don't pretend to be an expert on the Middle East, but I think El Akkad is trying to show us (Americans) how easy it is to judge the people in his region as "backwards," "intrinsically violent," or "jihadists" when they are just responding to their environment. An environment, might I add, that has been explicitly manipulated by the United States for a century, and by Europe for centuries before that. So yeah, Sarat did what she had to do.
Metaphorical implications aside, the book was stunningly well-written. The prose is beautiful. His characters jump to life; each has their own alliances, motives, personalities, and ties to the land and to people. It's heavy, to be sure, but it's also engaging. The news inserts do a good job of providing context for the world-building that El Akkad creates.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-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:
Yes
The first half of this book was really tough to get through - it just seemed to drag on and I found myself not wanting to finish reading it. The last half was excellent. The pace picked up and the characters became much more interesting.
This is the only DNF I've ever given above 2 stars.
I've given 3 stars because I genuinely feel that this is a good novel, but with #Drumpf as president, it's all hitting entirely too close to home. DNF because I was on the verge of sacrificing my mental health to finish. Will come back to it.... hopefully sooner rather than later. <3
I've given 3 stars because I genuinely feel that this is a good novel, but with #Drumpf as president, it's all hitting entirely too close to home. DNF because I was on the verge of sacrificing my mental health to finish. Will come back to it.... hopefully sooner rather than later. <3
I am very much in two minds about this. It has terrific reviews, but...
The lead character Sarat is very poorly sketched out, she is filled with hate and vengeance at the beginning, and she's filled with hate and vengeance at the end.
Is this a realistic portrayal of the sorts of hatreds that fuel civil wars? Probably, yes? But is it a compelling story, not for me.
Also you know when you read a book and it reads like a screenplay in waiting and feels like it's been written so that it can be optioned to a studio? This is one of those.
It is however quite a realistic portrayal of how society is likely to collapse in the face of the climate emergency, which... good news everyone, we're all doomed?
I think I need to read something with spaceships in next.
The lead character Sarat is very poorly sketched out, she is filled with hate and vengeance at the beginning, and she's filled with hate and vengeance at the end.
Is this a realistic portrayal of the sorts of hatreds that fuel civil wars? Probably, yes? But is it a compelling story, not for me.
Also you know when you read a book and it reads like a screenplay in waiting and feels like it's been written so that it can be optioned to a studio? This is one of those.
It is however quite a realistic portrayal of how society is likely to collapse in the face of the climate emergency, which... good news everyone, we're all doomed?
I think I need to read something with spaceships in next.
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The prologue of this book tells us exactly what it is about: ruin. And though bleak, and sad, and utterly ruinous, this book is also beautiful, and wondrous, and true.
And it's ingenious, in its structure, as the most important plot twist is buried in the story so deftly that you are heartbroken anew at the capacity for revenge and grief and yet you aren't surprised at all. It truly is a gorgeous story about our limitless capacity for inhumanity.
2023: Damn, I give good review.
I have to say that in this reread, I found the writing still fabulous, the story still intriguing (I'm a complete sucker for alternate histories with the use of multiple fake sources), but so so bleak, and it affected me more this time-- maybe because the thought of Civil War in this age of Trumpism isn't out of the realm of possibility. I still loved it, but it didn't knock me flat like the first time I read it. I guess that's why we (well, I) reread. I find it a fascinating exercise.
And it's ingenious, in its structure, as the most important plot twist is buried in the story so deftly that you are heartbroken anew at the capacity for revenge and grief and yet you aren't surprised at all. It truly is a gorgeous story about our limitless capacity for inhumanity.
2023: Damn, I give good review.
I have to say that in this reread, I found the writing still fabulous, the story still intriguing (I'm a complete sucker for alternate histories with the use of multiple fake sources), but so so bleak, and it affected me more this time-- maybe because the thought of Civil War in this age of Trumpism isn't out of the realm of possibility. I still loved it, but it didn't knock me flat like the first time I read it. I guess that's why we (well, I) reread. I find it a fascinating exercise.
After listening to Tahmoh Penikett's defense of this novel on Canada Reads, I don't know what I was expecting. Maybe just more. He was right about it giving an eye-opening account of the evils of the recruitment of child soldiers and I think the portrayal generated sympathy and understanding. I think he overblew how useful this novel's environmental themes are. It is set 50 years into the future when global warming has already caused significant damage to coasts and moved populations, but this is really just a backdrop, not a theme.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
this has to be the best dystopian fiction I’ve ever read. This book is in touch with HUMANITY. It’s less abt the disaster or the novelty of the dystopia and more abt the people whose lives are warped because of it…. I’m disturbed