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shaylac's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
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
3.75
The story follows Salim and Jude who are Palestinian and Jewish respectively. It goes through how both grew up and their backstories to their current situation in life. This book was surprisingly better than I thought it would be and a little sad. The only drawback that I had about this book was that it started off slower than I thought but picked up in the middle and till the end.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Hate crime, Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, War, Violence, and Death
Minor: Classism, Grief, Mental illness, Racism, and Suicide
spellboundchapters's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
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
“Some people don’t feel they belong anywhere. No matter where they are, the are always unhappy. They go from place to place trying to find peace. And usually they find themselves back where they started. It’s the greatest curse under heaven.”
Salim was born and grew up in Palestine until his family had to flee from their home because of the war. Jude is an English Jewish girl who struggles with her identity growing up. One day, the meet and fall in love. But is love enough to conquer their differences, even with everyone else telling them that their relationship is doomed?
This was such a captivating book, I loved it from the first pages — it was beautifully written and both of our main characters were well developed. I just would’ve liked to also have the POVs of their two children. We can kind of see how everything affects them through the eyes of their parents, but I was constantly asking myself how they truly felt.
It’s a very quiet and character focused book, and as I was approaching to the end I started wondering how it was going to end, because I couldn’t really see which way it could go. Let’s just say, I wasn’t expecting that ending! It was one of those situations where I had to close the book and just stand there, with my mouth hanging open and staring at the wall for a few minutes because I couldn’t believe what I just read… 🙈
This book is also easy to read and understand even if the reader has little to no knowledge about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as the author does a great job of explaining things and putting everything back into context.
But what was life worth once all the dreams have become dust?
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Racism, Violence, and Antisemitism
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