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Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'
If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English: A Novel by Noor Naga
3 reviews
markwillnevercry's review against another edition
3.75
I read this book almost right after finishing “The Yacoubian Building” by Alaa Al Aswany for school, so hey, I guess I am on an Egyptian streak now.
As you can already see, I was not too happy with the book, seeing that it is not even touching a four, but I still find it a pretty good read. I wrote down stuff from the book that made me want to hold on to it and it really mattered to me, I even recommended it to my boyfriend, so I guess at some moment I will add his opinion too.
Books can be well written and still be not great to you as a reader, because that is how emotions and how reading works, just because wine is great, doesn’t mean that you like it, and that is very much the way I feel about this book. I think it was well written, changes in voice did not matter to me, because I am dyslexic and was listening to an audiobook the whole time 😎, but I get how people get confused about it. I am hurt and sad about the way abuse is handled, because it is an emotional topic for me and at some points I felt uncomfortable reading opinions that sounded rather aggressive towards people who get hurt. This is not gonna be your healing book, this is gonna be your “do not tell me how to grief” book.
Am never rereading it tho, like, come on, there is a reason why you borrow books from library instead of buying them sometimes.
Book notes:
“He said my name, searched my face the way strangers study the daughters of a niqab-wearing woman, noting the texture of their hair, the pucker of their mouths, aging the children’s faces in their minds, searching for the mother’s beauty.”
“The more they discover, the more offended they are. You live in America? Have American passport? Do you know what people here would give for an American passport? We are all trying to leave and you have the option to be there but instead - why are you here?”
“He cleared his throat as though fatherhood had just been declared carcinogenic and he wanted nothing to do with it: he was doing a cleanse, he was detoxing, he had given up gluten and dairy and daughters.”
Her mum did so much, it is kinda crazy.
Oh to be Sami.
“It’s a city dialed up to its extreme.”
“How much is this today?”
I lowkey lost all appreciation for the book, when the sex scene showed up.
Sami :/
I do not know if I can live through all of this objectifying.
It is a pretty common thing for the youth to collect the bottles of alcohol? Not only in the Egypt or countries, who do not approve of alcohol.
The American is like, so judgmental, even tho she is talking about how she stands up for other people.
I do not know how I feel about the whole talk of how the boy from Shobrakheit’s Arabic is, when the whole book is written in English, so it only appears like it on English. It just feels weird.
“I’m learning slowly that having money and the option to leave frays any claim I have to this place.”
Boy from Shobrakheit :/
She said no, she said no multiple times, I swear to fucking god, I just want a book with no rape.
“I love when she cries” 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩
“You can’t just discard willy-nilly things that once belonged to you, even if you’ve outgrown them.”
“(...) he’s at least as spoiled as he is damaged”
“After years of claiming Arabness as an excuse for what I am - hairy, hard-boned and dirt-skinned, sensual, impulsive, superstitious, nostalgic, full of body-shame and estrangement - I feel I’m earning it at last.” through abuse.
The whole part about making photos and it having consequences lowkey reminds about Umurangi Generation.
He doesn’t love her. You don’t love her.
Title: eeee, 45%?
“You are no longer safeness, I tell him. I miss myself.”
He is actively wishing a sexual assault on her?
The American girl is coming up with too much stuff, no one cares about you trying to look different? Okay, this just kept continuing and this is just a relic of “oh my god, what do we do with the cancel culture?” nothing, we do nothing, we just keep living.
“Those denied asylum often find other ways not to return. They slip like rats into the underground and are never seen again.” :/
Gurl, u did nothing to make him the way he is now, it is just him.
That is a wild way to deal with a person running at you?
The lamp shading is crazy.
I swear to god, that I heard the vagina full of teeth somewhere before, I think it was in a horror movie sum up.
The amount of eye rolling that I do because of the Instructor.
I will hit the next person who says, that a way survivor talks about their trauma should be adjusted to #metoo. No hate to the movement, hate to people who do not understand what trauma is and are just like: “Yeah, I get that you struggled, but you do not 100% fit into my definition of what you griefing should look like, so you better change that.”
The situation above just keeps getting worse.
Why the fuck does everyone just let Tim get abused? This is just not a great space to be, if you are dealing with trauma and I assume that this is what they are all here for.
Candice, go to actual fucking therapy. The books are not written for the reader, specifically memoirs such as this. If you needed the closure from it so much, you should have seeked it somewhere else, not in someone else’s life.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Classism, Death of parent, Sexual content, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Colonisation, Stalking, Cultural appropriation, Death, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Rape, and Addiction
Minor: Police brutality, Alcohol, Murder, and Body shaming
raisinreads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
4.0
I would like to rate this as if I had not read the last section of the book, but alas, the last section of the book was included so.. besides the last section I thought the writing was interesting and beautiful, poignant at points
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Sexual assault, Racism, Toxic friendship, Stalking, Sexism, Rape, Addiction, Classism, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Death, Sexual content, and Domestic abuse
sadiaa's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
So dark
Took some time to get used to the writing style, didn't realise the alternative chapters of the story were different perspectives until a few chapters in. Interesting that the two main characters were not given names, their identity is reduced to the country they've lived in all their lives.
Toxic relationship, intially started off endearing but then morphed into a relationship rooted in domestic violence and love bombing.
Whilst I understand the third part ties off the main themes and the narrative of the story, I lost interest.
Glad to have read it, at least it was a short read at just over 200 pages.
I do understand that this is a story in which you don't like any of the characters and don't like any of the things happening.
Took some time to get used to the writing style, didn't realise the alternative chapters of the story were different perspectives until a few chapters in. Interesting that the two main characters were not given names, their identity is reduced to the country they've lived in all their lives.
Whilst I understand the third part ties off the main themes and the narrative of the story, I lost interest.
Glad to have read it, at least it was a short read at just over 200 pages.
I do understand that this is a story in which you don't like any of the characters and don't like any of the things happening.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Misogyny, War, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Classism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Addiction, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship
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