Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza by Mosab Abu Toha

11 reviews

dreamer626's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Gun violence, Death, and Child death

robinks's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

This is such a powerful collection of poetry. So many of the images and sentences illuminated the brutality of daily life for Abu Toha. The interview at the end of the collection also helped provide historical/political context for the works, which is helpful for those who may not know about Gaza and Palestine. I found this collection through following Abu Toha on Instagram.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Colonisation, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Police brutality

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Medical content, Medical trauma, Torture, and Vomit

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

lifeinsherds's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

5.0

Absolutely essential reading. Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha has such emotionally devastating poetry while having such a love and adoration for his country and his people. It is not a poetry collection that can be read easily all of the time. It is emotional and covers the poet's personal experience in war and the people he's seen murdered. Abu Toha is not the first Palestinian poet I've read, and yet this has become one of my favorite poetry books. I would also recommend reading (if you haven't yet) anything by Mahmoud Darwish or "Birthright" by George Abraham.

The interview at the end is also not to be skipped. He has some amazing insights to his views of poetry and what the poetic form means to language and memory.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, War, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Murder, Blood, Gun violence, Grief, Genocide, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Colonisation

sarabrogan's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Gore, War, Blood, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Death, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Murder, Violence, and Body horror

Moderate: Grief and Pandemic/Epidemic

ofbooksandechos's review

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Grief, and Genocide

Moderate: Death, Child death, Racism, War, and Violence

Minor: Gun violence and Medical content

Ethnic cleansing, white supremacy, crimes against humanity, intergenerational trauma

zennyreads's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Blood, Violence, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Genocide

nini23's review

5.0

I was almost finished reading Mosab Abu Toha's impactful book of poetry November 2023 when in disbelief and dismay, read about his unlawful arrest at an Israeli checkpoint as he was trying to leave Gaza with his family. The family's passports and documents were confiscated, he was beaten while in jail and only released under international pressure. Another Palestinian author, Dr Refaat Alareer, has been killed under Israeli's relentless bombing of Gaza, while I was in the middle of reading the anthology edited by him - Gaza Unsilenced.

This genocide is happening before our very eyes. As of today, the death toll is above 25,000 with the majority women and children. There are still others unaccounted for buried under rubble. Famine, cold, preventable diseases and repeated displacement not to mention ongoing bombardment and now straight-up shootings by Israeli soldiers are a lethal threat to the Palestinian survivors.

These Gaza poems allow a vulnerable window glimpse into the experience of living under continuous Israeli control and siege prior to this current massacre. The afterword interview with Abu Toha is also illuminating. 

I  join countless others around the world raising our voices: Ceasefire! Stop impeding delivery of humanitarian aid.
Free 🇵🇸 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Colonisation, Gun violence, Violence, War, Grief, Genocide, Hate crime, Police brutality, and Gaslighting

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

informative sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Medical trauma, Medical content, Child death, Confinement, Islamophobia, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Death, Violence, Dementia, Murder, War, Hate crime, Gun violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Religious bigotry

bashsbooks's review against another edition

challenging emotional medium-paced

5.0

Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear is evocative from the title, and it absolutely does not stop throughout the book. Abu Toha takes his readers into the intimate and heart-wrenching moments of a culture, a land, a people under generations of siege. He shows the humanity of the Palestinians of Gaza, a humanity that is often ignored, erased, or disputed in much of mainstream media today. These are not empty numbers or mindless villains dying in the streets of Gaza - they are children, siblings, parents, grandparents, friends, lovers, each their own complex bundle of human spirit. Abu Toha keeps that fact at the forefront of his poems.

I also enjoyed the photographic interlude and the interview with Abu Toha at the end of the book; both provided insight and context to some of the specific details enumerated in his poems. The photos additionally emphasized how real the lives of Palestinians are. 

As I always try to do when I review poetry books, here is a list of my favorite poems from this collection: "Palestine A-Z", "My Grandfather Was A Terrorist",  "Death Before Birth (DBB)", "Displaced", "To My Visa Interviewer", the titular "Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear", and "A Rose Shoulders Up". 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Violence, Colonisation, Gun violence, Murder, Xenophobia, Blood, War, Child death, Death, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Medical content and Medical trauma

lbelow's review

emotional informative reflective sad tense

5.0

This is a beautifully moving collection of poetry. Each poem is lyrical and raw, drawing me into the author's life. A must-read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, War, and Death

Moderate: Child death, Violence, Genocide, Murder, Gun violence, Grief, and Blood