Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

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

5 reviews

mandibibbs37's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Child death, War, and Death

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

biobeetle's review

challenging hopeful informative tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, Colonisation, Xenophobia, and Death

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

siandee's review

challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and War