Reviews tagging 'Grief'

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

20 reviews

allisonkhenson's review

emotional informative reflective

5.0

really recommend 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical content, Murder, Death, Gore, Child death, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Blood, and War

blakeandbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

This was my first read for the #Pages4Palestine Readathon, and what an incredibly powerful first read it was. There is something so beautiful and heartbreaking when a poet is able to create such an immense atmosphere of exactly what they want to convey, and Toha did just that. Not even 3 pages into this collection of poetry, and I already understood why it is an award-winning collection of poetry. 

I highly recommend, and it is definitely such an important collection to read. Every poem stuck out to me, but a few that feel very vital to point out are:
🇵🇸 Palestine A-Z
🇵🇸 The Wounds
🇵🇸 My Grandfather Was a Terrorist
🇵🇸 Sobbing Without Sound
🇵🇸 My City After What Happened Some Time Ago
🇵🇸 A Litany for “One Land”
🇵🇸 Displaced 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, War, Violence, Colonisation, Blood, Grief, 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

annelihghh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Medical content, Violence, Classism, Medical trauma, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Murder, War, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and Racism

Minor: 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

crybabybea's review against another edition

challenging dark sad fast-paced

4.5

Beautiful, heartbreaking. I cried pretty much the entire time I read this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Genocide, Hate crime, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, War, Gore, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Islamophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

lidia7's review against another edition

emotional informative sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, War, Grief, and Colonisation

Minor: Medical content

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