Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

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

11 reviews

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

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

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

lizzy_elaineee's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Genocide, and Colonisation

Moderate: Genocide, Islamophobia, War, Colonisation, Medical trauma, and Death

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

bladelikesbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

In this book - partially a collection of poems, partially interview answers - Abu Toha tells us of his personal life experience from a young age to present times. 

Abu Toha’s writing is very beautiful and incredibly easy to follow (which i greatly appreciate). His writing show his faily life living in refugee camps in Gaza and the true horror of it, while also showing the beauty of his country, community, and religion. 

I really enjoyed the interview protion of this book as i was able to understang his use of poetry better. Abu Toha’s has lived through so many attacks from Israel that he just cobsiders it a part of his daily routine which is so horrifying and sad. 

I think this collection gives such good insight into daily life in Gaza and generational trauma. If you’re looking to learn more about the Palestinian people’s experienced of life in Gaza, or you’re looking into poetry that’s easy to follow, definitely check out this book:)) 

TWs - Blood; Body Horror; Bombing; Child Death (Graphic); Colonisation; Corpses; Covid; Death; Ethnic Cleansing; Genocide; Grief; Loss Of A Loved One; Medical Content; Medical Trauma; Murder; Violence; War

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Violence, Child death, Body horror, Colonisation, Grief, Murder, and War

Moderate: Blood

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

katharina90's review

challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

5.0

There are so many powerful and deeply moving poems in this collection, I won't even try to name them all.

I also really enjoyed the interview with the poet.

"Through it all, the strawberries have never stopped growing."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and War

Moderate: Medical trauma, Child death, and Colonisation