Reviews with content warning for Genocide - The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

85 reviews

lucyatoz's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka was the Booker Prize 2022 Winner.

The book is set in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 1990, and tells the story of the death of Malinda Albert Kabalana a.k.a. Maali Almeida, a photographer documenting the civil war, who is also a compulsive gambler and a closeted gay man. He wakes up, confused and dazed, in a crowded office where he is informed that he has seven moons in the "In Between" to attempt to communicate with his family and friends, to find his photos and negatives that will bring down the government.

The story, told in the voice of an omniscient narrator, was sometimes fast paced and engaging, other times it slowed down and became drawn out. It does include some heavy subject matters including war, torture, suicide, genocide and matters of life and death.

I borrowed this book from Taunton Library and listened to the audiobook on BorrowBox. I read this for prompt 5, Magical Realism, for the 52 Book Club Reading Challenge 2024.

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piripiw's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

emathomas17's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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mwritesdragons's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This is a really hard book to give a star rating because of how difficult the subject matter can be; it is a challenging read but worth the effort.

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lottiegasp's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This novel is a good way of learning about the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka in the 1980s. The first 2 thirds is very slow so I was struggling to enjoy it. It's very much centred around a flawed protagonist, which I don't mind in and of itself, but I was irritated by how much he considered himself flawed and complicated, which was too much of the focus of the first chunk of the book for my liking. But it picked up into a compelling plot that I became invested in and the story resolved in a pretty satisfactory way.

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duhitsamanda's review against another edition

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adventurous dark inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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lilaccoconut_bookclub's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was incredible -- easily one of my favorite books I read this year.

The imagery, the mythology, the historical context, and even the 2nd-person narrative. I usually hate 2nd-person, but this was done so thoroughly well that I loved it. It made me reconsider my bias against 2nd person. The entire story was poignant, intriguing, and hopeful in its own way. Not only that, it gave me the opportunity to learn more about Sri Lanka.

In the end, when he finds out how he died (because that's the whole point) and he

goes to the river to choose his path, I felt the same tranquility he felt and it gave me a lot of peace in my own relationship with death and grief. It made me cry but was somehow comforting.

I'd read this again and hopefully learn even more than I learned the first time.

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