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bookbelle5_17's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Review of Damascus Gate
By: Robert Stone
This is normally not my thing, but the plot sounded intriguing and its relevant to what is going in the middle east today. American journalist Christopher Lucas travels to Jerusalem to write a book about religious fanatics but finds himself caught in the middle of the war between the Muslims, Christians, and the Jews. He falls for this beautiful singer Sonia, who is part of one of these religious groups, and pair work together to stop a bomb threat that her group might be part of.
As I said, this not normally my type of read but the discussion of religion and the wars for religious power in Israel sounded like an intriguing plot, especially considering the horrifying events that happened in 2023. Lucas is trying to learn and understand, but his religious background, being born Jewish, and being an American making him a target. He is right in the middle of the scary mess that was going on in the 90s. Sonia is also a target as she is black and Jewish, but her being black makes the Jewish community see her as a fraud. She is someone with strong and it is not surprising that she gets caught and what clearly is a religious cult. This cult seems harmless at first until we learn what they, along with all the other religious groups will do, to prove their religion is the superior one. There is no villain per say, but we do have some characters who what they believe they have to do for things to work in their favor. Stone spends a lot of time immersing you in Jerusalem and showing the horrors of what was going on there and probably still going on. There is a quite a bit of discussion on this holy city and religious justice. Each group believes themselves to be the true people of God.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Religious bigotry, Violence, Gaslighting, Child death, Racial slurs, Addiction, Cursing, Genocide, Murder, Antisemitism, and War
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