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orlagal's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
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? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Violence, Vomit, Colonisation, Cursing, Classism, Confinement, Police brutality, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Death, War, Abandonment, Cultural appropriation, Death of parent, Deportation, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Cancer, Gore, and Medical content
cheye13's review against another edition
challenging
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This is an amazing book. A very important read – though difficult – for any American. Not a five star because it didn't strike me personally; I didn't get anything from the story that's unique to me, that anyone else won't pick up on. Still an expertly crafted and vitally important book.
Yapa's nuance with each character and the world within the book is so impressive, and his use of language is flawless. He strikes an excellent balance between empathy and distance, using a stream of consciousness narration that lets the scenes of intense violence ebb and flow, interspersed with scenes of beauty.
I was way too young to remember anything of the WTO protests, but I could not divorce the book from vivid memories of the 2014 BLM protests. A wonderful book, and an unfortunately apt one for our current sociopolitical climate.
Yapa's nuance with each character and the world within the book is so impressive, and his use of language is flawless. He strikes an excellent balance between empathy and distance, using a stream of consciousness narration that lets the scenes of intense violence ebb and flow, interspersed with scenes of beauty.
I was way too young to remember anything of the WTO protests, but I could not divorce the book from vivid memories of the 2014 BLM protests. A wonderful book, and an unfortunately apt one for our current sociopolitical climate.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality, Blood, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Grief, Hate crime, Death, Death of parent, Xenophobia, War, Genocide, and Murder
Minor: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Vomit, Colonisation, Racial slurs, and Sexual assault
the majority of the book is graphic, detailed police brutality. It is brief and only once, but there is a description of Sri Lankan civil war that includes horrific and ethnically motivated violence.davidbythebay's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
It’s 2 stars for the subject matters importance - absent that it would be a 1 star book for me.
I was interested in this when I first saw it. I should have left it at that. The writing is repetitive and preachy. I do think that it raises good topics for discussion and debate - world trade, economic disparity, government protest - but it was all written in a way that made it tiresome and overly wrought. At times the language was overly flourished bad flowery, which annoys me because it was random. It was almost like a nonfiction book trying to be held together by a storyline that was like having a bundle of papers tied together by wet string.
A huge problem I have is repetitive sentences that just won’t quit! For example, at one point there was a string of sentences that all began: “John Henry, who...” This happened some 5/6 times - I lost count- - and I just really dislike that kind of writing. It has its place and works sometimes, but there was an awful lot of that here.
Another peeve I have is emotional manipulation. At one point - and I won’t go into this - the death of a dog through euthanasia (which I believe was just because the dog couldn’t come along during a move - and I refuse to go back and listen to this again) is used as an analogy for economics and the Sri Lanka’s place in the WTO talks that are a part of this book.
Finally, the ending was incredibly abrupt and feels on the one hand dissatisfying and on the other hand overly emotional. I do not recommend this. For these discussions read any Occupy Wall Street type of publication and any book about these topics and economic positions. This fiction was not worth the time. The audiobook’s actor was very good though.
I was interested in this when I first saw it. I should have left it at that. The writing is repetitive and preachy. I do think that it raises good topics for discussion and debate - world trade, economic disparity, government protest - but it was all written in a way that made it tiresome and overly wrought. At times the language was overly flourished bad flowery, which annoys me because it was random. It was almost like a nonfiction book trying to be held together by a storyline that was like having a bundle of papers tied together by wet string.
A huge problem I have is repetitive sentences that just won’t quit! For example, at one point there was a string of sentences that all began: “John Henry, who...” This happened some 5/6 times - I lost count- - and I just really dislike that kind of writing. It has its place and works sometimes, but there was an awful lot of that here.
Another peeve I have is emotional manipulation. At one point - and I won’t go into this - the death of a dog through euthanasia (which I believe was just because the dog couldn’t come along during a move - and I refuse to go back and listen to this again) is used as an analogy for economics and the Sri Lanka’s place in the WTO talks that are a part of this book.
Finally, the ending was incredibly abrupt and feels on the one hand dissatisfying and on the other hand overly emotional. I do not recommend this. For these discussions read any Occupy Wall Street type of publication and any book about these topics and economic positions. This fiction was not worth the time. The audiobook’s actor was very good though.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Animal death
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