Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Home Is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo

7 reviews

thebookgiraffe's review

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emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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le_lobey's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Really beautiful and moving story about family, identity, and belonging. I particularly appreciated how cultural artifacts of all sorts were used through the book to construct memories, identities, and community. 

Elhillo richly describes food, clothing, music, and dance. The sensuousness of the language was a real strong suit. I haven't read many novels in verse, so I don't know how this compares with others in the genre, but the text seemed to favor the novelistic over the poetic. It was almost prose-like, though maybe I wasn't attuned to rhythmic aspects. Elhillo does slam poetry, and I tried to read with pauses inserted where there were breaks in the text, but I often found myself reading through the chapters as if they were sentences in a prose text and had no issue. I'd love to read some of her poetry to see if/how it differs.
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xread_write_repeatx's review against another edition

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tinytrashqueen's review

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emotional reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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sun_hearth's review

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emotional sad 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

I can’t see myself rating this book anything less than 5 stars since I heavily relate to a lot of things talked about this book, especially when it comes to living in the US as the child of immigrant parents and having to deal with the racism and other things that comes with being POC, I can’t say much on the topic is Islamophobia since my family isn’t Muslim but mainly on the experiences of being an immigrant child in the US and trying your best to not disappoint your family and wanting to be better
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courtneyfalling's review

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emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I wasn't sure how the highly introspective novel-in-verse form was going to work for me at first, especially since Nima starts as such a passive character. But I quickly became engrossed in how she understands the larger world around her and her loved ones, and the second half of the novel really picks up in how it uses this "alternate self" character and Nima's nostalgia for her parents' country. Lots of moments where I teared up. 
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kayleyhyde's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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