Scan barcode
lawbooks600's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Score: Five out of ten.
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid is like a novel wrapped in incoherent and incorrect English where the first half is incredible but the second is a letdown. I remember reading a blurb saying Exit West meets An American Marriage, so after an entire year and a few months, I read Exit West, ignoring the low ratings, but it was underwhelming.
It starts with Saeed and Nadia living in an unnamed city in an unnamed country in a civil war that grows closer the more pages I read. Saeed and Nadia (who are already in a romantic relationship) have to flee, beginning the second half of the narrative, but Exit West is no ordinary refugee story. Do they cross countries or get on a boat? No, rather they discover a magical black door that can take them to any country in the world, so they enter it and land in Greece.
However, they discover another door so they can travel to America, London in the UK, and finally, Marrakech in Morocco. Sounds tedious? It is. If the only problem in Exit West are those doors, then I would be done with this review, but I'm not done. These doors represent an effortless way out, which misrepresents refugee experiences. In reality, some survive but have to face challenges. Some die, and no refugee has the privilege of teleporting out of their country. The characters are difficult to relate with, but adding depth could improve the reading experience.
The most frustrating aspect are the run-on sentences. Hamid, have you heard of splitting sentences? That could help. One sentence lasted for one page and a few lines, so imagine reading that. This creation attempts a heartwarming conclusion with Saeed and Nadia in Marrakech together, but I didn't think they had chemistry. Exit West is another disappointing piece of literary fiction, so my search for an enjoyable one continues.
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Xenophobia, War, Grief, Drug use, and Racism
Minor: Fire/Fire injury
Full trigger warnings: Military violence and war themes, physical assault and injury, fire, death of people in an explosion, refugee experiences, displacement, drug use, racism, white supremacy, xenophobia, blood, grief and loss depictionviolerwolf's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Gun violence, Police brutality, Grief, Sexism, Drug use, Death of parent, Abandonment, Classism, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Death, War, Confinement, and Racism
rhi_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death, War, Xenophobia, and Death of parent
Moderate: Gun violence, Self harm, Grief, Suicide, and Genocide
Minor: Sexual harassment and Drug use
caitonline's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Sexual assault, Death of parent, and War
Moderate: Violence, Grief, Drug use, Sexual harassment, and Suicide
readwriteknit's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Moderate: Gun violence, Violence, Grief, Islamophobia, War, Racism, Murder, and Xenophobia
time4tori2read's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
3.0
Moderate: Death of parent, War, Sexual content, and Grief
sarahdoggen's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Hate crime, Classism, Grief, Racism, Violence, War, and Gun violence
greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.0
Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, and War
lianne_rooney's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Moderate: Racism, War, Hate crime, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Police brutality
Minor: Grief and Death of parent
wordsareworlds's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.5
I also found the layers of storytelling Hamid used very interesting. There is Saeed and Nadia's relationship, and one step out we get to know a bit about people who intersect their lives and often how those people die or another detail from their future, and then also more about the war that has now most definitely come to their city, and then snippets of separate, apparently unrelated events around the world. There is a surreal quality to Hamid's descriptions. They simultaneously feel a step removed and immediate. All of this is related as past events, and without much explicit or long description of the characters' feelings, but the events and their actions make those feelings abundantly clear and impactful. I spent a lot of time thinking about why Hamid chose to give us glimpses into specific moments in Saeed and Nadia's lives, and which side characters he chose to give us more details about. Each choice felt very deliberate and like it built on what was going on around them in a complex and nuanced way.
The book overall was very interesting, and the ways that the doors changed some things about immigration and otherness and not others were layered and complex. I enjoyed Saeed, Nadia, and the evolution of their relationship. Also very, very happy about having a bi South Asian MC whose sexuality wasn't a source of angst or persecution. The book has a sense of ebb and flow about it, and that neither happiness nor sadness is all-encompassing or static, and the doors don't change that but make both more accessible and immediate to people's lives.
Graphic: Death, Grief, Sexual assault, and Violence
Moderate: Racism and War