Reviews tagging 'Islamophobia'

Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris

13 reviews

milliemarilyn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

Beautifully written yet heartbreaking story of a woman during a war as the world crushes down around her. This is a story of resilience and hope even in the darkest times, of friendship and finding community in the worst times. Zora is an artist and her love and dependence on art is prevalent throughout.

I didn’t know anything about the siege of Sarajevo before listening to this book, book some research alongside listening means I’ve learnt a fair amount. I can see why this was nominated for women’s book of the year, five stars.

Content Warnings

bookynooknook's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Set in Bosnia, features families and friends who stay while war and genocide rages. Emotional, destroying and oh so important.

Content Warnings

libby_l96's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

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

4.75

I picked up this book by recommendation, with no prior knowledge or understanding of the Bosnian war. I was immediately captivated by the narrator's voice, the vividness of the imagery and the complexity of the characters portrayed.
I feel like this book has taught me something, which is always a plus for me. There is a risk with historical fiction to go too deep into the details and lose the crux of the story, but this novel adhered to it's core message well.
Heartbreaking, beautiful and poetic. I may have to purchase my own copy so I can read it again.

Content Warnings

minniepauline's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.75

I couldn’t put this novel down. Set at the beginning of the war in Sarajevo in the Spring of 1992, it’s propulsive in a way that the war feels to the characters. One day it’s unbelievable and then suddenly you’re in the midst and bombs are falling. It’s claustrophobic at times, at times hopeful. There is beauty and pathos. The novel is written in a very close third person, present-tense, and I felt as though I was in the action, experiencing everything that Zora did. Given what is going on in the world today, this feels like a necessary book.

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ludivinev's review

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challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

bookbinbaby's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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

3.5

A world I would not know or recognise myself, but an insight to what other people do experience when war installs itself in their homes, villages, towns, countries and lives. Emotionally shattering as you see Zora's world ravaged and turned upside down by powers outside her control but having a very real and increasing impact on her life and those around her, and showing how when environments change unexpectedly what it can do to a person/people. Harrowing to read in most parts, but you're carried along as Zora and her small tight knit community look after one another and try and maintain their sense of community and self expression in times of hostility, uncertainty and senseless violence, as best they can.

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rosalind's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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tashba's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

emmalouisereads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative sad tense fast-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

4.5

This is an incredibly easy read (as in the writing style) and not as harrowing as you might expect. It’s certainly not pleasant, but if you compare it to books like Human Acts, you’ll find it less intensely awful.

I had no former knowledge about this conflict until I read this book. Although the ins and outs of the war are still unknown to me, I’m grateful to have an understanding of how this conflict affected the normal person in Sarajevo.

Parts of the story I wish had been explored deeper, but regardless I found this an enjoyable (? - not the subject matter) read about an important topic.

Content Warnings

miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I really really enjoyed this, a very human view of war and its effects. I dont really know anything about this period in history and i think that reflected zoras own bafflement at what is happening. It’s beautifully written and while i didnt cry it came really close a few times.

Potential spoilers in quotes

‘The threshold between night and day feels uncertain, as if she could just as easily slip back into the night as go forwards into the day.’

‘Surely, the so-called Chetniks will shave off their beards and put their grandfather uniforms back in their dressing-up boxes.’

‘Zora stares at the opening, which is greyish white. The colour of nothing - of the void.’

‘Upstairs, it's the space under the arch in her painting that consumes her attention. She spends an age mixing the exact colour. She exaggerates its roundness and is depth. She wants the hole both to recede and at the same time to dominate in an unsettling way, pushing and pulling the viewer, so that the eye, wanting to be drawn to the beauty of the architecture of the stone arch above, or to the gorgeous yellow of the spear-headed flower in the foreground, will continually resist and slide back, halfwilling, half-dragged, into the cave-like void under the bridge.’

‘Everything came into focus as if with the twist of a kaleidoscope.’

‘The woman lies lifeless on the tarmac, her back curved, as if protectively, around a pool of dark blood.’

‘And although she'd tried to explain, her mother hadn't understood at all. And the more Zora had talked, the more she realised she had no idea why this war was happening either.’

‘She finds a candle in the dressing table drawer, but its glow only seems to intensify the stickiness of the halflight that filters through bin bags hanging over the broken windows. Unfamiliar shadows brush against her shins.’

‘The boxes of humanitarian aid are a blessing and a joke.’

‘Looking back to the fire, she realises that what she took for crows circling the Vijecnica are the burnt pages of books. The fragments of her paintings will be there, too, rising and falling over the pyre.’

‘'Black butterflies… Burnt fragments of poetry and art catching in people's hair.'’

‘Behind the walls of snow the sun must be shining quite brightly, because her flat, normally as dark as the grave, is almost radiant with soft white light. Everything seems more manageable now. Soon the holes and craters in the buildings and roads will be masked and Sarajevo will appear beautiful again.’

‘The flat is drawing in on itself, Zora thinks as she inches closer to the stove each night. It's being taken over, room by room, by ice, wind and snow. By the outside. By the war.’

‘The mountains press close and folds of silencing snow lie on the rooftops of the houses below.’

‘It's hard to tell whether this is the first streak of the rising sun or the reflection of buildings on fire.’

‘But Sarajevo is entirely hidden, thank God. Not a tower block, minaret or steeple breaks through the white. Better that way.

Better not to be able to see.’

‘But the thing is she didn't die. No, she went on, just as everyone goes on.

There are no beginnings and no endings. Just war.’

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