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jouljet's review
challenging
emotional
informative
tense
slow-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: Death, Grief, Genocide, Body horror, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Racism, Rape, Suicide, Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail
directorpurry's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Suicide, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Confinement, War, Death, and Gun violence
Moderate: Rape and Pregnancy
deedireads's review
challenging
dark
sad
medium-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
5.0
All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.
TL;DR REVIEW:
Brotherless Night is a beautiful and heartbreaking and powerful novel about one girl’s coming-of-age during the Sri Lankan civil war. I absolutely loved it.
For you if: You like books with especially strong first-person narrators.
FULL REVIEW:
Random House sent me an early review copy of Brotherless Night (although it’s out now!), and its incredible blurbs (Celest Ng, Brit Bennett) convinced me to bump it to the top of my list. And holy moly, am I glad I did. This one could easily make my list of favorites for 2023.
The prologue starts with an arresting opening line: “I recently sent a letter to a terrorist I used to know.” And that paragraph ends just as powerfully: “I met a lot of these sorts of people when I was younger because I used to be what you would call a terrorist myself.” So begins our time with Sashi, who is older and living in the US now, but telling us her story as it started in 1981 in Jaffna, when she was a teenager and the Sri Lankan civil war was just beginning. She dreams of becoming a doctor, to help people as her grandfather did. And she does — but along the way, anti-Tamil violence costs her family dearly, in more ways than just lives: two of her brothers join the Tamil Tigers, as does a close family friend. Eventually, Sashi herself finds herself drawn into the conflict herself, in ways that I don’t want to spoil but found deeply resonant.
This book was impossible to put down; the prose — or maybe it’s more accurate to say Sashi’s voice — had a momentum that just reached out and gripped me and never let go. But it wasn’t just excellent on a sentence level. This book is tough to read at times, but gorgeous and heartbreaking and powerful throughout. There are no good guys in war, and it’s easy to condemn actions from the outside, but who knows what each of us would do to keep our families safe? Humans are flawed and beautiful and never black and white, and neither are our choices. No matter what, there is strength in those who fight and those who survive.
Get yourself a copy of this one and read it, please.
TL;DR REVIEW:
Brotherless Night is a beautiful and heartbreaking and powerful novel about one girl’s coming-of-age during the Sri Lankan civil war. I absolutely loved it.
For you if: You like books with especially strong first-person narrators.
FULL REVIEW:
Random House sent me an early review copy of Brotherless Night (although it’s out now!), and its incredible blurbs (Celest Ng, Brit Bennett) convinced me to bump it to the top of my list. And holy moly, am I glad I did. This one could easily make my list of favorites for 2023.
The prologue starts with an arresting opening line: “I recently sent a letter to a terrorist I used to know.” And that paragraph ends just as powerfully: “I met a lot of these sorts of people when I was younger because I used to be what you would call a terrorist myself.” So begins our time with Sashi, who is older and living in the US now, but telling us her story as it started in 1981 in Jaffna, when she was a teenager and the Sri Lankan civil war was just beginning. She dreams of becoming a doctor, to help people as her grandfather did. And she does — but along the way, anti-Tamil violence costs her family dearly, in more ways than just lives: two of her brothers join the Tamil Tigers, as does a close family friend. Eventually, Sashi herself finds herself drawn into the conflict herself, in ways that I don’t want to spoil but found deeply resonant.
This book was impossible to put down; the prose — or maybe it’s more accurate to say Sashi’s voice — had a momentum that just reached out and gripped me and never let go. But it wasn’t just excellent on a sentence level. This book is tough to read at times, but gorgeous and heartbreaking and powerful throughout. There are no good guys in war, and it’s easy to condemn actions from the outside, but who knows what each of us would do to keep our families safe? Humans are flawed and beautiful and never black and white, and neither are our choices. No matter what, there is strength in those who fight and those who survive.
Get yourself a copy of this one and read it, please.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, Gun violence, Medical content, War, and Blood
Moderate: Suicide and Rape
atsundarsingh's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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? Yes
5.0
I couldn't put this down. It was incandescent. It was searing. It made my heart physically ache, and made me do a thousand searches for nonfiction follow-ups. I am 100% going to read Ganeshananthan's previous book. the writing for this just completely gripped me, and once I got going in earnest, it just snowballed.
The family of the novel's protagonist Sashi is complex, and the book spends the entire time slowly unwinding the moral complexity of strongly held beliefs, and unravelling the word 'terrorist'. I was struck by the way Ganeshananthan made the entire cast of characters possible to understand, and you could see consistency of character even as motivation and ideologies changed. Truly can't wait to insist that everyone read this in 2023 and beyond.
*Thanks to Random House, NetGalley for the ARC. Book release: 3 Jan 2023*
The family of the novel's protagonist Sashi is complex, and the book spends the entire time slowly unwinding the moral complexity of strongly held beliefs, and unravelling the word 'terrorist'. I was struck by the way Ganeshananthan made the entire cast of characters possible to understand, and you could see consistency of character even as motivation and ideologies changed. Truly can't wait to insist that everyone read this in 2023 and beyond.
*Thanks to Random House, NetGalley for the ARC. Book release: 3 Jan 2023*
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Genocide, Violence, Torture, Death, Sexual violence, Blood, Hate crime, War, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, and Police brutality
internationalreads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
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? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexism, Sexual harassment, War, Vomit, Gun violence, Medical content, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Death, Grief, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
sharrivel's review against another edition
dark
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
This book follows a young woman who’s goal is to become a doctor, however her country of Sri Lanka goes through a civil war. Life changes for her, her family, and her friends as they all take different roles during the war.
I was unfamiliar with the Sri Lankan Civil War, so much that I didn’t even know that it happened. Brotherless Night was informative and it also told the stories of various people and the atrocities committed by all sides. It started slow at first, and then it picked up to really showcase how normal her and her brother’s lives were. I thought some of the romance came out of nowhere and I really wish that relationship was more fleshed out.
I still recommend this book, especially since I feel it’s about something that isn’t mentioned in American textbooks.
I was unfamiliar with the Sri Lankan Civil War, so much that I didn’t even know that it happened. Brotherless Night was informative and it also told the stories of various people and the atrocities committed by all sides. It started slow at first, and then it picked up to really showcase how normal her and her brother’s lives were. I thought some of the romance came out of nowhere and I really wish that relationship was more fleshed out.
I still recommend this book, especially since I feel it’s about something that isn’t mentioned in American textbooks.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, War, Genocide, and Blood
Moderate: Medical content and Rape
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