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singlier's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
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? No
4.5
The Thirty Names of Night 4.5/5 🪶s
Oh my goodness. I loved this book. It is beautiful: a reflective mingling of past and present explored through alternating POVs of a two Syrian artists: one, a sapphic immigrant who fled Syrian during the French/Syrian war and the other, a closeted trans man struggling under the grief of his mother's death. It is a story about loss, which means it is a story about love: lost loves, familial love, love of our communities, love of ourselves. On the five-year anniversary of his mother's death, the man finds the journal of the Syrian immigrant and discovers his life and her life are irreparably intertwined through their shared obsession of a rare bird: a bird his mother died before she could prove it was real. What follows is a parallel narrative between past and present, unfolding the lives of both artists as they attempt to unravel their own identities admist the complex and varied social pressures of their varied eras.
The only reason this book isn't a full five stars for me is that, despite how beautiful it is to read, it is SLOW. It's a very reflective piece, and I loved the real-world history that went into the creation of this book, but even I at times found myself skipping ahead to get to the next piece of the mystery. I still do highly recommend it.
Oh my goodness. I loved this book. It is beautiful: a reflective mingling of past and present explored through alternating POVs of a two Syrian artists: one, a sapphic immigrant who fled Syrian during the French/Syrian war and the other, a closeted trans man struggling under the grief of his mother's death. It is a story about loss, which means it is a story about love: lost loves, familial love, love of our communities, love of ourselves. On the five-year anniversary of his mother's death, the man finds the journal of the Syrian immigrant and discovers his life and her life are irreparably intertwined through their shared obsession of a rare bird: a bird his mother died before she could prove it was real. What follows is a parallel narrative between past and present, unfolding the lives of both artists as they attempt to unravel their own identities admist the complex and varied social pressures of their varied eras.
The only reason this book isn't a full five stars for me is that, despite how beautiful it is to read, it is SLOW. It's a very reflective piece, and I loved the real-world history that went into the creation of this book, but even I at times found myself skipping ahead to get to the next piece of the mystery. I still do highly recommend it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Dysphoria, Grief, Blood, Classism, Deadnaming, Death of parent, Sexual assault, and War
jojo_'s review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Racism, Xenophobia, Animal death, Blood, Classism, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Islamophobia
Moderate: Misogyny, Cancer, and Homophobia
Minor: Transphobia, Deadnaming, War, and Dementia
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