4.48 AVERAGE

dark emotional hopeful informative tense medium-paced

What an incredible moving book! I think I almost like it better than 'Kite Runner', it just brought a lifestyle to my door that I would have never have been able to look through or experience, through the eyes of these women. It was a wonderful book, I suggest everyone read it, especially if your a woman, but it strikes home to everyone.
dark informative sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
medium-paced
emotional tense 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: Complicated

this book got me into serious reading again. as someone who has previously struggled with larger novels, i was amazed at how once i passed the first couple chapters, i struggled to put it down and toward the end i was reading at a consistent pace without needing to stop and reread pages. the storytelling is incredible and hosseini masterfully weaves the perspectives of each character together into a deeply moving narrative spanning generations. i cannot recommend this book enough.

Actual rating: 3.5 ★

i have never felt so moved by a book as i have by a thousand splendid suns. i first read it almost a decade ago, when i didn’t yet have, or even know how to form, any real convictions about the world. even then, it left such a deep impact on me that i wanted to revisit it as an adult to fully grasp it. 

and rereading it now felt like reading it for the first time ever again. i could comprehend the content lots, lots better. made it obviously all that more heartbreaking, but khaled hosseini is one of the best storytellers i’ve ever come across. there is a lot i want to write abt this book, but i often end up cringing at my reviews when i make them too long on here. therefore, in short, i will never forget reading this book, not when i was 12, not now. a thousand splendid suns reads as not just the story of mariam and laila, but also the story of afghanistan, it’s story in all its suffrage and what that has done to its people. and in a time where afghanistan is once again under taliban rule, it is especially important. 

may the moons shimmer on her roofs and a thousand splendid suns hide behind the walls of kabul and all of afghanistan again someday, and this time, forever. may a free life never be a privilege to its women. may the allah they pray to finally answer their prayers

dark emotional sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

How is it possible for a book to lift you up and break your heart at the same time?

Women’s stories matter <3