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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Four Minutes was my pick for a book translated from Bulgarian. At its centre is Leah. She grew up in an orphanage where she endured many horrific abuses from other children and from staff. She would now love to adopt a child and save them from the same fate. But bureaucracy and prejudice against Leah because she is gay make this a challenging and time-consuming goal. Interspersed with the main narrative arc are stories of people Leah encounters, all of whom are marginalised from mainstream society in some way - a boy deliberately disfigured by his parents to make him a better beggar, a child caught in a sex trafficking operation, an elderly impoverished woman living alone bar for her cats. Each of their stories is designed to take about four minutes to read, a nod to a social experiment which showed it takes just four minutes of looking someone in the eye and listening to them to develop empathy for them. I really appreciated the structure and what Deleva was trying to do, finding it an interesting and effective technique. Much of this book is sad and depressing, but the tone is lightened somewhat by Leah clearly being a survivor, by the bond which we witness growing between her and Dara, by book's focus on empathy and by the ways, however small, in which Leah tries to help the people she meets.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse
Moderate: Homophobia, Trafficking
dark
emotional
sad
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
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:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence
Moderate: Death, Eating disorder, Trafficking, Pregnancy
It was difficult for me to form an opinion about this book, because for half of the time I felt lost trying to figure out the goal or the purpose of the book, even though there was some stories that I enjoyed reading, It was hard for me to go to the next one, because I would get bored pretty easily, I guess it’s just not my type of book.
But I will share some of my favorite Quotes:
“It’s when I realized that a child’s hatred is far more potent than any other, it is unadulterated and pure”
“Isn’t the world merely a projection of our imagination?”
“I was hoarding items, gestures, words, spoken and unspoken, the language of memorabilia of other people’s farewells”
But I will share some of my favorite Quotes:
“It’s when I realized that a child’s hatred is far more potent than any other, it is unadulterated and pure”
“Isn’t the world merely a projection of our imagination?”
“I was hoarding items, gestures, words, spoken and unspoken, the language of memorabilia of other people’s farewells”
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated