Reviews with content warning for Islamophobia - Salt Houses

I loved getting to walk with the Yacoub family through so many years, getting to see how each of them grows internally and in relationship to the others. I believe the fact that Hala is a clinical psychologist allowed the characters to feel real. Also, there were many actual historical references that kept the story rooted in reality.

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eslsilver's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-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? It's complicated

5.0

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felishacb's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative 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? No

4.0

Intergenerational stories that move through time featuring vignettes from different characters across three generations.

You see the pain and never-ending grief of displacement through the lives of this Palestinian family and their descendants, spread across the world from Paris to Boston to Lebanon to Jordan. But rarely home. Their refugee status is a shadow throughout, understood differently by each generation as time passes, but it never overpowers the dignity of their very human existence, their sometimes flawed choices and everyday tensions.

I was engaged throughout the story, but I have to admit the emotional revelations in the last chapters of the book stabbed at my heart. This book will stick with me.

Quotes:

She misses Mustafa. Like a city after a tsunami, the earth is altered without him. Wrecked.
**
'Motherhood doesn't suit me,' she once confessed to Budur, drunk. 'I don't have the stomach for not knowing what's next.'
**
"'Punch me,' he wants to yell at Mustafa. 'Tell me to fuck off. Hit me in the face. Pick up that goddamn suitcase. Walk down the driveway.

I would have followed you.
I would have followed you.

Take me with you. You can save yourself. We can both live.'"

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jackie_marion's review

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challenging emotional reflective medium-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? Yes

4.0

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cannancan412's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring reflective 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? Yes

4.75

This book follows 4 generations of a family. You have your favorite family members, the ones you're rooting for. There were family members I wanted to know more about. This book filled me with an uneasy sense of steadiness. Uprooting their family not once but 4-5 times! And they kept their steadiness. I can't imagine that. The strength, the pain. For anyone who wants a not, USA propaganda book about the Muslim experience, read this book and have your eyes and hearts opened.

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morethanmylupus's review against another edition

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hopeful reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

Beautiful, timely, and heartbreaking.

Salt Houses is a family saga that follows Aila and her family from the Nakba through to nearly the present day. We see triumphs and disappointments as they do their best to survive. For me, the biggest impact of this book was the generational trauma that started with the Nakba and how it continued to impact their lives even as they moved across continents.

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