Reviews

When the Apricots Bloom by Gina Wilkinson

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lennyisreading's review

4.0

Strayed from my usual fantasy reading for this, and was not disappointed. An insight into living under the Hussein reign in Iraq, from the perspective of 3 women with different backgrounds and levels of privilege. In places, this felt like it had been censored for palatability; I can't imagine the Mukhabarat being as subtle as they were in the story, with only one real taste of the violence I'm sure is carried out constantly. However, I'm unsure if this is due to unwillingness to write about it, or if it's to lend into the constant theme that "we don't talk about it so it doesn't happen".

libbyhenderson's review

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3.0

What I loved about this book: the setting. I don't think I have ever read a story that takes place within Iraq during the reign of Saddam Hussein. That point of view was what attracted me to the story to begin with, and it's what held my attention throughout. What I didn't love: it was slow moving, and the characters felt stiff and didn't compel me to keep reading. They were uninteresting.

lajacquerie's review

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2.0

This book has an excellent premise, and yet it feels so thin. Nothing felt full, here—not the descriptions of Baghdad, the characters themselves, or the dread/love motivating them. I suppose it gives a decent window into what it was like to live in Saddam's Iraq, but it felt devoid of richness and color (and people in tough circumstances are still vibrantly alive). By the end, a number of the plot points/actions that characters take don't make sense (mostly the secret police members).

I know the author spent time in-country herself, so she knows what she's talking about, but this just didn't feel "real" in either logic (only at the end of the book) or depth.