You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
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:
No
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book, while written with flowery prose and great world building for non-Indian readers - is a disappointment. This is nothing more than a gussied up political commentary on the Partition of India and the Kashmiri struggle against the Indian state. The author’s own political bias is rampant in this book and is the undercurrent of the meager plot of this nearly 500 page book - if it can be called that. As someone with Indian heritage, and neutral to the Hindu-Muslim conflict that has gripped two generations of Indians, I find this book walking (and not very well might I add) the fine line between gripping expose and political propaganda. Western readers unfamiliar with the bloody conflicts of India and Pakistan and India and Kashmir have no clue about the undercurrent this book has, which I suppose is its meager substitution for an actual plot.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Deportation
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Abortion
Found the plot/characters hard to follow. Takes place in India & Pakistan, Kashmir & Delhi. Lots of corrupt politicians, religious hatreds. Much of the story was heartbreaking. Main characters are Aftab who becomes Anjum, a Hijra & raises child Zainab. Tilo, Musa, Naga & Garson Hobart meet at University in an acting class. Their lives take different paths but overlap sometimes in horrible ways. Takes place in present day. Hard to be optimistic for any of their futures.
"One day Kashmir will make India self-destruct... You may have blinded all of us, everyone of us, with your pellet guns by then. But you will still have eyes to see what you have done to us. You're not destroying us. You are constructing us. It's yourselves that you are destroying."
It’s hard to put into words just how awful this book is. I like the author’s style of writing, and I don’t like to review a book unless I’ve finished it, so I persisted. The first half of the book - around 200 pages - was promising and I got into the story of Anjum and the other Hijra. But then suddenly it turns into a first person story by a random police officer, for many chapters before reverting back to the original story. The first person writing is abysmal and reads like a 10 year old wrote it. It’s just so obvious that we’re meant to think of this officer a certain way. Of course we are, since he’s Indian and they’re represented as the evil characters in the book. In fact the book is heavily political. I doubt many people would catch that if they having lived in that part of the world (I have). It very much makes Hindus look like the sole perpetrators of the Kashmir conflict and the Muslims just innocent victims. Look up the history and see how untrue this is. I imagine the glowing reviews from westerners is because they don’t understand the constant commentary, which feels like it’s being forced down our throats throughout the book. And I say this as someone who has no personal opinion on the Hindu-Muslim conflict. I am not religious or on anyone’s side. I just know the history and know that it’s being incorrectly portrayed, in an overly emotional way to convince the reader. If you think I’m exaggerating, read the explicitly depicted violent episodes in the book which are only ever represented one way. In reality there has been violence on both sides for decades. A clever reading of this might investigate the problems with religion. Instead Islam is presented as the peaceful side. And Anjum despite being mentally ill and violent is represented as hard done by and just in need of a child to fix her life. It’s reductionist, the whole book is reductionist while claiming to have depth. Sad to see so many reviewers in the west have fallen for that. Tokenistic agreement with what they consider to be exotic. This book should be classed as political propaganda rather than fiction. Waste of time reading it.
I was compelled by the first two chapters and then the book started on a different thread and lost me. I kept hoping it would get back to that rhythm but was mostly bored for the rest of the novel.
Unfortunately, this just isnt one of my favorites.
Rushdie-esque novel spanning generations and historical events; vivid descriptions, memorable characters, searingly tragic (yet ultimately hopeful) plot