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abitbetterbooks's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Absolutely magnificent writing, gorgeously descriptive and indulgently emotive. The audio narrator was absolutely stellar as well!
It’s hard to believe this is a debut novel— Sarah Cypher is a masterful writer and captivating storyteller. This book has some of the most brilliant character work I’ve ever experienced. Reminded me a bit of one of my other favourites, Butter Honey Pig Bread with the complex familial relationships and non-linear story / timeline!
I loved how my perception & understanding of the title changed as the narrative developed. A good title is like the icing on the cake when it’s reframed after finishing!
It’s hard to believe this is a debut novel— Sarah Cypher is a masterful writer and captivating storyteller. This book has some of the most brilliant character work I’ve ever experienced. Reminded me a bit of one of my other favourites, Butter Honey Pig Bread with the complex familial relationships and non-linear story / timeline!
I loved how my perception & understanding of the title changed as the narrative developed. A good title is like the icing on the cake when it’s reframed after finishing!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, War, Racism, and Mental illness
Minor: Infidelity and Sexual harassment
geomanning's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Beautifully written, tears were streaming down my face during the last chapter. Reflects on family, the ties that bind us together, familial duty conflicting with personal wants, and how stories weave narratives across generations. Deeply reflective and relatively slow paced, but I tore through the last quarter of the book.
My only criticism is that every Palestinian American I know deeply struggles with being in a country that sends their tax dollars directly to Israel and has been backing the occupation since its inception, and I feel like the book didn’t really touch on this in a meaningful way despite heavily focusing on mental illness and repeatedly touching on anti-Arab sentiments in America. However that is very much an outsiders observation, so if reading this, take it with a grain of salt. It’s also notable that the author is a military spouse and identifies as such.
My only criticism is that every Palestinian American I know deeply struggles with being in a country that sends their tax dollars directly to Israel and has been backing the occupation since its inception, and I feel like the book didn’t really touch on this in a meaningful way despite heavily focusing on mental illness and repeatedly touching on anti-Arab sentiments in America. However that is very much an outsiders observation, so if reading this, take it with a grain of salt. It’s also notable that the author is a military spouse and identifies as such.
Content Warnings
Minor: Racism
annelihghh's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
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
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness, Classism, Death, Grief, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Pregnancy, and Racism
cass_lit's review against another edition
4.0
This was so beautifully written, albeit sometimes a little confusing because of the writing choices. The story is told in second person, from Betty’s point of view as she addresses her great aunt whose diary entries Betty’s currently going through. However, we’re mostly focused on Betty’s life throughout rather than the great aunt’s. And while Betty is interesting — her skin is blue — I ultimately became much more interested in the aunt’s backstory and wanted more there. (Maybe that’s the point, because I’m sure Betty wanted more as well.) It took me a bit to get everyone in the family straight because Betty switches between their familial relationship to her (e.g., mother) and their names (Tashi), but I grew so invested in their dynamics and their generational trauma in being forced to leave Palestine and their wellbeing.
Although the author isn’t Palestinian herself, it seemed to me to be very well researched.
Although the author isn’t Palestinian herself, it seemed to me to be very well researched.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Suicidal thoughts
billiekate's review against another edition
mysterious
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? It's complicated
4.75
Really beautiful story of a young woman revisiting her childhood memories through her great aunt's journals and stories. It's GAY, Palestinian (the author is Lebanese but did her research), and very much based in Arab traditions of magical storytelling/folktales. It's definitely one of those stories you keep having to reference the family tree to keep track of family members.
Some cultural takeaways: I learned a lot of common Arabic words and saw a lot of dishes that exist in both Palestinian and Lebanese culture. This is also a story of a Palestinian Christian family, which I also appreciated as Arab Christians aren't given much spotlight in Western media and stories.
Some cultural takeaways: I learned a lot of common Arabic words and saw a lot of dishes that exist in both Palestinian and Lebanese culture. This is also a story of a Palestinian Christian family, which I also appreciated as Arab Christians aren't given much spotlight in Western media and stories.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Racism
Minor: Sexual assault and Fire/Fire injury
imds's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Grief, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual harassment, Violence, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Cancer, Abandonment, Classism, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Abortion
siriface's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Xenophobia, and Racism
thegreenship's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Incredible poetic writing style, a story that will pull on your heartstrings, definitely one of the best books I've read in a very long time! I also love that it's a story within a story, sometimes it's even a story within a story within a story!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
apple_atcha_reading's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This was a beautiful story of family and the stories we tell, and those keep for ourselves. There will be spoilers in this review, so proceed with caution.
Our narrator, Elspeth, or Betty as her Aunt Nuha christens her, is speaking to her deceased Aunt Nuha at her grave, looking for advice on what direction to follow: her heart or her head. Should she follow her beloved to a new country and begin their life together, or should she remain with her family in the only place she knows as home?
Told in three parts, we follow Betty from ages 0-1, 1-6, 6-9.
Ages 0-1: From the very beginning, Betty is an unusual child to say the least. Stillborn, but revived, her skin is a vibrant blue reminiscent of the (in)famous blue soap from family tales back in Nablus. Her mother's intention is to give her up for adoption, but Aunt Nuha has other plans. The first few years of Betty's life are tumultuous, living with a great aunt, grandmother, and mentally unstable mother. When Betty's mother's maternity leave is over, she returns to her work, leaving Betty in the care of aging Aunt Nuha. Betty's father has no idea of her existence, until her grandmother tells him Tashi (Betty's mother), did not have a miscarriage as she told everyone else, but she had the baby and was living with Aunt Nuha in her dangerous apartment.
Ages 1-6: Betty develops a relationship with her father, against her mother and Aunt Nuha's wishes (court mandated). Betty's father is wealthy, and wants to provide the best of everything for Betty, and her mother, whom he still has feelings for. Throughout her development, her father is utterly convinced there is a scientific reason why something is "wrong" with her (her blue skin and density). Although she has blue skin and a strange density for a child of her size (weighing nearly 100 pounds by the age of 5, and small for her age), all the tests say internally Betty is a "stone cold normal" child. Her father wants her to live as a normal child, or as normal as a small, blue, Palestinian-American child can, but her mother fears deeply for Betty and what others will think of her or do to her.
Ages 6-9: Betty starts school, and her mothers fears are somewhat substantiated. Betty is often the subject of ridicule and bullying, verging on harassment, because of her blue skin and heritage (Palestinian, although the other children simply call her "rag head"). This section of novel also slowly but surely starts to reveal more about Aunt Nuha, and her past that she has tried for decades to keep hidden. Nuha is older than the western created state of Israel; she was a victim of the 1948 Nakba, and further displacement by settler violence after that pushed her from Nablus to California, where she is positioned as the matriarch (and trouble maker) of the Rummani family. Betty and Nuha spend time together, after the death of Betty's step-grandfather, where much of Nuha's previous life is revealed to young Betty, although at the time she may not fully comprehend the severity of the truth. Navigating life as not only a blue skinned person, but as a somewhat openly queer woman (it's fairly ambiguous how out Betty is, but it is stated her mother knows), is difficult for Betty to say the least. Wanting so desperately to be loved and liked by her peers and family, she's willing to go to extreme lengths for affection, but is often met with disappointing results.
While the first portion of this novel frames this as just the story of Betty, surrounded by eclectic, some traditional, some modern (Americanized), Palestinian family members, the longer I read, I realized it was a parallel tale of Aunt Nuha and Betty. They both have a seemingly impossible decision ahead of them, to leave the life they know and love, or enter further exile. Openly be themselves and embrace the unknown, or maintain the status quo of what the family, and society, expects of them. I loved how this story became Nuha's story. Her past and her reasonings for doing everything she did felt authentic to a woman doing what was necessary to keep herself, and later her family, safe. My favorite parts of this book were the glimpses we got into Nuha's past. The twist near the end of her not being a "true" Rummani, but rather a false imitation of the runaway daughter was well done. I had suspicions about Nuha and her roots, but nothing to the degree that was actually written. Nuha was largely rejected by the immediate members of the Rummani family who knew her secret, but to the outside world there was no problem and they accepted her as she was presented. Betty was largely rejected by the outside world save for a few friends/lovers, but accepted for who she was by her immediate family, in a reveral/parallel of Nuha.
Highly recommend this novel to those who enjoy stories of complex familes, mystical elements, historical and contemporary crossovers, and literary fiction.
Our narrator, Elspeth, or Betty as her Aunt Nuha christens her, is speaking to her deceased Aunt Nuha at her grave, looking for advice on what direction to follow: her heart or her head. Should she follow her beloved to a new country and begin their life together, or should she remain with her family in the only place she knows as home?
Told in three parts, we follow Betty from ages 0-1, 1-6, 6-9.
Ages 0-1: From the very beginning, Betty is an unusual child to say the least. Stillborn, but revived, her skin is a vibrant blue reminiscent of the (in)famous blue soap from family tales back in Nablus. Her mother's intention is to give her up for adoption, but Aunt Nuha has other plans. The first few years of Betty's life are tumultuous, living with a great aunt, grandmother, and mentally unstable mother. When Betty's mother's maternity leave is over, she returns to her work, leaving Betty in the care of aging Aunt Nuha. Betty's father has no idea of her existence, until her grandmother tells him Tashi (Betty's mother), did not have a miscarriage as she told everyone else, but she had the baby and was living with Aunt Nuha in her dangerous apartment.
Ages 1-6: Betty develops a relationship with her father, against her mother and Aunt Nuha's wishes (court mandated). Betty's father is wealthy, and wants to provide the best of everything for Betty, and her mother, whom he still has feelings for. Throughout her development, her father is utterly convinced there is a scientific reason why something is "wrong" with her (her blue skin and density). Although she has blue skin and a strange density for a child of her size (weighing nearly 100 pounds by the age of 5, and small for her age), all the tests say internally Betty is a "stone cold normal" child. Her father wants her to live as a normal child, or as normal as a small, blue, Palestinian-American child can, but her mother fears deeply for Betty and what others will think of her or do to her.
Ages 6-9: Betty starts school, and her mothers fears are somewhat substantiated. Betty is often the subject of ridicule and bullying, verging on harassment, because of her blue skin and heritage (Palestinian, although the other children simply call her "rag head"). This section of novel also slowly but surely starts to reveal more about Aunt Nuha, and her past that she has tried for decades to keep hidden. Nuha is older than the western created state of Israel; she was a victim of the 1948 Nakba, and further displacement by settler violence after that pushed her from Nablus to California, where she is positioned as the matriarch (and trouble maker) of the Rummani family. Betty and Nuha spend time together, after the death of Betty's step-grandfather, where much of Nuha's previous life is revealed to young Betty, although at the time she may not fully comprehend the severity of the truth. Navigating life as not only a blue skinned person, but as a somewhat openly queer woman (it's fairly ambiguous how out Betty is, but it is stated her mother knows), is difficult for Betty to say the least. Wanting so desperately to be loved and liked by her peers and family, she's willing to go to extreme lengths for affection, but is often met with disappointing results.
Highly recommend this novel to those who enjoy stories of complex familes, mystical elements, historical and contemporary crossovers, and literary fiction.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, and Mental illness
Moderate: Xenophobia, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Infidelity, War, and Bullying
Minor: Racism, Lesbophobia, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, and Fire/Fire injury
thehmkane's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
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? Yes
5.0
Reader, I wept. I wept so much.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Bullying, Deportation, Confinement, Police brutality, Abandonment, and Colonisation
Moderate: Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Religious bigotry, Racism, and Infidelity
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