Reviews

La Route de Chlifa by Michèle Marineau

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sofia_marcela's review

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dark emotional fast-paced

2.5

lives_inbooks's review against another edition

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emotional sad slow-paced

4.0

kjavery37's review against another edition

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dark informative 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

3.25

This book moved my French teacher to tears today. I can’t for the life of me understand why. The characters pretty much all suck and there are never any repercussions for some of their terrible actions (namely, so much sexual assault and harassment). I appreciate the effort it made to provide meaningful commentary on war and immigration, but the author barely scratched the surface and left so much to be desired. The only reason this is getting three stars is that I liked it more than last year’s pick (Volkswagen Blues) because at least it had an ending.

cakep3's review

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1.0

I absolutely hated and despised this book so much that I wanted to commit a crime and burn this book. It was already burning from my gaze whenever I set my eyes onto it, too. The main character, Karim, was a whiny little loser who although likely has some serious survivor’s guilt, was flatter than a can of sparkling water left open overnight. The ending was super anti-climatic, and the only decent character was only there for like ~5 pages.

This book was an assigned reading for my French class, and I’d like to formally ask why anyone thinks this is a good book. So, I wish I could rate it lower than 1 star, so in reality I’d give it like -50/5.

annieways's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Content Warnings

lshatilla's review

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I don't rate books that I read for French class bc I automatically hate everything about that class (honestly why have I been taking immersive French for 13yrs?!?)

Basically all i have to say is that Karim is a little bitch, the narratrice is pretty racist, and having to read a rape/death scene on the subway at 8am was certainly an experience...

And now I'm gonna reread (basically) all of it again to prep for my IA next week.