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lisagray68's review
dark
emotional
fast-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? Yes
4.0
eblankenship23's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
adrianyt's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-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
3.75
This is an intense book dealing with trauma, abuse, mental illness. Tough to read at times. Characters are believable and compelling.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Suicide
audaciaray's review against another edition
4.0
I recently described the kind of fiction I read as "sad books by and about sad women" and this book is soooo much that. Written as a first person confessional from prison and taking place in Sri Lanka and California, really gorgeous prose that is essentially about the violence and awfulness of being a daughter and then a wife and mother. Really heavy and upsetting. I'm totally going to read the authors previous book.
minithemouse's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
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? Yes
5.0
emjay24's review
4.0
This book is a fictionalized memoir account, narrated by a woman who grew up in Sri Lanka in the mid-1970s to 1980s, relocating to Fremont, CA as a teen, and who lived in the Mission in San Francisco as an adult. She begins in relatively now time, and then narrates her story beginning when she was born, trying to explain why she is now in jail. Most of the time I forgot she was currently locked up as her story took me in. Beautiful and horrible things mixed together in her descriptions in both Sri Lanka and SF. I live in San Francisco myself, so I enjoyed reading about places I’d been to or passed by, contrasted with the earlier part of the book, Sri Lanka, a place I know almost nothing about. I’m not quite sure that I liked anyone in the book, but they interested me. The author, Nayomi Munaweera has a wonderful writing style, I can’t wait to read more. This was her second book, her first is about the Sri Lankan civil war, which was introduced in this one, but not at depth.