Reviews tagging 'Murder'

فرانكشتاين في بغداد by Ahmed Saadawi

27 reviews

bashsbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I must confess, I was never a huge fan of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I reread it over and over again in high school and college, and I could never get into it. Something about the text was too dense and archaic for me to connect to - which is not normally a problem I have with classics.

When I came across Frankenstein in Baghbad, I thought the concept of a surrealist look into early Iraq War era Baghdad was an interesting concept, but I was skeptical that I'd find the same stumbling blocks with this version as the original. After all, it takes place in a time and setting very different from my own, just like Shelley's original.

But Saadawi's work is different. I realized pretty quickly that this book is much, much closer to my time and place than I thought it would be. It demonstrates, with an unparalleled hand for metaphor, the monster that is the cycle of revenge which makes up the wheels of war.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death, Body horror, and War

Moderate: Gun violence, Torture, Police brutality, Classism, and Misogyny

Minor: Sexual harassment, Car accident, Sexual content, and Suicide

-Suicide bombing, explosions -Corpses -Mutilation

delainey5's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

im not sure that I understand the ending

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Body horror

Moderate: Police brutality, Misogyny, Death, Murder, Alcoholism, War, Violence, and Child death

jillaay_h's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Police brutality, Medical content, Alcoholism, Murder, Gore, Violence, Body horror, Death, and Medical trauma

sofipitch's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Weird little book which is very interested in good and evil and more the lack of a clear distinction between the two. The Whatsitsname beginning it's killing spree in what seems like justified revenge only to kill plenty of innocent civilians to keep itself alive is particularly salient rn

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, War, and Violence

tashtasher's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Torture, War, Blood, Body horror, Gun violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Violence, Death, Gore, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Toxic friendship and Physical abuse

aliciawithoutkeys's review against another edition

mysterious reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Murder

hoppskotch's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Honestly, one of the finest adaptations of classic literature into modern sociopolitical contexts. I highly recommend this to anyone who either enjoys the creature feature genre or just in general is looking to expand their adult fiction and horror bookshelf. So many of the characters are complex that equally measures that they are written with deep respect to each person's humanity. That being said there are quite a handful of characters who I could have lived without but were essential for the plot and overall were enriching. An incredible dive into the moral and philosophical nature of death, murder, criminality, and victimhood within the context of war and loss. This has become one of my favorite books nearly overnight. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Body horror, Blood, War, Death, Violence, Vomit, Torture, Murder, Grief, Gore, and Car accident

Minor: Alcoholism, Medical trauma, Alcohol, and Misogyny

laurenbookwitchbitch's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

 I’ve been on a big reinterpretation of Frankenstein kick so I had to read “Frankenstein in Baghdad,” translated from Arabic. In the midst of the Iraq War a junk dealer begins to sow human body parts together from people killed in bombings. What follows is a gut wrenching tale of chase and pursuit, grief and saints, war and friendship, death and destruction. A powerful story about what it takes to create and maintain life in the worst of war zones. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Car accident, Classism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, War, Body horror, Death, Gore, Grief, Islamophobia, Murder, and Physical abuse

jsuispoesie's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Car accident, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, War, and Violence

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Trafficking

addyruth17's review against another edition

informative mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

The application of the ideas surrounding Frankenstein were intriguing here: vengeance, guilt and innocence, humanity's collective anger and grief.  The rest of the book didn't really live up to the promise of this premise: I'd say there were too many plot lines and I wasn't very invested in any of them.  The clunky translation also brought the reading experience down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Alcohol

Minor: War, Cursing, Grief, and Sexual content