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alli_thebookgiraffe's review
5.0
I am so happy I decided to re-read this book. There are so many important topics brought up in this book. The most obvious one being terrorism. It talks about infidelity and jealousy. I think mental health is a big topic both before and after the attack. Also, I love the story including prejudice against Muslims after a terrorist attack. I think it is important to bring such an important topic and show different characters with different opinions because the world is that way. This book is set in London. Since reading this book the first time, I have changed my opinion on unlikeable characters. Too often do we watch and read tragic stories happen to good characters, sometimes bad things happen to people who don’t make good decisions. Most people are not inherently good or evil and most tragedies happen at random. I am surprised to find that this was Cleave’s debut novel and he wrote it in 6 weeks. Wonderful writing and a wonderful story.
spiccolo419's review against another edition
4.0
One of the oddest books I've ever read. A mother writing letters to Osama Bin Laden after her husband and son are killing in a suicide bombing. She continues to spiral out of control, and continues to act like her son is still alive.
A book I kept wondering why am I still reading this, and yet I read the while thing in about 2 days.
A book I kept wondering why am I still reading this, and yet I read the while thing in about 2 days.
mcearl12's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Absolutely brilliant!
lubel80's review against another edition
3.0
Dear Goodreads, please change to a 10-star rating system for better accuracy. This is a solid 3.5 star book, but I cannot bring it up to a 4, because I am picky about this kind of crap.
stepanana's review
3.0
I read this after reading his more popular Little Bee. Loved that book -- this one is a lot darker and interesting with the death of Osama in real life lately since this is set up as a letter that a mother is writing to Osama after her husband and son were killed in a bombing in London.
frannielaveeya's review against another edition
2.0
I read this quickly, I think mostly because it was SO exhausting and I wanted to know what happened. I enjoyed Little Bee because Cleave writes gorgeous prose, but after reading this I'm fine to not read any others.
somanybookstoread's review
2.0
Eh...
The author took a major narrative risk with this, his first book. It didn't really work, but it was ambitious. Written in second person, addressing none other than Osama Bin Laden, our narrator is a working class (and not very respectable) Londoner. She attempts to process loss but seems to get further lost in the process. Perhaps if she was a likable narrator, I would have found the book easier to read, but in addition to the second person and intentional bad grammar/bad speech of our narration for more than 200 pages, I couldn't really tolerate her on top of that. I don't recommend this one. There was a reason why we didn't hear about Chris Cleave until he wrote Little Bee.
The author took a major narrative risk with this, his first book. It didn't really work, but it was ambitious. Written in second person, addressing none other than Osama Bin Laden, our narrator is a working class (and not very respectable) Londoner. She attempts to process loss but seems to get further lost in the process. Perhaps if she was a likable narrator, I would have found the book easier to read, but in addition to the second person and intentional bad grammar/bad speech of our narration for more than 200 pages, I couldn't really tolerate her on top of that. I don't recommend this one. There was a reason why we didn't hear about Chris Cleave until he wrote Little Bee.
chasa's review against another edition
4.0
I'm not going to write a synopsis of this because that can be found above, provided by goodreads. I read this book awhile ago and my thoughts frequently come back to it. When I first started reading this book, I considered putting it down not once but several times. It was odd...a woman who is writing a letter to Osama bin Laden about her dead son? What in the hell?!? But, it grew on me. More than that, it challenged my own views and thoughts which is what a good book does. I read a lot...and this seems to be a book that I can't shake. As much as I didn't like the protagonist, it's ability to challenge my own thoughts and to do so subtly makes it a book well worth reading.