Reviews

I was gifted this book from BookSparks. The marriage box was a deep dive into an Orthodox Syrian Jew community in Brooklyn. The pace of the book was nice and I liked the authors style. I found Casey, the female protagonist, lovable. I genuinely disliked Michael and kept reading for the hope that it was a coming of age and that Casey would realize her worth and independence. Overall, it was something different for me and definitely fast paced.

mackenzie_wheeeeler's review against another edition

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3.0

im feeling a little confused about this one tbh. the marriage box is a classic coming of age novel, where we see our MC Casey return to her Syrian Orthodox roots after getting mixed up in the wrong crowd. the plot was really interesting and i can really see how there were many decades of history and heritage that have gone into this piece of writing.

there was a decent amount of space given at the beginning of the book to tell the story of our MC’s childhood and early teen years. she does get mixed in with the wrong crowd, and we are presented with a young woman who is keen to experience absolutely anything life has to offer in terms of knowledge and experience, and loves her independence.

In the second half of the book we see her parents returning to their Syrian Orthodox roots in the hopes it will help Casey to ‘straighten out’ a bit. Casey is reluctant at first, wanting to make the most of life and not settle for being someone’s housewife, but then next minute she is married?? to a very traditional and orthodox guy?? and after all the build up of Casey not wanting that lifestyle i just didn’t feel like it made sense to me. i didn’t see the tension in her as she grappled with the two sides of herself, she just kind of…did it? and i suppose maybe that’s the point, she may have just been going with the flow and doing what was expected without believing she really had a choice. maybe that was even the point of the whole book, but if it was, i don’t personally feel like that was clear enough.

sparetimereader's review

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3.0

Short synopsis: A coming of age story for an American Syrian Jew who is moved from her hometown in New Orleans to Brooklyn during her High School years.

My thoughts: I really enjoyed the Jewish representation in this one. We got a lot of information regarding the Syrian Orthodox Jews and their customs and traditions. I learned a lot, and the author did a great job at explaining things to a reader not familiar with their customs.

If you enjoy a good coming of age story, this one is for you. Casey must learn when to stand her ground with her parents and husband as they are set in their ways. The first part of the story told about her teenage years, and how some decisions she made shaped who’d she become later in life. I think we can all relate to that!

My one complaint is I felt like “The Marriage Box” itself was not really explained, I feel like where that is the title of the book there should be more substance to it within the pages. I got more information from the synopsis on the back than the book provided.

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