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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Elif Shafak’s 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World explores the idea that the human brain remains active for up to 10 minutes and 38 seconds after death in a beautiful and moving way. Through Leila’s memories in those final minutes, we witness a life filled with pain, love, and resilience. Her story is heartbreaking, and I felt genuinely sad that I only got to know her after she had passed.
The different characters’ standpoints felt layered, offering a powerful look at friendship, marginalisation and the tenacity of the human spirit. Shafak’s writing is often lyrical and deeply poetic, I found myself rereading several passages just to sit with the beauty of her language.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Pedophilia, Grief
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Reading this was hard. The way it handled death didn’t feel distant or symbolic—it felt close. Heavy. Like it reached into all the quiet places you usually don’t look. But it wasn’t just about grief. It was about life too, and the way people find each other, even in the middle of all that pain.
The connections in this book felt so real—built through moments that were small, honest, and full of meaning. That made it even more heartbreaking when they ended. It’s tragic not just because people are lost, but because something beautiful existed at all—and then had to be let go.
It didn’t feel hopeless. Just deeply human. The kind of story that reminds you how fragile everything is, and how much it matters anyway.
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Shafak’s prose is lyrical but unrelenting, peeling back the layers of societal hypocrisy with clarity and care. In this novel, she uses the intimate story of a murdered sex worker, Tequila Leila, to explore broader themes of gender, marginalization, and authoritarian morality in modern Turkish society. It is structured around a concept that the brain remains active after death. In that window, 10 minutes and 38 seconds, Leila relives her life through sensory memories, offering the reader an intricate tapestry of personal trauma, resilience, and fleeting joy.
Shafak anchors Leila’s story in actual historical events like the Bloody May Day massacre of 1977 and in real landmarks including Istanbul’s Bhosporus Bridge connecting Europe and Asia and the Cemetery of the Companionless, a grim resting place for society’s outcasts. These real elements are not incidental; they contextualize Leila’s life within a city and a culture wrestling with contradictions: modern yet deeply patriarchal, pluralistic in appearance but rigid in moral judgment.
The novel is especially incisive in its critique of how conservative, religious structures often serve to obscure, excuse, or even enable violence against women. Leila’s abuse at the hands of her family is met not with justice, but with silence and shame. It is with her eventual flight to Istanbul that Leila finds beauty in friendship. Her five companions, each broken in their own way, become her chosen family, standing in stark contrast to the biological one that erased her.
This is a story for the silenced, told with compassion and righteous fury. A great read.
This is a story for the silenced, told with compassion and righteous fury. A great read.
actual rating 4.5
the ending felt a bit rushed but other than that i really liked it, the book was painful
the ending felt a bit rushed but other than that i really liked it, the book was painful