Reviews

Death Is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa

Only show reviews with written explanations

indukisreading's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional informative tense medium-paced

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

4.0

chrissie's review against another edition

Go to review page

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes

5.0

katharina90's review

Go to review page

informative reflective sad slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

I found the characters' journey across Syria really educational, but that ended up a much smaller part of the book than I expected.

The story often veers off into lengthy flashbacks that I mostly found boring and at times confusing.

The chapters were also incredibly long. That structure didn't work well for me.

Content Warnings

garett_hunt's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark sad

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

zaineandherbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark reflective

4.0

pickachu780's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.75

chucklebuck's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

2.5

Khaled Khalifa has an inherently engaging writing style that shines when this story follows the story of the trials and tribulations of three siblings delivering their father's body to Aleppo for burial. Their journey is engaging and tension-filled as you wait to find out what horrible thing will happen to them next.

It's such a shame, then, that the narrative is broken up constantly by boring, plodding descriptions of lost loves and unrequited desires of irrelevant characters at a moment's notice. Several pages repetitively tell in great detail how a certain woman makes the protagonist's soul sing, grinding the narrative to a halt. There's a particularly egregious chapter where page after page after page is devoted to the love the protagonist's father has for his new wife. This was so unengaging and repetitious that I to skip several pages to get back to the otherwise gripping narrative.

A well-written and inherently readable tale spoiled by a couple of moments of romantic sophistry. Worth a read overall, but with the caveat that the tale is bogged down by some out-of-place navelgazing here and there.