Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - A History of Burning

Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

A History of Burning by Janika Oza

3 reviews

warlocksarecool21's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective 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? Yes

4.5

A History of Burning is a powerful story about family, resistance and survival. It covers a period of history that I wasn’t familiar with, and despite being a fictional account I really learned a lot from it. It spans the course of about 100 years, following one family across generations after Pirbhai, a young man from India was contracted to be a laborer in Kenya under the false promise of receiving wealth and land when it’s all done (unsurprisingly he gets nothing). He is forced to make some awful choices to survive and make a better life for himself and that’s a theme that is explored throughout the entire book. Eventually he settles in Uganda and starts a family. From there, we follow his family across decades as they try to better their life in Uganda (and later Canada) while preserving their cultural traditions and heritage.

This was such a beautiful story to read, from the writing and the characters, I was fully immersed in this book. Oza’s writing is so elegant in the way that she describes everything from the characters’ emotions, to the setting and the cultural elements and language she included. Each character was so distinct yet they were all united in their love and sense of duty to their family and how that manifested in different ways. I also really liked how the theme of survival was tied into each of the characters’ narratives, that they all have to make difficult choices and sacrifices to protect themselves and their families.

Finally, I appreciated how the story of this family’s migration around the world was explored in connection to how the British colonization and exploitation of India and Africa resulted in decades of violence and instability. As well as added layers of some of our characters complicity in this oppression even though they were also oppressed. The author also did a good job of portraying the immigrant experience of trying to honor your cultural heritage while integrating into the new host culture and the challenges that come with that.
I really enjoyed learning about this time period and how much care the author took to portray what her own family went through.

The only complaint I had was the final section felt a little too long, I thought it could have been shorter but I still enjoyed the last part. Overall this book was really good and I recommend reading it if you like generational family stories and political history.

Content Warnings

lorenag5's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad 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

4.5

Content Warnings

internationalreads's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative 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

5.0

Content Warnings

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