Reviews with content warning for Violence - Φιρντάους

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Φιρντάους by Nawal El Saadawi

15 reviews

bookishbrenbren's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Hmm this is a hard book to review. I really admire the book and the story and Firdaus and yeah just the commentary it's making on society and the value of women. I think it's really powerful. I even like the flowery language and the circular events. I think it's a little daydreamy at times though. Like sometimes I just wanted to skip ahead of the la la la ness of the internal thoughts

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shinsreading's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A

4.0

It’s a dark, dark book. But I love it with all my heart.

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laedyred's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

5.0

The writing and literary devices. The powerful observations and fearlessness to say some hard truths. The subject material is hard to read sometimes, but is never used for shock value. A quick read.

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suchsweetsorrow89's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

wow. it took me so long to actually read this book throughout the semester, since life got in the way. this is such an amazing book and a powerful exploration into radical feminism, especially stances related to sex and how that skews perceptions of women. in fact, throughout the text you'll see that exact weaving happening— how sex work and the typical narratives of "empowerment" often associated with it holds a perverse and ugly side that speaks to the wider society. words even fail me now to describe everything this book contains. really great and short (yet powerful) read, but dark, so please check trigger warnings!

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icarusandthesun's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

2.5

'you criminal. you deserve to die.'
- 'everybody has to die. i prefer to die from a crime i have committed rather than to die for one of the crimes which you have committed.'

a tale filled with great horrors, pain and truth.
this book was very special, something i've never read before, and wise in an unconventional type of way.
i liked the story in its simple complexity, but the pacing threw me off quite frequently. the storyline and structure were sort of jumpy and the lifeless ease with which the events were described took away most of the impact.

an important story, but the writing style was not for me.

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purplehulk713's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Beautiful and terrible. Truthful. Firdaus is an indomitable woman, pulling away all of the veils placed over her eyes by the men in her society. El Saadawi wonderfully captures the hypocritical horrors of misogyny and male superiority through the eyes of a prostitute who you will learn is not at all disgraceful, but clever, wise, and honorable enough to realize that all the men in her life, all men who claim to protect women and describe each other as devout and heroic are the most sinful of liars. Firdaus spits upon all of these men, and finally conquers her own fear of repercussion by literally hitting it in the face. She realized the price of herself could never be paid by even the wealthiest man in the world. Read this book and remember that truth is both simple and savage, and that only the brave can acknowledge it.

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