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apollos_books's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-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
4.5
still processing this. this is the kind of book you need to return to multiple times to pick up and appreciate it's thematic magnitude (you can tell a poet wrote this novel for sure). i think the synopsis is a little misleading but i honestly could not provide an accurate summary that encapsulates everything this book is so
maguireriley's review
medium-paced
3.0
Martyr! has an engaging story, but I found a lot of the dialogue overly monologue-y and the book generally overwritten. I have always preferred a more direct style of writing though, so I guess I should’ve expected that. Also didn’t love the twist at the end, but I can’t really articulate why. I did burn through it in three days though, so clearly I was invested. The beauty of NYPL is that even though I didn’t love this book as much as I expected to, I’m not even mad at it because it was free.99. Interesting enough for me to finish which is all I need!
greenteaka's review
funny
mysterious
reflective
fast-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
4.75
bexhobson's review
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
ohhayitsme's review
4.0
Kaveh Akbar if you at any point are interested in publishing your grocery lists I will also read those. I will read your iphone notes app. I will read the notes you write on the back of your hands to remind yourself to pay your light bill. Please let's work out a time for us to make this happen.
I can't wait to read this again.
I can't wait to read this again.
theciz's review
2.25
A time will come when I stop automatically grabbing the latest online-hyped literary novel, but despite yet another miss, that time is evidently not now. I was interested to read this now, as I’m reading a non-fiction book about the Iran-Iraq war from the Iraqi and American perspectives, so I thought this would complement it.
I also went into this cautiously, as it came up in a review of Hard by a Great Forest that these two were conceptually quite similar, and there’s nothing that kills a good read faster than comparison. And this one suffered for it, but also because it was so very painfully online and American.
Both books are debut novels that deal with young men who are immigrants, looking for meaning in the shadow of absent mothers. For me, Great Forest is the better book, feeling more cohesive as a story and more grounded in its fairy tale/folk lore themes. This felt scattered and, sorry to say, the worst kind of affected-arty pretentious.
I knew we were off to a bad start when we learn the main character is a depressed poet hanging around an American university environment well into his late 20s - which is to say I found Cyrus instantly insufferable, and not in a begrudgingly charming way. So much of the start of this is the story stuttering to get going around Cyrus’s whining about wanting to die. Maybe I’m a callous person, and maybe this is more interesting for those who have had mental health struggles, but I just didn’t care. He gets some pushback for this self-centred behaviour, but not enough. And while there are multiple POVs, they’re all written in the same tone - I even had trouble distinguishing Zee and Cyrus at times, as their "voices" seemed exactly the same.
While most of the book is scattered and pretentious, I’d say the last quarter goes pretentious and maudlin. There’s an incredibly silly twist, which is over explained, and from that point out everything feels superfluous as it’s all very conventional and obvious, no matter how the author tries. I think that’s the ultimate flaw for me - none of the characters feel real, just vehicles for too many ideas the author wants to stuff in, so everything is shallow and cold.
I also went into this cautiously, as it came up in a review of Hard by a Great Forest that these two were conceptually quite similar, and there’s nothing that kills a good read faster than comparison. And this one suffered for it, but also because it was so very painfully online and American.
Both books are debut novels that deal with young men who are immigrants, looking for meaning in the shadow of absent mothers. For me, Great Forest is the better book, feeling more cohesive as a story and more grounded in its fairy tale/folk lore themes. This felt scattered and, sorry to say, the worst kind of affected-arty pretentious.
I knew we were off to a bad start when we learn the main character is a depressed poet hanging around an American university environment well into his late 20s - which is to say I found Cyrus instantly insufferable, and not in a begrudgingly charming way. So much of the start of this is the story stuttering to get going around Cyrus’s whining about wanting to die. Maybe I’m a callous person, and maybe this is more interesting for those who have had mental health struggles, but I just didn’t care. He gets some pushback for this self-centred behaviour, but not enough. And while there are multiple POVs, they’re all written in the same tone - I even had trouble distinguishing Zee and Cyrus at times, as their "voices" seemed exactly the same.
While most of the book is scattered and pretentious, I’d say the last quarter goes pretentious and maudlin. There’s an incredibly silly twist, which is over explained, and from that point out everything feels superfluous as it’s all very conventional and obvious, no matter how the author tries. I think that’s the ultimate flaw for me - none of the characters feel real, just vehicles for too many ideas the author wants to stuff in, so everything is shallow and cold.
ioq's review
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0