A review by sanderijng
Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad 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

4.75

"I expected them to interrogate me at the airport and they did" is such a simple sentence and yet as the first sentence of this book it somehow hit extremely hard. From the very start, in an almost casual way you get shown all the tiny and big ways in which Israelis control Palestinians. I found it particularly interesting to get more insight into the experience of Palestinians living "inside", as they call it in the novel; a lot of the talk around Palestine is focused on Gaza and the West Bank, but the Arabs living in what is internationally recognized as "Israel" are often forgotten. Yet this is way more than just a book about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. I loved the explorations of theatre and its political power, the complicated dynamics between siblings and the theme of making amends with your past. Parts of the novel being written as a theatre script was such a nice extra touch. An engaging read that does a great job at portraying Palestinians as the humans they are, rather than just victims in a conflict.

PS: I think all the reviews calling Sonia unlikeable have simply not read enough books with unlikeable female narrators because she was really not that bad at all. If you're already thrown off by her that sounds like a skill issue to me.