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A review by melbsreads
Where the Streets Had a Name by Randa Abdel-Fattah
4.0
Trigger warnings: war and everything that goes along with it, death of a friend, PTSD.
For a book intended for young adults, this is...INCREDIBLY political. It's the story of a thirteen year old Palestinian girl growing up in the West Bank. So, like, it was always going to be an incredibly political story. But at the same time, I don't think it had really occurred to me just HOW political this was going to be. It definitely doesn't paint Israel in a good light, and it's definitely pushing a Palestinian perspective, which should come as no surprise to anyone given that the author is of Palestinian descent.
Most of the story takes place over a single day as the protagonist and her best friend try to make their way from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. Along the way, they encounter roadblocks (literally), people on both sides who go out of their way to help, and see how the other half live.
In some ways, it reminded me of The Hate U Give. The protagonist has facial scarring as the result of an incident that killed her childhood best friend, and moving through the checkpoints and seeing certain things on her journey is very triggering for her.
I wanted a more definitive ending than I got, but given the political situation in which the book is set, it was pretty naive of me to expect a definitive ending. It's not my favourite of her books, but it's definitely an interesting read that stabbed me right in the feels more times than I anticipated.
For a book intended for young adults, this is...INCREDIBLY political. It's the story of a thirteen year old Palestinian girl growing up in the West Bank. So, like, it was always going to be an incredibly political story. But at the same time, I don't think it had really occurred to me just HOW political this was going to be. It definitely doesn't paint Israel in a good light, and it's definitely pushing a Palestinian perspective, which should come as no surprise to anyone given that the author is of Palestinian descent.
Most of the story takes place over a single day as the protagonist and her best friend try to make their way from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. Along the way, they encounter roadblocks (literally), people on both sides who go out of their way to help, and see how the other half live.
In some ways, it reminded me of The Hate U Give. The protagonist has facial scarring as the result of an incident that killed her childhood best friend, and moving through the checkpoints and seeing certain things on her journey is very triggering for her.
I wanted a more definitive ending than I got, but given the political situation in which the book is set, it was pretty naive of me to expect a definitive ending. It's not my favourite of her books, but it's definitely an interesting read that stabbed me right in the feels more times than I anticipated.