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A review by lawbooks600
All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir
dark
emotional
sad
slow-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
3.0
Representation: Asian main characters, side Black and Brown characters
Score: Five points out of ten.
Man, this book wasn't great and to say it was sad wouldn't be the right words to describe this one. I added it to my list a few days ago at the time of writing this review and a few days later I picked it up from one of the two libraries I visited and finally read it. When I finished it, I thought the novel was too depressing (don't get me wrong, a book can be depressing and still be enjoyable but it needs a balance of depression and more positive emotions, but this one didn't have that.) Did I mention this novel circled my recommendations once? It starts with one story's main character Misbah Malik living in Pakistan who is arranged to marry her predetermined partner when it cuts to the present day in Juniper, California with the other story's protagonists Noor (I initially pronounced it as Nore until she said it rhymes with lure so I switched to that) and Salahudin.
Another book similar to this I've read and enjoyed is Hollow Fires by Samira Ahmed but I found that better than this one. I appreciate the author for writing this novel engagingly because of the outstanding descriptions of everything. Here is where the flaws surface; like other books I've read I could never fully connect to all the people who drive the story forward like Misbah, Noor or Salahudin and the plotline(s) were all over the place (I'll explain that later) making them disjointed and harder for me to read or enthral myself in. Now Noor and Salahudin had to get through the death of whom they call Misbah Auntie from kidney problems she refused to address properly (she'd use turmeric instead of going to the doctor) and already I felt miserable but the worst is yet to come. The past narrative told me that Noor's parents died in an earthquake in Pakistan and no one but another person, Chachu (her uncle) saved her with his bare hands which the book repeats sometimes to presumably drive it into my head. I don't understand why I had to look at Misbah's perspective in the past after she died in the present because it didn't add anything significant and distracted from the present perspective story. There are myriad issues the novel talks about much to its detriment as I felt it couldn't pick a single issue to focus on (like alcohol abuse, racism, child abuse and drug abuse) and instead it tried to concentrate on all of them but failed. Maybe if it picked one it could be better.
Everything takes a turn for the worst when Noor applied for seven different universities but to no avail and she tries to pay off the bills without Misbah (whose life went on a downward spiral) to similar results while also dealing with racist attacks at her school and the rage as she calls it bottling inside her (shutting down feelings never works well especially when she physically punches Jamie, the culprit, in return.) Chachu uses a (destructive) coping strategy, alcohol to deal with all the struggles in his life which didn't go to plan as he abuses Noor so she runs away. At least Jamie got karma in the end, Noor got accepted to a university, both people in the present move on ending the book swiftly. I won't reread this but I might read An Ember in the Ashes and its succeeding instalments.
Score: Five points out of ten.
Man, this book wasn't great and to say it was sad wouldn't be the right words to describe this one. I added it to my list a few days ago at the time of writing this review and a few days later I picked it up from one of the two libraries I visited and finally read it. When I finished it, I thought the novel was too depressing (don't get me wrong, a book can be depressing and still be enjoyable but it needs a balance of depression and more positive emotions, but this one didn't have that.) Did I mention this novel circled my recommendations once? It starts with one story's main character Misbah Malik living in Pakistan who is arranged to marry her predetermined partner when it cuts to the present day in Juniper, California with the other story's protagonists Noor (I initially pronounced it as Nore until she said it rhymes with lure so I switched to that) and Salahudin.
Another book similar to this I've read and enjoyed is Hollow Fires by Samira Ahmed but I found that better than this one. I appreciate the author for writing this novel engagingly because of the outstanding descriptions of everything. Here is where the flaws surface; like other books I've read I could never fully connect to all the people who drive the story forward like Misbah, Noor or Salahudin and the plotline(s) were all over the place (I'll explain that later) making them disjointed and harder for me to read or enthral myself in. Now Noor and Salahudin had to get through the death of whom they call Misbah Auntie from kidney problems she refused to address properly (she'd use turmeric instead of going to the doctor) and already I felt miserable but the worst is yet to come. The past narrative told me that Noor's parents died in an earthquake in Pakistan and no one but another person, Chachu (her uncle) saved her with his bare hands which the book repeats sometimes to presumably drive it into my head. I don't understand why I had to look at Misbah's perspective in the past after she died in the present because it didn't add anything significant and distracted from the present perspective story. There are myriad issues the novel talks about much to its detriment as I felt it couldn't pick a single issue to focus on (like alcohol abuse, racism, child abuse and drug abuse) and instead it tried to concentrate on all of them but failed. Maybe if it picked one it could be better.
Everything takes a turn for the worst when Noor applied for seven different universities but to no avail and she tries to pay off the bills without Misbah (whose life went on a downward spiral) to similar results while also dealing with racist attacks at her school and the rage as she calls it bottling inside her (shutting down feelings never works well especially when she physically punches Jamie, the culprit, in return.) Chachu uses a (destructive) coping strategy, alcohol to deal with all the struggles in his life which didn't go to plan as he abuses Noor so she runs away. At least Jamie got karma in the end, Noor got accepted to a university, both people in the present move on ending the book swiftly. I won't reread this but I might read An Ember in the Ashes and its succeeding instalments.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Death, Grief, Racism, Confinement, Blood, Medical content, Drug use, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug abuse, and Injury/Injury detail
Full trigger warnings: Death of an aunt from an illness, parents from an earthquake and other people from electrocution in the past, racism, racist slurs, blood, grief and loss depiction, physical assault, injury and child abuse, abusive and alcohol abusing uncle, imprisonment of a child, hospitalisation, bullying, near-death experience from a drug overdose