A review by bonzoobel
On Fragile Waves by E. Lily Yu

5.0

A book has not made me shed real tears for a while and I don't think I've ever bawled for 2+ minutes over one ever, so, lot of firsts here. This book made me cry so hard it was crazy. First things first the prose (and occasional poetry) is sooo gorgeous words cannot describe (lol). Everything is so incredibly visceral and and beautiful and absolutely horrible. I love all of the imagery I love all of the figuratives I love how it took my tiny little heart and smashed it on a rock a bunch of times. My internal definition of writing that is extremely obvious to everyone else but took me a while to realize is that it's really about stringing together words that can most effectively evoke whatever feeling or message you're trying to convey. On Fragile Waves is incredibly good at this. It doles out emotion quickly and subtly. I think that the lack of dialogue indicators lends itself to this as well.

The characters are well-defined and easily analogous to people in our own families I think. They have strong voices and struggles, especially Firuzeh and how she grapples with feeling invisible. She simultaneously experiences the worst any human could possibly experience and still has a coming of age and a sense of earned immaturity. Maybe that doesn't make sense but I loved how we see her grow up even in the midst her family's own personal crisis and extenuating circumstances. I also thought her relationship with stories was fascinating and how they permeated her life in a very real way. Lots of books like to masquerade as magical realism but this is one that pulled it off well within the margins of the definition.

Nasima is a figure I'm just entirely obsessed with. Her and Firuzeh's relationship is on another level in terms of adolescent attachments good lord. Anyway I'm obsessed with them I'm obsessed with how Nasima walks across the ocean for her I'm obsessed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nour and Firuzeh too. Little brotherisms are so real like god what a little annoying freak for ever but actually you love him a lot and don't want him to disappear. I wish we had gotten more of Nour's story but I appreciate that the focus is on Firuzeh when she historically (within the timeline of the book) gets far less attention than he does and is subjected to a lot of insidious double standards. I think the glimpses of his inner life are really sweet though and i can imagine his personality in real life.

This book was heartbreaking and I feel like it expanded my world. It was also so well written and iI recommend it to everyone forever and will continue to do so until I DIE.