Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by fareehareads
Dust Settles North by Deena ElGenaidi
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Thank you Bindery for an advance copy of this title.
I really enjoyed this novel. It was such an intimate glimpse into grief, identity, and desire through a pair of siblings that were just going through it in every possible way. The novel brought up culture, faith, the 3rd culture kid experience, revolution, and politics in a way that felt so natural. Both characters were able to convey that guilt that is difficult to put into words but seeps into every aspect of you when a family expectation or societal expectation isn't met. Zain was busy grappling with his inner world in America while Hannah was trying to ground herself to her outer world in Egypt. They kept making bad decisions and stumbled through their fraught relationships, but it was endearing to meet and know their story.
The perpetual outsider narrative has been done many times in stories similar to this and each one, in my opinion, stitches a tapestry together of a cultural experience that can never fully be completed. These stories are typically written by children of immigrants rather than the immigrant parent or grandparent themselves and so, there will always be gaps and incomplete spaces. Some are due to generational gaps, the violent nature of colonization, suppression of dissent, and language barriers. So many immigrant stories are lost or misinterpreted and I appreciated that in this one, there are efforts to bridge that gap. This isn't just a story about siblings experiencing grief, it's also a haunting of a life that never was. Their mother was perpetually present and when we do briefly have her perspective, it's when she's young and in Egypt and about to change her entire life. There is a wisp of her life on the page and I loved the parallels between her and her daughter. Hannah being a part of demonstrations like she was when she was young was a really full circle moment. The ending did feel a bit too 'and then they all got along the end' but overall, I wasn't mad at where it left off. I could talk about this novel for a long time so I am going to leave it there for you to pick up and see for yourself. Definitely recommend picking this one up when it releases.
I really enjoyed this novel. It was such an intimate glimpse into grief, identity, and desire through a pair of siblings that were just going through it in every possible way. The novel brought up culture, faith, the 3rd culture kid experience, revolution, and politics in a way that felt so natural. Both characters were able to convey that guilt that is difficult to put into words but seeps into every aspect of you when a family expectation or societal expectation isn't met. Zain was busy grappling with his inner world in America while Hannah was trying to ground herself to her outer world in Egypt. They kept making bad decisions and stumbled through their fraught relationships, but it was endearing to meet and know their story.
The perpetual outsider narrative has been done many times in stories similar to this and each one, in my opinion, stitches a tapestry together of a cultural experience that can never fully be completed. These stories are typically written by children of immigrants rather than the immigrant parent or grandparent themselves and so, there will always be gaps and incomplete spaces. Some are due to generational gaps, the violent nature of colonization, suppression of dissent, and language barriers. So many immigrant stories are lost or misinterpreted and I appreciated that in this one, there are efforts to bridge that gap. This isn't just a story about siblings experiencing grief, it's also a haunting of a life that never was.