A review by kait_sixcrowsbooks
As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh

dark emotional hopeful sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I feel so so conflicted about this rating and how I feel about this book in general…on the one hand, the premise, the idea, is there. However, the execution? Not so much… I found the characters to be lacking — while I felt for Salama and Kenan, I didn’t really feel like they were fleshed out very well. I felt like they were just there to prove a point of the story and not much else. I thought Khawf as an idea was really interesting, and I liked how, at the end of the day, he wasn’t the antagonist but instead only wanted what was best for Salama.

But overall, I felt that this really should’ve been edited down, at least in some ways. The repetition — not simply with the action of Salama going to the hospital and coming back for three weeks but the repetition of words and phrases — got to be real old real quick. The amount of times Salama said some variation of “I’m not a surgeon, I’m a pharmacist” in the beginning made my brain numb. And the dialogue at points just seemed stilted and, at times, repeatable. I dunno, there were just a lot of parts of this story that didn’t click together for me, which is a shame because it had potential.

Yeah, I dunno, I just fairly quickly caught myself skimming and wishing it was more than it was. Which stinks, since I seem to be in the vast minority.
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