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A review by lawbooks600
Zenobia by Morten Dürr, Lars Horneman
3.0
Representation: Syrian main character
Trigger warnings: Death of a child in the ocean, military violence and war themes, refugee experiences
5/10, well well well let me tell you something, a few years back I saw this book on the shelf at one of the two libraries I go to and it looked like an interesting read to me until I actually opened it and it was so short but left an impact and ultimately it was depressing, I like that it raises awareness of refugees but I won't read this again. Where do I begin? It starts with a girl on a boat with a bunch of other asylum seekers and the boat tosses her into the sea and that's where it gets quite unique. There is a flashback to an earlier time, it is revealed the girl is called Amina and there was a scene where she played hide and seek with her mother and she lived her life until the civil war came and bombs destroyed the neighbourhood and Amina was forced to escape. Amina's mother reminded her to remember Zenobia who was an ancient queen but I don't get the point of that. The book cuts to present day where Amina sunk further into the sea but then it cuts to when her uncle sends her out onto the boat seen at the start, maybe it was to close the gap between the current time and the past, I don't know. I have one last statement to make which is that the author is a white European and he must've researched this issue before making this but perhaps it would've been better if a refugee wrote an account of their experiences. I think it's just me. Toward the end of the book Amina saw the sunken ship called Zenobia hence the title which juxtaposes the last time I saw that name however now it's in a darker light to set a hopeless mood, the final few pages were the saddest as I hear Amina's final thoughts after she dies. Wow. That's a low note. Read Illegal by Eoin Colfer or When Stars are Scattered, they're just better.
Trigger warnings: Death of a child in the ocean, military violence and war themes, refugee experiences
5/10, well well well let me tell you something, a few years back I saw this book on the shelf at one of the two libraries I go to and it looked like an interesting read to me until I actually opened it and it was so short but left an impact and ultimately it was depressing, I like that it raises awareness of refugees but I won't read this again. Where do I begin? It starts with a girl on a boat with a bunch of other asylum seekers and the boat tosses her into the sea and that's where it gets quite unique. There is a flashback to an earlier time, it is revealed the girl is called Amina and there was a scene where she played hide and seek with her mother and she lived her life until the civil war came and bombs destroyed the neighbourhood and Amina was forced to escape. Amina's mother reminded her to remember Zenobia who was an ancient queen but I don't get the point of that. The book cuts to present day where Amina sunk further into the sea but then it cuts to when her uncle sends her out onto the boat seen at the start, maybe it was to close the gap between the current time and the past, I don't know. I have one last statement to make which is that the author is a white European and he must've researched this issue before making this but perhaps it would've been better if a refugee wrote an account of their experiences. I think it's just me. Toward the end of the book Amina saw the sunken ship called Zenobia hence the title which juxtaposes the last time I saw that name however now it's in a darker light to set a hopeless mood, the final few pages were the saddest as I hear Amina's final thoughts after she dies. Wow. That's a low note. Read Illegal by Eoin Colfer or When Stars are Scattered, they're just better.