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dawnmdavison 's review for:
The Ardent Swarm
by Yamen Manai
3.5**
I found the premise interesting, and I was invested in MC's trajectory. I'm glad I read it, and I felt like I learned something about Tunisia.
The book didn't flow, though. For example, one entire chapter was the verbatim message delivered by a holy man during prayers. I think the author was trying to show the divers impact the message had on two different men, but I wish he had done that by other means. It was tedious to read the message without any description of what was going on in the mosque or how the message was being received. For a book that is an allegory, it was quite literal and heavy-handed at times.
At the same time, it tried to accomplish too much in too few pages. Practically speaking, this meant I was frequently struggling to figure out whether I was being introduced to a new character or if I had simply forgotten him. It left me unclear about the fate of an integral character and longing for the emotionally dynamic scenes which happened completely offstage.
I found the premise interesting, and I was invested in MC's trajectory. I'm glad I read it, and I felt like I learned something about Tunisia.
The book didn't flow, though. For example, one entire chapter was the verbatim message delivered by a holy man during prayers. I think the author was trying to show the divers impact the message had on two different men, but I wish he had done that by other means. It was tedious to read the message without any description of what was going on in the mosque or how the message was being received. For a book that is an allegory, it was quite literal and heavy-handed at times.
At the same time, it tried to accomplish too much in too few pages. Practically speaking, this meant I was frequently struggling to figure out whether I was being introduced to a new character or if I had simply forgotten him. It left me unclear about the fate of an integral character and longing for the emotionally dynamic scenes which happened completely offstage.