A review by blove0312
Salt Houses by Hala Alyan

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

<i>What is a life? A series of yeses and noes, photographs you shove in a drawer somewhere, loves you think will save you but that cannot. Continuing to move, enduring, not stopping even when there is pain. That's all life is, he wants to tell her. It's continuing.</i>

At first I didn’t think I liked the jumps in time, believing I was losing a lot of detail, but I’ve found that it adds a depth to the story that otherwise each “chapter” doesn’t have on its own. 

Atef is without a doubt my most favorite. But they all had a story to tell, a war they lived through, a home(s) they lost; family they scorned, grew apart from and then back together. I’m not sure at what point it hit me, just how emotional the entire book is, but it packs a punch and leaves an ache behind, even with, or especially because of, the ending. 

Beautiful. Haunting.