thatswhatfazread 's review for:

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

5.0

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Dear Kite Runner, Amir and Hasan, you have changed me forever, and I will always remember you.

Take my 6 stars, take my life!
For you a thousand times over.

Review:
 

It’s not that the writing isn’t good - because it is - but this book is far from beautiful. The story is gut-wrenchingly, heart-stoppingly harrowing. It’s taken me about a week to even start writing this review, partly because not every book needs a review, right? And mostly because I’ve been telling everyone the same thing: “I felt like my heart was going to cave in.” 

 

That was at 12:48 a.m., right after I finished Chapter 24. I just sat there, stunned. I couldn’t believe the cruelty of life, the kind of pain that would drive a child to what Sohrab did. 

 

And that’s when it hit me: this book has already changed me, and Insha’Allah, it will change my life. 

 

It’s made me want to do something, however small, to end this master-servant culture that poisoned Hassan and Amir’s childhood before it even began. If that hierarchy didn’t exist, maybe they could have been equals. Brothers. Saved from the heartache that shaped their entire lives. 

 

It’s also made me think about education - not as an abstract right, but as something every child, without exception, must have. No one’s future should be dictated by the accident of their birth. 

 

The book lays bare so many things: 

 

1. War: and how its cost is always borne by the children (Sohrab’s story is proof enough).
   
   
2. Toxic masculinity: not only in Assef, but in Amir and Baba’s strained bond. Baba’s unyielding ideals of what it meant to be a “man”, his emotional distance, and his favouritism shaped so much of Amir’s decisions.
   
   
3. Forgiveness: something I’ve never found easy. Hassan’s ability to forgive is almost beyond comprehension; it comes from a humility and generosity of spirit that you rarely encounter.
   
   
4. Purity of heart: Hassan embodies it. And I can’t help but wonder why. Is it because he was untouched by the kind of “education” that so often carries hierarchy, prejudice, and outside influences along with it?

Then as I said in the beginning, the writing isn't beautiful in the normal sense, but it certainly doesn’t hold back. Every scene has a significance, and while there might some comfort moments in the quiet making of the tea or the excitement in the kite flying, they exist solely to make your chest ache when they are referenced at a later time. Even the call to prayer isn’t just in the background, it’s a reminder of faith, constancy, and the chance for redemption - all themes in the book.

The story feels so true to Afghanistan and South Asia that it barely reads like fiction. Some say it is melodramatic or only one version of Afghanistan’s reality, and that may be true, but it misses the point. The real power is in how it shows the tragedy that defines the lives of children and adults in war-torn places.  If you pick this up, please know: this story could almost be true. Read it to understand, to be better. But also — prepare yourself.