nuhafariha's reviews
1210 reviews

Extinction Capital of the World: Stories by Mariah Rigg

challenging dark emotional hopeful relaxing sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Thank you Ecco and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

Available August 2025.

Whew - it's been a while since I read a collection of short stories as captivating as Mariah Rigg's Extinction Capital of the World. Told through a variety of narrators who are all interconnected, this collection attempts to capture the beauty and tragedy of modern life on the islands of Hawaii. What seems like one isolated tale slowly unfurls itself into a beautiful, colorful tapestry of domestic life and its political weight. Looming in the background is this ever present sense of loss - loss of parents, of children, of lovers, of land and history, of life itself. Yet Riggs balances it by showing us the new ways life carries on and on and on. Excellent work!

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Thank you Knopf for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

Available March 2025.

Set in the distant future, Laila Lalami's newest novel follows a young Morrocan woman as she navigates a predatory security system. When Sara is flagged as a potential threat to public safety, she thinks it is just a glitch. A one hour wait to speak with Risk Assessment turns into a day retained at the local facility turns into 340 days apart from her two children. Lalami explores the dangers for for profit prison system, painting a grim future I can imagine quite easily. Yet I wish Sara had turned evil a lot sooner - I was rooting for her Black August like prison strike. The ending felt liks it came so rapidly.

The Black Period: On Personhood, Race, and Origin by Hafizah Augustus Geter

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the Reader's Copy!

Now available.

Part memoir, part historical speculation, part dreaming, The Black Period by Hafizah Augustus Geter is a beautiful exploration of what it means to be a Black woman in America. Fraught with the tension of past and present racism, homophobia, Islamophobia, sexual and physical violence, domestic violence, and more, Geter tenderly traces the amorphous borders of her existence. This book will break your heart and fill you with angst and wonder.  It is deeply researched and deeply felt and I feel grateful to have recieved Geter's words in this universe.

Good Girl by Aria Aber

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy.

Available January 2025.

Compulsively readable, Aria Aber's debut novel is like a retelling of Bluebeard set in contemporary Germany and imbued with a heap of drugs and indie cinema aesthetics. While I generally enjoyed the writing style, I found myself getting annoyed with some of the vapid comments of the narrator and her own self sabatoge. As a Muslim immigrant myself, it felt like the narrator despised her own skin and cultural heritage and upheld values of white supremacy. I had trouble with this aspect of the book and it soured the reading experience some.

Leaked Footages by Abu Bakr Sadiq

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

Thank you to University of Nebraska and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

Available Nov 2024.

In his essay, "What Does It Mean To Look At This?", Teju Cole asks us what it means to look at scenes of violence from wars, at destroyed bodies, at distant brutality through our screens.

In Leaked Footages, Abu Bakr Saqid asks the same question. Told through a series of conversations with a cyborg, Sadiq explores the bloody history of Nigeria, including Boko Haram's kidnapping of women and senseless killing of men. Faith, nation, and technology are intertwined, as the book struggles to make meaning of it all.

A History of Hazardous Objects: A Novel by Yxta Maya Murray

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Thank you to University of Nevada Press and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

Now available.

I have such a deep appreciation for Yxta Maya Murray - The World Doesn't Work That Way But It Could is one of my favorite collections. Though A History of Hazardous Objects is a different form, a long narrative rather than short stories, both share a perspective of seeing the world with deep inquisition, love, and care. What I loved most about this book is how it made the cosmos, often vast and unknowable, deeply human by exploring the lives of the scientists themselves. As our narrator delves deeper into the despair of the Universe and impending doom of Aphos, her personal world also implodes with COVID, rise in police brutality, and sickness. The personal and the cosmos are embedded in our cells, Murray seems to urge us, and we are intricately connected to the world we inhabit, to our past, and our future.

Goddess Complex: A Novel by Sanjena Sathian

challenging dark emotional funny reflective fast-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

5.0

Whew. This was a truly wild journey through the world of pregnancies, cults, drugs, and traumatic brain injuries. When 39 year old Sanjana comes home from a year long stint in Bombay researching an old religous figure, she is forced to confront everything she ran away from - a failed PhD, strained family relations, a failed marriage, and above all, her own fertility. She starts to get messages from...herself? And thus begins an unravelling and reckoning with what it means to be a modern woman. This book is both hilarious and equally disturbing, resonating with the double consciousness of what it means to be a modern woman. I could not put it down! Highly highly recommend.

Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People by Imani Perry

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.25

Thanks to Ecco and Netgalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

Available January 2025

Expansive yet precise, Imani Perry's Black in Blues traces the appearance of the term blue in African and Black history, starting pre-colonization and ending in our present era. As with all of Perry's books, there is a delicate balance of history, cultural analysis, and personal reflection. I thoroughly enjoyed the vivid way Perry brings it all to life and seems to be able to time travel without much break in logical reasoning. What felt a bit off was the ending, particularly the multiple endings. With a book this enormous, I know a tidy ending wasn't possible, but it feels like Perry became ummoored and lost in the blues herself. Still, this is a worthy read! 

With My Back to the World: Poems by Victoria Chang

challenging emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.75

Thank you to FSG and NetGalley for the ARC.

Now available.

Deep and orderly, this ekphrastic poetry collection explores Agnes Martin's artwork. At the same time, Chang discusses the passing of her father, the recent rise of violence against Asian American women, and her own struggles with depression. The poems are transformative, starting at one place and shifting to another. I loved seeing the paintings intermix with Chang's own lines, the comparison of paint lines to the written lines.

The Great Hippopotamus Hotel by Alexander McCall Smith

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

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

5.0

Thanks to Knopf and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

Available November 14th.

I was in ninth grade when I first found Mma Ramotswe and the No 1 Ladies Dectective Agency. Now it's been over a decade and I still look forward to each new addition to the series, to hearing the ever enduring, gentle hearted Mma solve a never ending series of mysteries in her home country of Botswana. This particular story is more heavily led by Mma Matsuki, but is still just as delightful as the rest. I recommend pairing this book with your favorite cup of red tea and an indulgent slice of fruit cake and an afternoon of mystery and humor.