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pickA short, effective story of vulnerable children in s war zone. The child characters are well drawn. The “evil” adult characters were one note. There were many coincidences to move the story forward.
panRead this one for book club, otherwise I wouldn't have finished it. Allende is passionate about immigration and tells the story of multiple characters who emigrated for difficult reasons, from Samuel on Kindertransport during WW2 to Anita arriving from El Salvador in 2019. The overly didactic and expositional writing style were frustrating, and I think she tried to do too much in less than 260 pages.
pickCharacters were likable but I also loved that they did mistakes and weren't flawless.
This was a bit rough to read, this told about people who were living in the middle of the war and there weren't that many happy moments.
This had some repetitive sentences and also could have been a bit shorter. But this was pretty intriguing to read.
pickWhen I started this book,I immediately wanted to bail.Nahid,the narrator has just been diagnosed with cancer.She came across to me as a despicable person-angry,nasty, to her daughter & those around her.But something pulled me back into her story & I am so thankful I responded to that pull.As her life story slowly emerged,as she struggled to understand her journey herself & cope with her diagnosis,I began to feel empathy.A refugee of the Iranian🔽
pick19 Mar-15 Apr 24
I cannot recall being as frightened by a book since ‘In Cold Blood‘, which aroused a similar feeling that this could just as easily happen to me. As the book begins, Eilish‘s life seems so normal.
Lynch‘s depiction of a totalitarian Ireland is literally gut-wrenching, particularly the final 100 pages which depict the fear and desperation that lead to millions fleeing for a place of refuge. The ending has left me absolutely shaken.
pickIt's Jill Paton Walsh, so if course it was incredibly thought-provoking and philosophical. A proper Art of Soul book, @BarbaraJean. I finished it in the midnight hours when I couldn't sleep and haven't been able to stop thinking about it. Beautiful writing, highly recommended. ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
so-soThis is a story of Syrian refugees Nuri and Afra and their journey to find asylum in the UK. It was well written but the format of the dual timeline threw me off at times of what time frame I was in. Usually that doesn‘t affect me but honestly the story was just not keeping my interest and I started skimming just to get through. There was nothing in the story that made me want to read more to see how it ends. Just blah for me 😕
