Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'
Frankenstein à Bagdad by Ahmed Saadawi, France Meyer
12 reviews
hoppskotch's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Body horror, Blood, War, Death, Violence, Vomit, Torture, Murder, Grief, Gore, and Car accident
Minor: Alcoholism, Medical trauma, Alcohol, and Misogyny
jsuispoesie's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Graphic: Blood, Car accident, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, War, and Violence
Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Trafficking
addyruth17's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Death, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Alcohol
Minor: War, Cursing, Grief, and Sexual content
tessieferro's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Beautiful, somewhat comical in a twisted way, an unexpected twist on an overused concept. Some parts fell short, but the concept made up for all of it.
Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Death, War, and Body horror
cviii's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Violence, War, Classism, Gun violence, Islamophobia, Mass/school shootings, Colonisation, Death, Dementia, Gore, Grief, Murder, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Xenophobia and Stalking
annemaries_shelves's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I can see why people think it's brilliant and how it won awards, but for me personally, it's fine as a novel. Nothing too special in my reading experience.
As with the original, the monster is the most interesting character and we never get enough time with him. There are a lot of tangents and other character povs, which may be annoying to some readers. I enjoyed how all the characters added to the sense of place and time and the exploration of the American invasion of Iraq and subsequent impacts of war on society. However, this detracted from the framing device of the monster - an extra 20-30 pages with the monster's perspective would've been great.
My favourite characters were Hadi (his story and resolution made me so sad) and Elishva, whose enduring love for her long lost/dead son was bittersweet. I do wish there were more female characters pov than just Elishva, who was painted as the "crazy old woman." Mahmoud - my least favourite and most common pov - had a really awful perspective on women and "love" (aka obsession) that was delusional, disrespectful, and all too common among many men. He frustrated and engaged me as a character.
Overall, an interesting and thought-provoking read that probably won't stick with me too long. I'm glad I finally read this off my shelves.
Graphic: War, Gore, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Car accident, Grief, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Death, Torture, Murder, Police brutality, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual harassment
sophee_568's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
The story takes place in U.S.-occupied Baghdad. The story follows a cast of Baghdad citizens showing how they navigate a city torn by bomb explosions. It shows the growing disparities between Sunnis and Shiites paramilitary troops and the American military troops trying and ultimately failing to bring peace into the city. One of the characters is Hadi, a scavenger who spends most of his time at a local cafe telling stories about his life to anyone willing to listen. Hadi is the Frankenstein of this novel but an accidental one. He collected body parts of the bombing victims and stitched them together to form one whole body, which resided in his shed. What brought it to life was a wondering lost soul who needed a body. It rose from the table and fled into the night. From then on Hadi's creation, called Whatsitsname or Criminal X, decided his mission was to avenge the death of people whose body parts formed his. That mission turned out to be more difficult than it seemed because every time he avenged a person or failed to do so, the body parts started to fall off. That propelled him to constantly look for more body parts, which led him to start murdering innocent people. That's where the innocent vs. guilty debate comes in. How can you know if someone is innocent or not when you see them on the street? If you witness a shoot-out on the street you may think they are criminals, guilty of murder, but that label might only fit at that moment. Before that, couldn't they have been innocent people, leading ordinary lives, who were forced to engage in combat? Who is the real enemy? That is a nerve-wracking topic to explore. As Saadawi said in an interview: "The book is a manifesto against war. It is critical of the American occupation, the former regime, and the current regime." I think the main idea was for the reader to see how senseless and pointless war is.
All the characters in this story come from different ethnic and religious backgrounds but face the same problem of staying alive. They have all been traumatized by war. Elishva lost her son in battle, and Hadi lost his best friend to a bomb explosion. It is a horrible and scary life to live. By the end, many characters will have either died or moved away. Unfortunately, I didn't find myself emotionally invested in the story. Perhaps that is due to the number of characters or the constant switching of POV between the characters. The book is divided into 19 chapters, every chapter having 5 parts. I thought each chapter was going to follow only one character, but after the 5th chapter POVs were constantly switching. I would have preferred for the chapters to have only one POV.
One thing that bothered me was the lack of female characters. Elishva is the only female main character, and she is portrayed as 'crazy' because she cannot deal with her son's death. The way Mahmoud (also one of the main characters) thinks about and treats Nawal is awful. He seemed like a decent character until he forced himself on her. Not to mention the way he treated the prostitute he was with. Those instances made me feel uneasy.
Overall I am giving this book 3 stars because I wasn't that impressed with the execution of the novel. I probably won't read it ever again.
Graphic: Murder, War, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcohol
mme_carton's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Ableism, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Misogyny, Police brutality, Sexism, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Medical content, Gun violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, War, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, and Torture
Moderate: Cursing and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Animal cruelty
spinesinaline's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
While the author doesn’t directly comment on foreign conflicts and warring governments, we see the horrific impacts of this violence on each character in the book and the larger implications and realizations are subtly pushed forward throughout the story for the reader to come to on their own.
Because of this more subtle undertone, it does feel that the descriptions of death and destruction are at times callous or impartial but I think the author’s intentions and style work beautifully in getting his point across.
Graphic: Blood, Suicide, War, Death, Murder, Gun violence, Violence, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual content
savvylit's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The multi-character narration is also what conjures the powerful setting. Saadawi portrays a Baghdad that has been utterly destroyed by the U.S. invasion. Not only that, but he also demonstrates the resulting corruption and in-fighting that went hand-in-hand with the invasion. Baghdad is in ruins, no one can be trusted, and the streets are littered with corpses. Residents are fleeing to the countryside or leaving Iraq entirely. The glimpses of the true reality of senseless modern war in this novel are incredibly sobering.
All that being said, I ultimately felt neutral upon finishing Frankenstein in Baghdad. I think perhaps some of the dark humor that has been ascribed to this book fell flat for me, personally. Maybe it is an issue of translation or just general cultural differences. I'm not sure. I definitely got that some of the bureaucrats featured were exaggerated caricatures of real officials. However, I didn't actually experience comedy. Also, the portrayal of women in this novel is pretty terrible. Elishva is pitiful & disrespected and the way that Mahmoud acts around Nawal near the book's end is gross.
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death, Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Grief, War, Physical abuse, Violence, Suicide, Police brutality, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Misogyny and Sexual harassment