Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar

16 reviews

jennswan's review

emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Misogyny, Racism, Transphobia, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Cursing

Minor: Sexual assault

reading_mermaid's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

This is an incredible book, fullfullfull of emotion and heartache and hope and community. 

It is incredibly well written and laid out with endearing, lovable characters. I so highly recommend it.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Islamophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Dysphoria

Minor: Hate crime and Sexual harassment

madzie's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

Joukhadar is one of the most beautiful writers I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Every word in this novel is stitched together in the most ornate tapestry. Poetic and made with gold, every sentence feels exactly like it does to breathe. Beyond the writing, this book fits together beautifully, the plot moving along like a river, with introspective characters that weave together to tell themes about life.

My favorite part of this book was how Joukhadar explores transness, gender, and queerness with beautiful insights and understandings. He boldly tells stories of how queer people have always existed and will always exist despite being silenced or staying silent for protection. With a large cast of queer characters, I love how the book deals with how other people see queerness and how it is a fight to be one’s authentic self. The nuances of how queerness is viewed in society and then in smaller relationships with friends and family is masterfully detailed as Joukhadar demonstrates how people can react to it, thinking that you owe them something, but how we have to journey to accept that we only owe it to ourselves to be authentically us. Then, Joukhadar takes this a step further to connect to the intersectionality of oppression and what the majority of society believes those they have put under them should be. Despite this, Joukhadar reminds his readers of hope and the courage of fighting for oneself, one's identity, and what one believes in. In the end, he highlights lessons, purposes, and identities that are highly important for us to consider and carry with us in our lives.

Other deep and profound themes are handled wonderfully in this novel, exploring grief and moving on, as well as how humans continue to affect one another, the appreciativeness of what we take for granted, and the beautiful connection of humanity to nature, reminding us that nothing ever truly fits into a box. All of these interact with each other to show us how magnificent life can be and how we become who we are.

I could go on and on about this novel, but the bottom line is: read it; it's stunning. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Transphobia, Islamophobia, Grief, Death of parent, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Hate crime, Sexism, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Sexual content

danaaliyalevinson's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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? No

4.5

I liked this book a lot! I’m a sucker for a generational story, which are also really hard to pull off well. I think this book has a few contrivances between the two depicted generations but largely pulls off a satisfying conclusion. The prose is beautiful. And as a trans person reading it, the relationship especially between Nadir and Sami was so beautifully rendered.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Blood, Islamophobia, Grief, Death of parent, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Transphobia, Medical content, and Medical trauma

mscalls's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense 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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Medical content, Dementia, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

puttingwingsonwords's review

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Animal death, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Blood, Islamophobia, and Medical content

Minor: Pregnancy and Sexual harassment

eharms3's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

I think this is the most beautiful book I’ve read, thus far in my life. The writing, the story, all of it. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Hate crime, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Xenophobia, and Islamophobia

jojo_'s review

emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Hate crime, Racism, Xenophobia, Blood, Islamophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Cancer, Homophobia, and Misogyny

Minor: Deadnaming, Transphobia, Dementia, and War

revoluca's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

I loved you once, and I love you still, but not all migrations end with a return home. Even memory begins to cut if you hold on to it too tight. I don't know anymore if I believe in angels and signs. Perhaps we are the miraculous creatures my mother was looking for.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Transphobia, Islamophobia, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Medical content, Grief, and Medical trauma

laurareads87's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-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

The Thirty Names of Night is stunning -- beautiful writing, well structured, nuanced and well-developed characters and a clear setting.  The story alternates between two perspectives -- that of a young Syrian-American trans man living in contemporary-ish Little Syria in NYC, and that of Laila Z, a Syrian American artist who painted and drew birds and who disappeared decades prior.  Both are written in second person, with Nadir addressing his deceased mother and Laila Z's chapters in epistolary format.  This book had me in tears more than once (in the best possible way), and Joukhadar has handled many themes here -- immigration, loss, xenophobia, the pain of contorting oneself to fit gendered expectations, struggles with religion, grief, internalized and external trans- & homophobia, family (birth and chosen) -- so beautifully.  I am immensely grateful to Zeyn Joukhadar for this book, and look forward to reading more from him.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Transphobia, Blood, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

Minor: War