Reviews with content warning for Violence - Season of Migration to the North

Honestly I feel like I wasn’t smart enough for this book. It was beautifully written, even in translation, and at times it felt like a fever dream. I think it’s an excellent book. It’s complex, engrossing, and certainly deserves its reputation as a classic. However, it was not a book I especially enjoyed on a personal level.

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leselina's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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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niallgoulding1's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

I was disappointed by this book. I'd heard so many great things & expected a deep examination of post-colonialism. A counterpoint to Heart of Darkness (full disclosure a book I also didn't enjoy). But instead I got a tale of one man's time as a fetishised, exotic sexual play thing for a group of self destructive upper class British women. Wrapped by a depressing tale of a traditional, patriarchal village exploding into a tragic event that was so cartooonishly over the top that I couldn't find it in myself to care.

Like Heart of Darkness, the writing is beautiful in places and I'm sure that this could form part of an interesting lit course comparing and contrasting the literature of coloniser and colonised. But I struggle to find any value reading it alone.

Another reviewer mentioned the question posed on the back cover, "But what is the meaning of Mustafa's confession?"and how having finished the book they were still left pondering the same question. I think that sums up my experience with the book. Maybe it was above my ability but I struggled to see the point of this

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kitness's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.75

Clean yet beautiful prose, very intelligent, psychologically penetrating, and culturally and historically analytical. Great book.

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confuusedcreaturex4's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

3.0

I still feel like I don't what to feel about this fever dream of a book
I liked the writing,he's certainly a good writer,I loved the descriptions and the places and so many things about the writing but I just couldn't look over the sexism and misogyny there even tho I know that it's understandable considering the time and place but I still didn't like how many times it wasn't addressed as an issue and sometimes even the characters that re aware of the wrongness of some things sometimes it feels like they act as if they don't think its that much of abig deal, the explicit sexual scenes were just toooo much,the way Mustafa and some of the elderlies talks about women was just so disgusting and racist at so many times,I read a lot of reviews to see what other people thought about this cause know it has to signify something bigger about colonization and all but I stillfeel like that wasn't the best way to talk about it ,in just 200 pages there was a lot of stuff and I was often left confused and perplexed,I'm sure with time ill probably change my mind about so many things and think about some others but for now that's all of it and unf again still cant really wrap my head around it for some reason

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oliversghost's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative tense slow-paced

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

3.75

so much and also nothing happened in this book. really good but i kept falling asleep reading it.

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dawntin's review against another edition

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dark reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

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