serendipitysbooks's review against another edition
emotional
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? Yes
4.0
Another gorgeously written novel from Elif Shafak’s backlist, albeit one that didn’t work as well for me as many of her others due to it’s subject matter. Perri is a young Turkish woman, raised by an non-believing father and a Muslim mother. She herself is fairly confused about her beliefs. She attends university at Oxford where she develops a friendship with two other Muslim woman - Mona who is devout and Shirin, who is very much not. At Oxford she takes a course on God, taught by an unconventional and supposedly charismatic teacher and develops something of an obsession with him. Lots of interesting inter-personal dynamics, commentary on the differences between East and West, as well as some important reminders for western readers about the diversity within the Muslim community and the dangers and limitations of assumptions and stereotyping. Overall there was too much discussion of God and spiritual beliefs for my personal taste. Had it not been Shafak I may have DNF’d but I really enjoy her way with words, the way she structures a story, and her storytelling abilities in general. This may not have been my favourite but it won’t put me off reading more from her backlist or any future releases.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Religious bigotry, Islamophobia, and Sexual assault
danachiong's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
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
4.5
The pacing in the start might be a bit slow but it's really only to set up the tone of the book. Once you get into the rhythm it's an amazing read!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Islamophobia, Xenophobia, Torture, War, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual assault, Alcohol, and Sexism
internationalreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Classism, Death, Grief, Violence, Mental illness, Sexism, Xenophobia, Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Islamophobia, Animal death, Misogyny, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Toxic relationship
ohnoshin's review against another edition
emotional
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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, and Islamophobia
Moderate: Suicide attempt and Torture
soljankas's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
stunning prose, but the plot seemed a bit disappointing with much of it being built up for 3/4 of the novel with the rest very quickly being revealed towards the end. still would absolutely recommend it just for the writing style
Content Warnings
Moderate: Torture, Islamophobia, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Pregnancy
vaniavela's review against another edition
emotional
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? Yes
4.0
Peri, a woman with a stable, upper-class life, is over-jumped by an robbery. She is a caring mother, but once upon a time she was a student in Oxford, England. When an old Polaroid snapshot falls out of her expensive handbag during the mugging, all the memories of that time [and of two friendships long gone] come flooding back to her.
This is a slow-paced book, full of rich and realistic descriptions, with which we embark on an exploration of faith, religion and finding our own path.
Three Daughters of Eve is a very philosophical book. I found it interesting to soak in these new perspectives and to meet a character like Peri.
Unfortunately, when I picked up this book, I got carried away with the idea that the friend group would be more important. The title of the book gave me the idea that this story would revolve around them, and their ups and downs, but more than that, we were given an introspection of Peri's life. I don't mention it as a complaint, I loved getting to know her story, but I was expecting more of her friends.
I really recommend this book.
CW: Graphic [Sexual assault, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry] Moderate [Suicide attempt, Torture, Child death] Minor [Animal death, Rape]
This is a slow-paced book, full of rich and realistic descriptions, with which we embark on an exploration of faith, religion and finding our own path.
Three Daughters of Eve is a very philosophical book. I found it interesting to soak in these new perspectives and to meet a character like Peri.
Unfortunately, when I picked up this book, I got carried away with the idea that the friend group would be more important. The title of the book gave me the idea that this story would revolve around them, and their ups and downs, but more than that, we were given an introspection of Peri's life. I don't mention it as a complaint, I loved getting to know her story, but I was expecting more of her friends.
I really recommend this book.
CW: Graphic [Sexual assault, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry] Moderate [Suicide attempt, Torture, Child death] Minor [Animal death, Rape]
Content Warnings
Graphic: Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Torture, Child death, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Rape and Animal death
aseel_reads's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- 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
3.0
the book was hard to get into at the beginning, the writing style is a stylistic choice that i don't really enjoy (says one sentence for the plot, next paragraph is some side tangent fact and then goes back to the plot), but then i got used to it and i enjoyed the story. was super intrigued about the scandal mentioned in the blurb. so the middle part was great and then the ending... very underwhelming and not at all what i expected. i didn't like how it ended at all. the reader was given expectations and they were definitely not met.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Islamophobia, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, and Torture
Minor: Rape
ziege's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Islamophobia, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Suicide attempt
jnb2796's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Islamophobia
Minor: Abortion, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, and Suicide attempt
iridium's review against another edition
dark
emotional
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? Yes
4.0
So here are two things I hate: dinner-party narratives and campus novels.
Dinner-party narratives usually take the form of stage plays rather than novels, but I hate them because they're pretty much all the same, and to me the urge to write a play about a dinner party can only come from from a writer whose ability to express emotions in any way other than snide passive-aggression has atrophied.
Meanwhile, campus novels are always soccer-mom conservative-talk-radio alarmism disguised in a tweed jacket. All this horseshit about "campus radicals" and "hookup culture" and it inevitably rings completely false, like they're written by someone who's never been to college and gets all their impressions of what college is like from the Daily Caller.
So given these opinions of mine, what compelled me to read a book that's half about a dinner party and half about a university experience? I'm not sure. I guess a part of me is always yearning for someone to come along and tell these stories properly. So is that what happened here? Kind of.
Readers should be aware that the back cover description/title/cover of the US paperback edition is a little misleading about the contents of the book. It's not that it's a lie, necessarily, but the front and back cover both work together to give the impression that Shirin, Mona, and Peri (the Sinner, the Believer, and the Confused, respectively) are three co-protagonists. Peri is the only protagonist. Shirin and Mona don't get introduced until almost halfway through the book. A substantial section of the book is about Peri's childhood in Istanbul, not Oxford. The more relevant Sinner and Believer are her father and mother.
This isn't a bad thing, though. I enjoyed reading about Peri's life. Many parts of this book really resonated with me, even the political discussion they were having at the dinner party. Shafak painted a portrait of Istanbul here, where on one hand the wealthy urbanites there are just like the wealthy urbanites in the West, while on the other hand there was that ever-present element of danger and instability that people were trying to ignore.
The campus part was tolerable because it rang a little more true to me. It focused on the intellectual side, which so many campus novels don't. I kind of hated Professor Azur, though, not gonna lie. I thought he was full of it, just as dogmatic about God in his own way. He reminded me of that one skeevy professor in Animal House who was like, "literature is bullshit, I hate teaching this, do you ever think about if our whole universe is in an atom on a giant's fingernail?" This didn't really bother me because it didn't feel like the book was demanding that I like him, just that I could see why Peri would be drawn to him.
Then, let's account for the bullshit mainstays of campus novels, which are: 1) "I'm the only authentic person here so I don't fit in with all these snooty rich kids", 2) hand-wringing about drugs and sex on campuses 3) Broad-side-of-the-barn "satire" about political correctness.
Even though Peri struggled with money, there wasn't a whole lot of #1, just because the book didn't act like she was the only person there who was working class or foreign. #2 was thankfully not in the book at all. #3 was mostly absent from the book, although there was regrettably a bit about deplatforming at the end. So for these reasons, I found the university sections of the book compelling and readable.
The dinner party segments weren't quite as interesting as the rest of the book (until the end) but they weren't boring. They were more tolerable because they didn't take up the whole book, and I guess it did seem important, the things they were talking about. Even though they as people were meant to be vapid, they had real concerns in their lives.
As for Shirin and Mona, I definitely felt that Mona was a flatter character than Shirin was. I think it was that Shirin's character felt very specific to her time and place while Mona's didn't, and you'd think it would. I thought her family being in New Jersey at the time of 9/11 would be more significant than it ended up being; at the very least, I thought it'd bring about a change in her. It didn't seem to. Another thing is that Shirin had to do with the plot, while Mona didn't. She was sort of superfluous.
The themes were occasionally expressed in a way that was sort of on-the-nose (so the following is not a direct quote, just something to help you get the general idea, but it'd be like "her father was West and her mother was East, and they clashed within her just like they clashed within Istanbul"/"professor Azur was like God, himself"/"listening to Mona and Shirin argue reminded Peri of listening to her mother and father argue" etc.). I did love the themes, though. I wasn't quite sure what to make of the ending. I might have different opinions about it once I've had time to mull it over.
I had been struggling with whether to give this a 4 or 5 stars. I settled on 4, just because it took me a while to read it, and because of the on-the-nose moments I mentioned earlier.
Dinner-party narratives usually take the form of stage plays rather than novels, but I hate them because they're pretty much all the same, and to me the urge to write a play about a dinner party can only come from from a writer whose ability to express emotions in any way other than snide passive-aggression has atrophied.
Meanwhile, campus novels are always soccer-mom conservative-talk-radio alarmism disguised in a tweed jacket. All this horseshit about "campus radicals" and "hookup culture" and it inevitably rings completely false, like they're written by someone who's never been to college and gets all their impressions of what college is like from the Daily Caller.
So given these opinions of mine, what compelled me to read a book that's half about a dinner party and half about a university experience? I'm not sure. I guess a part of me is always yearning for someone to come along and tell these stories properly. So is that what happened here? Kind of.
Readers should be aware that the back cover description/title/cover of the US paperback edition is a little misleading about the contents of the book. It's not that it's a lie, necessarily, but the front and back cover both work together to give the impression that Shirin, Mona, and Peri (the Sinner, the Believer, and the Confused, respectively) are three co-protagonists. Peri is the only protagonist. Shirin and Mona don't get introduced until almost halfway through the book. A substantial section of the book is about Peri's childhood in Istanbul, not Oxford. The more relevant Sinner and Believer are her father and mother.
This isn't a bad thing, though. I enjoyed reading about Peri's life. Many parts of this book really resonated with me, even the political discussion they were having at the dinner party. Shafak painted a portrait of Istanbul here, where on one hand the wealthy urbanites there are just like the wealthy urbanites in the West, while on the other hand there was that ever-present element of danger and instability that people were trying to ignore.
The campus part was tolerable because it rang a little more true to me. It focused on the intellectual side, which so many campus novels don't. I kind of hated Professor Azur, though, not gonna lie. I thought he was full of it, just as dogmatic about God in his own way. He reminded me of that one skeevy professor in Animal House who was like, "literature is bullshit, I hate teaching this, do you ever think about if our whole universe is in an atom on a giant's fingernail?" This didn't really bother me because it didn't feel like the book was demanding that I like him, just that I could see why Peri would be drawn to him.
Then, let's account for the bullshit mainstays of campus novels, which are: 1) "I'm the only authentic person here so I don't fit in with all these snooty rich kids", 2) hand-wringing about drugs and sex on campuses 3) Broad-side-of-the-barn "satire" about political correctness.
Even though Peri struggled with money, there wasn't a whole lot of #1, just because the book didn't act like she was the only person there who was working class or foreign. #2 was thankfully not in the book at all. #3 was mostly absent from the book, although there was regrettably a bit about deplatforming at the end. So for these reasons, I found the university sections of the book compelling and readable.
The dinner party segments weren't quite as interesting as the rest of the book (until the end) but they weren't boring. They were more tolerable because they didn't take up the whole book, and I guess it did seem important, the things they were talking about. Even though they as people were meant to be vapid, they had real concerns in their lives.
As for Shirin and Mona, I definitely felt that Mona was a flatter character than Shirin was. I think it was that Shirin's character felt very specific to her time and place while Mona's didn't, and you'd think it would. I thought her family being in New Jersey at the time of 9/11 would be more significant than it ended up being; at the very least, I thought it'd bring about a change in her. It didn't seem to. Another thing is that Shirin had to do with the plot, while Mona didn't. She was sort of superfluous.
The themes were occasionally expressed in a way that was sort of on-the-nose (so the following is not a direct quote, just something to help you get the general idea, but it'd be like "her father was West and her mother was East, and they clashed within her just like they clashed within Istanbul"/"professor Azur was like God, himself"/"listening to Mona and Shirin argue reminded Peri of listening to her mother and father argue" etc.). I did love the themes, though. I wasn't quite sure what to make of the ending. I might have different opinions about it once I've had time to mull it over.
I had been struggling with whether to give this a 4 or 5 stars. I settled on 4, just because it took me a while to read it, and because of the on-the-nose moments I mentioned earlier.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Colonisation, Death, and Islamophobia