margauxxx's review against another edition
5.0
Devastating. My heart broke so many times reading this book.
squireskay's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
cherit's review against another edition
5.0
Beautiful, heartbreaking, yet hopeful.
"The bees are family to us."
"she inhaled the world like it was a rose."
"Here it was as if we were all living in the darkest shadow of a solar eclipse."
"She did not cry when _x_ died. Instead her face had turned to stone."
"I think the bees are like us. They are vulnerable like us. But then there are people like Mustafa. There are people like him in the world, and those people bring life rather than death."
"and for that moment we were both the people we used to be."
"I remembered what Angeliki had said about Odysseus when we had first arrived here, how he had traveled to all those places, made such a journey to distant lands, in order to find his way home. But there was no home for us."
"The bees are family to us."
"she inhaled the world like it was a rose."
"Here it was as if we were all living in the darkest shadow of a solar eclipse."
"She did not cry when _x_ died. Instead her face had turned to stone."
"I think the bees are like us. They are vulnerable like us. But then there are people like Mustafa. There are people like him in the world, and those people bring life rather than death."
"and for that moment we were both the people we used to be."
"I remembered what Angeliki had said about Odysseus when we had first arrived here, how he had traveled to all those places, made such a journey to distant lands, in order to find his way home. But there was no home for us."
hayles's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
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? It's complicated
3.0
daybreak1012's review against another edition
4.0
It's been almost a week since I finished this book and I still don't know how to review it, so I guess we'll just see what comes out stream of consciousness.
What I liked about The Beekeeper of Aleppo:
The peripheral characters - Oddly, it wasn't so much the main characters that caught my heart (I have a theory on that all of a sudden, but we'll see to that in a minute), but the supporting cast. There was something endearing about the people who surrounded Nuri and Afra. Oh, not all of them. Some of them were just... horrendously evil. But there were some who were just the brightest light in an otherwise harrowing story.
All the places - Christy Lefteri is a remarkable storyteller. The scenes she painted of the places Afra and Nuri were, even when these places held the darkest of events, were just breathtaking. So many of the locations were places I am not that familiar with so I spent some time Googling images as well and just... wow, her ability to describe a location was stunning.
Ease of movement between timelines - I will applaud the author loud and long for the way she broke between the current circumstances and the flashbacks into various points in Nuri's past. It was clear and obvious, not just by the content, but in the way the break was structured; you can literally see the transition with your eyes on the page.
What I didn't care for:
The book just stops - This was major for me. I felt like the final page turns and you don't get to know what happens to any of these characters. I don't mean in the long run; there is no resolution to some of the events that occurred in the storytelling that played a major role in the plot. This is not an open-endedness that I at all appreciate. How do we simply not get to know anything about what will become of these people?
What left me conflicted:
Afra and Nuri - I want to be clear: I did not dislike them. It's just that their story was so hard to read and I couldn't separate from that, so I almost dreaded spending time with them because I knew it was going to emotionally drain me every time.
This book is some heavy reading - Don't misunderstand me. Considering this fictional book got its roots in the stories of actual refugees, I believe it to be critically important to read topics, such as this novel portrays, especially when they are hard, in order to gain some perspective, some empathy, some compassion for situations we may never personally encounter. But those benefits don't diminish how truly difficult it is to read such heavy content. As a result, I was only able to digest a small portion at a time; this isn't a book I could tear through at even my regular reading pace. It is well-written and it isn't cognitively difficult to read, but mentally and emotionally? Oof.
Worth noting:
There are hard things in this book - I don't want to provide spoilers but there are really difficult things to read in the telling of this story. Imagine refugees of war and the things that might happen to them as they flee with no certain safe destination. Terrible ways that they might suffer and be preyed upon. In the context of this book, I don't believe them to be unnecessary but that does not make them any easier to read. Very rarely is this book explicit, but I will be direct in saying that it often didn't need to be, as there was no mistaking what the author wanted to convey.
This book came highly recommended to me by a friend. She was not incorrect. It is an incredibly moving story, and one that I believe to be of sobering transformation, especially if you take the time to absorb that these things are happening in the real world, apart from the scenes in the pages. I cannot reiterate enough the heaviness of the words; it impacted me. The only thing that prevented me from a higher star-rating is the ending, although I cannot say that I loved the book. It was just too heavy and hard for that.
The peripheral characters - Oddly, it wasn't so much the main characters that caught my heart (I have a theory on that all of a sudden, but we'll see to that in a minute), but the supporting cast. There was something endearing about the people who surrounded Nuri and Afra. Oh, not all of them. Some of them were just... horrendously evil. But there were some who were just the brightest light in an otherwise harrowing story.
All the places - Christy Lefteri is a remarkable storyteller. The scenes she painted of the places Afra and Nuri were, even when these places held the darkest of events, were just breathtaking. So many of the locations were places I am not that familiar with so I spent some time Googling images as well and just... wow, her ability to describe a location was stunning.
Ease of movement between timelines - I will applaud the author loud and long for the way she broke between the current circumstances and the flashbacks into various points in Nuri's past. It was clear and obvious, not just by the content, but in the way the break was structured; you can literally see the transition with your eyes on the page.
What I didn't care for:
The book just stops - This was major for me. I felt like the final page turns and you don't get to know what happens to any of these characters. I don't mean in the long run; there is no resolution to some of the events that occurred in the storytelling that played a major role in the plot. This is not an open-endedness that I at all appreciate. How do we simply not get to know anything about what will become of these people?
What left me conflicted:
Afra and Nuri - I want to be clear: I did not dislike them. It's just that their story was so hard to read and I couldn't separate from that, so I almost dreaded spending time with them because I knew it was going to emotionally drain me every time.
This book is some heavy reading - Don't misunderstand me. Considering this fictional book got its roots in the stories of actual refugees, I believe it to be critically important to read topics, such as this novel portrays, especially when they are hard, in order to gain some perspective, some empathy, some compassion for situations we may never personally encounter. But those benefits don't diminish how truly difficult it is to read such heavy content. As a result, I was only able to digest a small portion at a time; this isn't a book I could tear through at even my regular reading pace. It is well-written and it isn't cognitively difficult to read, but mentally and emotionally? Oof.
Worth noting:
There are hard things in this book - I don't want to provide spoilers but there are really difficult things to read in the telling of this story. Imagine refugees of war and the things that might happen to them as they flee with no certain safe destination. Terrible ways that they might suffer and be preyed upon. In the context of this book, I don't believe them to be unnecessary but that does not make them any easier to read. Very rarely is this book explicit, but I will be direct in saying that it often didn't need to be, as there was no mistaking what the author wanted to convey.
This book came highly recommended to me by a friend. She was not incorrect. It is an incredibly moving story, and one that I believe to be of sobering transformation, especially if you take the time to absorb that these things are happening in the real world, apart from the scenes in the pages. I cannot reiterate enough the heaviness of the words; it impacted me. The only thing that prevented me from a higher star-rating is the ending, although I cannot say that I loved the book. It was just too heavy and hard for that.
plants_pages_poultry's review against another edition
5.0
A beautiful written tale of the refugee experience. The Beekeeper of Aleppo is told through the eyes of a man fleeing Syria with his wife who was blinded in the bombing that killed their son. This novel is a reminder of how far we can be pushed to the brink but will continue to push forward.
davros4's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
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
5.0