Reviews

Son of Sin by Omar Sakr

mugglebornofoz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

3.75

aubreystrawberry's review

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

5.0

rafqa_touma's review against another edition

4.0

A sexual awakening underscores bigger tensions – of faith, racism, tradition and shame – in a tender and candid first novel from the prize-winning poet.

You can check out my review on Sakr's debut for Guardian Aus here: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/feb/25/son-of-sin-by-omar-sakr-review-a-queer-muslim-boy-comes-of-age-in-poetic-vivid-debut#comments

kirstyymac's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? Yes

3.25

enbyreads's review against another edition

slow-paced

3.75

glitterpricked's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.25

very interesting read! there are more and more books nowadays about gay muslim men. i'm a queer woman in a muslim household, so this kind of thing should be up my alley, but i tend to stay away from books that deal with religion. i'm glad i picked this up though, because i really enjoyed the family dynamics and the protagonist's inner anxieties. i think the plot was developed well, and i was pleasantly surprised by the ending.

i think my main issue with it was structural. this is a debut novel, so already you can expect that this might not be the author's full potential. however, it is also a debut novel by a poet, which adds another layer to that: the prose flows a little like poetry. the overall structure follows that too, to the point where it sometimes got hard for me to follow the time skips. this is a stylistic choice, so i'm sure a lot of people would enjoy it more than i did, but i think i prefer time skips with more clarity. i'm also not a fan of poetry, so take that into account if you decide to pick up this book.

toolittletime's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

4.0

Beautiful book. Interesting story of familial bonds (good and bad), coming of age, and finding oneself caught in the in between. I did except there to be more magical realism (especially with the opening). Though I hate books when books don't have quotation marks (it is hard to for me to follow), I still really enjoyed the writing in this book. I love reading queer fiction that covers the depth and breadth of queerness and this did!

kmaio728's review against another edition

medium-paced

4.25

jade_smith's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

This was an endlessly important story, and Omar Sakr's writing style was, at times, captivatingly brilliant. I'm a fan of his poetry, and some of the lines in this novel were so good that I had to pause, think, and reread. Sakr's ability to bring to life the anger, shame, and complicated types of love felt by his characters and their communities was commendable. 

This being said, the structure of the novel didn't quite work for me. It felt half way between a family soap opera (a fact indeed acknowledged by characters in-text), a coming of age epic, and a piece of poetry. And it really, almost, nearly worked phenomenally, but the disconnect was enough that this novel never quite landed the way I wanted it to. 

This being said, I acknowledge that I am writing from a very Anglo-Australian background. This novel would have no doubt affected me very differently if I came from a first- or second-gen immigrant family. For this reason, I'm hesitant to frame the things that didn't "work" for me about the novel as critiques, so much as points of critical consideration. 

We need more stories like these, and we need more writers like Omar Sakr. Coming in at just under 300 pages, this is a book that's worth picking up. 

rnmcfarlane's review

challenging dark emotional 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

3.0