Reviews

Somebody Loves You by Mona Arshi

lavrendy's review against another edition

3.0

sweet, subtle vignettes from a young girl named ruby. nothing major to report except that it’s another great addition to my collections about girlhood and motherhood!

littlehonourings's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

A poetic exploration of family, love and madness

nhazra1's review against another edition

5.0

4.5/5 stars, tw for SA in the later chapters

i really like prose-style fiction, and i loved how the different chapters of this book connected but were still distinct vignettes of ruby's life.

it's like that one tumblr post. mothers and daughters existing as wretched mirrors of each other; i am all you could have been and you are all i might be. started reading this during an especially difficult time for me and my own mother wound and found myself held in ruby's tiny, silent hands.

cchipmunck's review against another edition

5.0

the way in which a lack of words allows the speaker a freedom to float in the liminal. but this floating refuses to have order, it does not consent to the notion of “tradition” rather, those things that define us in the smallest ways are collated to craft steps that we can use to fall/float

thuhufa's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-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

4.25

Childhood that turns into girlhood and sisterhood, told from the pov of a brown girl growing up in England, who stops speaking. She is learning the conditions of being a girl, of the world’s prescription of femininity and growing out of the innocence and ignorance of being a child by observing what is expected of her. She is observing her sister, her friends, her neighbour and most of all her mother who goes in and out of depressive episodes and her father who steps in as the primary carer for the family and most of all her mother. 
Mona Arshi is a poet and you can really tell, in the best way possible. Ruby was someone I wanted to befriend and protect. Loved loved this book.

branca's review

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

jocielu's review

dark emotional fast-paced

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

2.5

I wanted to like this book, but I felt like there was no real story. The book just ends abruptly. Something that I also disliked was how all the sudden you have a character describe being SAed, which is partially on me because I did not read the trigger warnings on this book. But it did seem to come out of no where and I do not think added anything of value to this book, so it seemed like the author just added it in for the shock value.
I think the book was really well written lyrically, but the contents were just not for me. 

corirose's review against another edition

I don't like poetry and the prose here walks that line too closely

coulthardy's review

dark emotional 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

3.75

nora_bom's review

dark emotional sad fast-paced

3.0