Reviews with content warning for Car accident - A Woman Is No Man

This was a rough one, and I was surprised that it was on Jenna Bush Hager's reading list, but I'm probably judging her unfairly based on her father. I thought the book unfolded very well, and I will definitely read this author again. Lots of digging fingernails into legs, though. Maybe that was on purpose to connect the generations of women?

Content Warnings

saskiahill's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Moving, both hopeful and sad. Lots of harrowing content, so check the content warnings before deciding if you're happy to proceed, but nonetheless a great book which reflects the emotions, experiences and nuances of 3 generations of Palestinian women and the struggle of culture clashes and raising your daughter's differently when you know no other way.

Content Warnings

bookhoarder2022's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional 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

4.25

Content Warnings

carolyn84's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful 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

5.0

Content Warnings

kbusemeyer's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

2.0

I know people have raved about this book, but I just found the writing lacking.

I think the character development that happened was not gradual where you felt involved in the growth of them, it was just nothing and then all at once.

I appreciated reading about a different culture and can’t even begin to understand what living in and environment that devalued women so much would do to a person. I would say those parts of the book were poignant and you could see how it affected Fareeda, Irsa, and Sarah’s/Deya’s psyche. However I feel like it needed something more than just that, but the whole book was basically around feeling listless and putting women in their place.

Then once Deya finds out the truth and spins her wheels some more, then she confronts Fareeda and Khaled and then suddenly everyone has a change of heart. Fareeda wants Deya to tell Sarah that she’s changed, but she showed no growth or progressive thinking. It was more just that Deya finally realized that unless they beat her, there really wasn’t anything stopping her. Also her sisters were there to serve a point about Irsa, but they weren’t even used as leverage or given a second thought to really at all in Deya’s section.

The way the book ended was also good just in the writing but weird for the book. It basically was written like a murder mystery where

this last memory Deya has of her mom taking her to the park is actually Irsa’s attempt at escaping and Adam somehow spoils it. Then he kills her and kill’s himself.

It’s the aha moment that you’d like at the end of a mystery but weird here.

Also Deya’s aha moment of realizing her mom loved her deeply,

which honestly Irsa was depressed and frankly like there wasn’t a lot of evidence that Deya would have that she did. But I guess we’re supposed to infer that she wrote about loving her daughters a lot in the letters she wrote to her mom that were never sent.

Honestly my gripes with the book have nothing to do with the content itself, I think the story is an important one to tell. It does have to do with the flat characters and repetitious writing throughout, though, that made the content delivery lacking.

Content Warnings

shushkeepitdown's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

5.0

I was straight up bawling my eyes over this book. It really shows the dangers of misogynistic culture being inbedded into religion and twisting it's words. This book made me so mad at the men and the current world we live in. Not much has changed but I hope one day as a woman myself I can make my own choices without having a finger pointed at me just for existing. A beautiful book which made me super emotional. Highly recommend pick it up but be warned there is a lot of triggering topics and contents in the book.

Content Warnings

aguattery's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional inspiring slow-paced

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

5.0

This was beautiful and moving. I really enjoyed the way the story unfolded, and the ending almost made me cry.

Content Warnings

lauren_holtry's review against another edition

Go to review page

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? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

More...