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disauci's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Frankenstein in Baghdad is a dark, yet thoughtful book. While its characters were pointedly unlikable (except maybe Elishva), the themes were provocative and interesting.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Murder, and War
Moderate: Gun violence
Minor: Cursing, Sexual content, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
tashtasher's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, and War
Moderate: Physical abuse and Toxic friendship
hoppskotch's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-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
4.25
Honestly, one of the finest adaptations of classic literature into modern sociopolitical contexts. I highly recommend this to anyone who either enjoys the creature feature genre or just in general is looking to expand their adult fiction and horror bookshelf. So many of the characters are complex that equally measures that they are written with deep respect to each person's humanity. That being said there are quite a handful of characters who I could have lived without but were essential for the plot and overall were enriching. An incredible dive into the moral and philosophical nature of death, murder, criminality, and victimhood within the context of war and loss. This has become one of my favorite books nearly overnight.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Car accident, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Alcoholism, Misogyny, Medical trauma, and Alcohol
adverb17's review against another edition
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
The application of the ideas surrounding Frankenstein were intriguing here: vengeance, guilt and innocence, humanity's collective anger and grief. The rest of the book didn't really live up to the promise of this premise: I'd say there were too many plot lines and I wasn't very invested in any of them. The clunky translation also brought the reading experience down.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Cursing, Sexual content, Grief, and War
lizlikesfrogs's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
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
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and War
Moderate: Police brutality and Alcohol
sophee_568's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
Let's start by saying that I have no idea how to rate this book. This was a challenging read because of the amount of violence and death. I am aware this book was purposefully written and it was a clever choice to convey the story through the known tale of Frankenstein and his monster. Essentially, this is a story about death, the meaning of justice, how different people view it, how they put it into effect, and the differences between innocence and guilt. Who has the right to decide what is wrong or right, or who is innocent and who is a criminal?
The story takes place in U.S.-occupied Baghdad. The story follows a cast of Baghdad citizens showing how they navigate a city torn by bomb explosions. It shows the growing disparities between Sunnis and Shiites paramilitary troops and the American military troops trying and ultimately failing to bring peace into the city. One of the characters is Hadi, a scavenger who spends most of his time at a local cafe telling stories about his life to anyone willing to listen. Hadi is the Frankenstein of this novel but an accidental one. He collected body parts of the bombing victims and stitched them together to form one whole body, which resided in his shed. What brought it to life was a wondering lost soul who needed a body. It rose from the table and fled into the night. From then on Hadi's creation, called Whatsitsname or Criminal X, decided his mission was to avenge the death of people whose body parts formed his. That mission turned out to be more difficult than it seemed because every time he avenged a person or failed to do so, the body parts started to fall off. That propelled him to constantly look for more body parts, which led him to start murdering innocent people. That's where the innocent vs. guilty debate comes in. How can you know if someone is innocent or not when you see them on the street? If you witness a shoot-out on the street you may think they are criminals, guilty of murder, but that label might only fit at that moment. Before that, couldn't they have been innocent people, leading ordinary lives, who were forced to engage in combat? Who is the real enemy? That is a nerve-wracking topic to explore. As Saadawi said in an interview: "The book is a manifesto against war. It is critical of the American occupation, the former regime, and the current regime." I think the main idea was for the reader to see how senseless and pointless war is.
All the characters in this story come from different ethnic and religious backgrounds but face the same problem of staying alive. They have all been traumatized by war. Elishva lost her son in battle, and Hadi lost his best friend to a bomb explosion. It is a horrible and scary life to live. By the end, many characters will have either died or moved away. Unfortunately, I didn't find myself emotionally invested in the story. Perhaps that is due to the number of characters or the constant switching of POV between the characters. The book is divided into 19 chapters, every chapter having 5 parts. I thought each chapter was going to follow only one character, but after the 5th chapter POVs were constantly switching. I would have preferred for the chapters to have only one POV.
One thing that bothered me was the lack of female characters. Elishva is the only female main character, and she is portrayed as 'crazy' because she cannot deal with her son's death. The way Mahmoud (also one of the main characters) thinks about and treats Nawal is awful. He seemed like a decent character until he forced himself on her. Not to mention the way he treated the prostitute he was with. Those instances made me feel uneasy.
Overall I am giving this book 3 stars because I wasn't that impressed with the execution of the novel. I probably won't read it ever again.
The story takes place in U.S.-occupied Baghdad. The story follows a cast of Baghdad citizens showing how they navigate a city torn by bomb explosions. It shows the growing disparities between Sunnis and Shiites paramilitary troops and the American military troops trying and ultimately failing to bring peace into the city. One of the characters is Hadi, a scavenger who spends most of his time at a local cafe telling stories about his life to anyone willing to listen. Hadi is the Frankenstein of this novel but an accidental one. He collected body parts of the bombing victims and stitched them together to form one whole body, which resided in his shed. What brought it to life was a wondering lost soul who needed a body. It rose from the table and fled into the night. From then on Hadi's creation, called Whatsitsname or Criminal X, decided his mission was to avenge the death of people whose body parts formed his. That mission turned out to be more difficult than it seemed because every time he avenged a person or failed to do so, the body parts started to fall off. That propelled him to constantly look for more body parts, which led him to start murdering innocent people. That's where the innocent vs. guilty debate comes in. How can you know if someone is innocent or not when you see them on the street? If you witness a shoot-out on the street you may think they are criminals, guilty of murder, but that label might only fit at that moment. Before that, couldn't they have been innocent people, leading ordinary lives, who were forced to engage in combat? Who is the real enemy? That is a nerve-wracking topic to explore. As Saadawi said in an interview: "The book is a manifesto against war. It is critical of the American occupation, the former regime, and the current regime." I think the main idea was for the reader to see how senseless and pointless war is.
All the characters in this story come from different ethnic and religious backgrounds but face the same problem of staying alive. They have all been traumatized by war. Elishva lost her son in battle, and Hadi lost his best friend to a bomb explosion. It is a horrible and scary life to live. By the end, many characters will have either died or moved away. Unfortunately, I didn't find myself emotionally invested in the story. Perhaps that is due to the number of characters or the constant switching of POV between the characters. The book is divided into 19 chapters, every chapter having 5 parts. I thought each chapter was going to follow only one character, but after the 5th chapter POVs were constantly switching. I would have preferred for the chapters to have only one POV.
One thing that bothered me was the lack of female characters. Elishva is the only female main character, and she is portrayed as 'crazy' because she cannot deal with her son's death. The way Mahmoud (also one of the main characters) thinks about and treats Nawal is awful. He seemed like a decent character until he forced himself on her. Not to mention the way he treated the prostitute he was with. Those instances made me feel uneasy.
Overall I am giving this book 3 stars because I wasn't that impressed with the execution of the novel. I probably won't read it ever again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcohol
mme_carton's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
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: Ableism, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cursing and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Animal cruelty
mscalls's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail
vareen_ismail's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
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? It's complicated
5.0
Frankenstein in Baghdad is inspired by Mary Shelley’s Classic Frankenstein.
It discusses themes of justice and trauma , following an ensemble cast of characters living in the working class Bataween district of Baghdad -during 2005 (just after the 2003 US invasion and before the 2006 civil war that engulfed Baghdad).
The symbolism of the monster was aptly used. The creature is made up of the various body parts of victims from terrorist attacks that have occurred in Baghdad.
Once the creature comes to life it goes on a revenge spree avenging the lost souls that make up its body.
It’s also about truth and what that means in a corrupt country like Iraq . However despite the trauma , violence , and impending civil war life goes on and the characters don’t lose hope for a better more just future.
It discusses themes of justice and trauma , following an ensemble cast of characters living in the working class Bataween district of Baghdad -during 2005 (just after the 2003 US invasion and before the 2006 civil war that engulfed Baghdad).
The symbolism of the monster was aptly used. The creature is made up of the various body parts of victims from terrorist attacks that have occurred in Baghdad.
Once the creature comes to life it goes on a revenge spree avenging the lost souls that make up its body.
It’s also about truth and what that means in a corrupt country like Iraq . However despite the trauma , violence , and impending civil war life goes on and the characters don’t lose hope for a better more just future.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Sexual content