Reviews

Roundabout of Death by Faysal Khartash

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bethsmout's review

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dark 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? No

3.25

ficteon's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This book really gives you an insight about the normal civilian during wartime. The story of the people just wanting to live. Through a memoir style fiction the writer gives us sight into the life of a man living in Aleppo during wartime in Syria. The book discribes the absolute horror of war, and how normal life is impossible because of the people who decided to hurt others. The book describes many hard themes: murder, bombing, young unknowing soldiers, hunger, Divided nation, religieus oppression, sexism, torture, propaganda, corruption and sooo much more so it is a tough book to read.

I didn't give it a five star due to the monotone writing style the book had. Also there was one sentence that didn't hit me the right way as homosexuality was put together with adulterating and thieving. I don't know if the writer actually sees this as wrong but it sounded like it, and I think it's a bit hypocritical to talk about being oppressed during war but then you yourself oppress others willingly too. Maybe I read the sentence wrong but still the book is 4 stars even without this.

A lot of moment is the book really made me so emotional. Definitely because it is a wartime book about something so relevant. World war 2 stories you can always distant yourself from in some way now in 2023 even if the events were horrible as that was in 1940. This book tells the story of a war in 2015.. It hits differently for sure. I'd definitely recommend this book to anybody wanting to learn more about the events in Syria. I feel it is good to see this from the eyes of a civilian.

Content Warnings

abey's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative 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? No

3.75

alice_hesse's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced

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

3.5

brucy's review against another edition

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4.0

Short gut punch of a book. Gives an account of life during the Syrian Civil War and the daily struggles to keep a life. Hoping for more translations of the author.