Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

The Thirty Names of Night, by Zeyn Joukhadar

13 reviews

danaaliyalevinson's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I liked this book a lot! I’m a sucker for a generational story, which are also really hard to pull off well. I think this book has a few contrivances between the two depicted generations but largely pulls off a satisfying conclusion. The prose is beautiful. And as a trans person reading it, the relationship especially between Nadir and Sami was so beautifully rendered.

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mscalls's review

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challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0


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puttingwingsonwords's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0


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eharms3's review

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emotional hopeful reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

I think this is the most beautiful book I’ve read, thus far in my life. The writing, the story, all of it. 

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jojo_'s review against another edition

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emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.0


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revoluca's review

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adventurous emotional inspiring reflective 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? No

4.5

I loved you once, and I love you still, but not all migrations end with a return home. Even memory begins to cut if you hold on to it too tight. I don't know anymore if I believe in angels and signs. Perhaps we are the miraculous creatures my mother was looking for.

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lauraglovestoread's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

The Thirty Names of Night is stunning -- beautiful writing, well structured, nuanced and well-developed characters and a clear setting.  The story alternates between two perspectives -- that of a young Syrian-American trans man living in contemporary-ish Little Syria in NYC, and that of Laila Z, a Syrian American artist who painted and drew birds and who disappeared decades prior.  Both are written in second person, with Nadir addressing his deceased mother and Laila Z's chapters in epistolary format.  This book had me in tears more than once (in the best possible way), and Joukhadar has handled many themes here -- immigration, loss, xenophobia, the pain of contorting oneself to fit gendered expectations, struggles with religion, grief, internalized and external trans- & homophobia, family (birth and chosen) -- so beautifully.  I am immensely grateful to Zeyn Joukhadar for this book, and look forward to reading more from him.

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seawarrior's review

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challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is such a beautiful book. Multiple times I re-read passages to ensure I fully absorbed their words and weight. The pages shine with poetry and reflections on grief, and end more rewardingly than I had dared to hope. I highly suggest reading. 

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baponthecob's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious 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? N/A

4.0


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nikolas_fox's review

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emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is outside the realm of my normal reads. However I am so glad I picked it up. The beginning was a bit hard for me to get into, but it was so very worth it. I saw myself represented in ways that I never expect to see on the page and I am immensely grateful to Zeyn for that. This book was a mixture of so many things and all of them together made this an amazing read. I do not think I will stop thinking about this book for quite some time, if ever.

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