Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali

6 reviews

nataliecoyne's review against another edition

emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

Words cannot express how much I loved this book. It is such an easy 5 stars and I now really admire Marjan Kamali's writing. I loved her other book that I read, <i>The Lion Women of Tehran</i>, but it's entirely possible that I loved this one even more. The story is so beautiful, albeit tragic at times. And it felt very <i>real.</i> It didn't feel like I was watching some cheesy romance movie.

At first, I didn't really understand the decision to include a romance between Ali and [name I'm not including to avoid spoilers], when I read the chapter with introducing that romance at the beginning of part 2 I was like "okay, this is random??" But, by the end, it made a lot of sense.

I absolutely would recommend this to others. Easy 5 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Terminal illness, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Drug use, Infertility, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Vomit, Islamophobia, Dementia, Religious bigotry, Abortion, and War

pagesofash's review against another edition

challenging sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

It's a brilliant story, it's just not for me, despite how well written it is and how layer the characters are, despite the confronting history that makes me realise my privilege and question my perspective I just can't love a story that makes me feel sad from start to finish. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Medical content, Grief, Abortion, and Classism

Moderate: Suicide attempt and War

Minor: Cancer, Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Police brutality, and Death of parent

blakeandbooks's review against another edition

emotional sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Grief, and War

Moderate: Miscarriage, Racism, Sexism, Terminal illness, Mass/school shootings, Abortion, and Murder

schausjk's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Police brutality, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Police brutality, Mass/school shootings, Abortion, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Minor: Cancer, Infertility, Blood, and Pregnancy

shutupiamreading's review against another edition

emotional inspiring 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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt

Moderate: Child death, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, and Terminal illness

Minor: Racism

flameoflareon's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

3.0

Definitely not the slow-burn romance foregrounding historical political upheaval that I was expecting, but that's my own fault for jumping to conclusions based on the summary. Some writing choices were a bit odd

like chapters that are supposed to be letters to a character having dialogue and narration

, but the foreshadowing was strong, the story interesting all the way through, and the ending satisfying. If you like sad, messed up heterosexuals, consider this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Mental illness, Blood, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, and Medical content

Minor: Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, and Abortion