Reviews with content warning for Violence - Exit West

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

47 reviews

aquakirst's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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? Yes

3.75

incredibly poignant, especially in light of the genocide happening in palestine

the vignettes of various people peppered throughout the story were beautifully written, and i was invested in every story hamid chose to tell. i did find his prose a bit clunky at times, like he was trying too hard to be poetic when simplicity would have been more evocative, but overall exit west is a beautiful story of love, loss and hope

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knkoch's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious slow-paced

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

3.25

Great proof that sci-fi doesn't have to be elaborate or ornate to make a deep impact. In this case, one seemingly small sci-fi element has an immensely freeing effect, providing new insight into the world we currently live in, and the one we may not be far from. I found this a very thoughtful commentary on borders, the global North and South, inequity, and, crucially, what positive forms of new world order could be possible. This reminded me of Sea of Tranquility and Parable of the Sower.

I wasn't as drawn in by the two central characters of this story as I wished; I found the ideas more interesting and developed. But the relationship that developed was quite tender and gentle, jarring when interrupted by violence as the plot progressed.

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peachmoni's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.5

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suzsta's review against another edition

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reflective 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? No

3.25

Saeed and Nadia are refugees from an unnamed country and an unnamed conflict; they, and millions of others, find their escape when a series of portal doors to other countries begin springing up out of nowhere, leading them on a journey through countries as they search for home. A quiet meditation on the nature of borders, community, and the pressures a relationship endures under such circumstances.

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chaoticnostalgia's review against another edition

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emotional reflective 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

4.25

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miachalupa's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective fast-paced

4.75

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steveatwaywords's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-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

4.5

Any writer makes a contract with a reader at the start of a work: the reader promises a sincere effort to read; the writer promises value in its completion. This could not have paid off more handsomely, more profoundly, than in this novel.

Our main characters are real, fitting inconveniently into their fictional culture as one does, in communities ruptured as often happens, and made refugees, migrants, as too many are. The novel works, then, as a dialogue between the micro (the relationship between Saeed and Nadia) and the macro (a world compelled to confront the immigrant experience): relationships of choice and of compulsion. Fittingly, and without spoilers, Hamid's closing chapters pull these together in poetic epiphany for us, even if all his characters never quite get it.

Accept the character asides, accept the narrator's distanced omniscience, accept the conceit which propels the novel into its collisions--what awaits is little less than the collective responsibility we all have as readers and dwellers.

Why not five stars? If anything, Hamid is too modest in his ambition, in the depths of his explorations, opting instead for a quickly told short work which might do more still than call the question.

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