Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Salt Houses by Hala Alyan

4 reviews

susheela's review against another edition

emotional informative 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Confinement, Racism, Sexual content, Islamophobia, and Colonisation

Minor: Domestic abuse, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Death of parent, and War

robinks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

I loved getting to walk with the Yacoub family through so many years, getting to see how each of them grows internally and in relationship to the others. I believe the fact that Hala is a clinical psychologist  allowed the characters to feel real. Also, there were many actual historical references that kept the story rooted in reality. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Dementia, Grief, and Colonisation

Moderate: Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and War

Minor: Racial slurs, Vomit, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

yourbookishbff's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny 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

Salt Houses, by Hala Alyan, traces four generations of Palestinians through exile - from Palestine to Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Paris and Boston. Where multi-generational sagas always feel epic, this story is also painfully intimate. It’s a story filled with ghosts - of Palestine, of family members murdered or imprisoned or lost to time and distance and bitterness, of all the things we are too scared to say out loud to the people we love. The lives and love of Alia and Atef anchor the story, and we see their childhoods and young love, their deep trauma during the Six-Day War and subsequent flight to Kuwait, their early marriage with young children, the ceaseless displacement, the restless moves from country to country as they try to build lives free of war and occupation. Spinning out from them, we see their children and grandchildren with inherited trauma and grief fighting for reclamation and joy. This is a diaspora story where “houses as old as the earth itself” are replaced by “structures made of salt.”

And woven throughout each generation are moments of raw tenderness that boldly refute the dehumanization and violent caricaturization of Arab men we’ve witnessed through the last several decades. Instead: Mustafa, cradling a baby bird for his sister. Mustafa, practicing a speech for hours to get it just right. Mustafa, released from prison, kneeling to kiss his mother’s feet as he whispers never again. Atef making wishes to the moon with Riham. Atef drinking tea in the garden every afternoon with his daughter. Karam calming his mother’s fears and his sister’s anger. Zain reeling in Linah’s wild temper and restlessness. Alyan whispering to us: see this, and this, and this. Every life, an entire universe. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation and War

Moderate: Confinement, Mental illness, Sexual content, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy

Minor: Rape, Vomit, Abortion, and Abandonment

katharina90's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

A raw, moving, well-written multigenerational novel with complex characters and realistic family dynamics. 

The story pulled me in from the first page, but towards the end I felt less connected to the characters. 

I found myself wanting to return to the POV of previous family members rather than focusing on the younger generation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia and Colonisation

Moderate: Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Sexual content, Torture, Grief, and War

Minor: Alcoholism