Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - Gorzki smak jej wielkiej radości

I enjoyed this, but I think that to much was happening and none of it get wrapped up or flushed out. I appreciate the topics discussed in this, all of them being hard and difficult conversations, but half of them weren’t even concluded. This also just felt off to me? I’m not Muslim so I can’t speak on the
Representation And the some of the topics discussed, but it just didn’t seem All that well done to me. I know the author is Muslim so maybe that’s her experience, but read reviews from Muslim readers.

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sbbailey's review against another edition

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challenging emotional 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? Yes

3.75

i have a lot of thoughts about this book, on the one hand it’s half baked until about 75% but then it still doesn’t make complete sense. on the other hand i see what the author was trying to do here, it was very poetic, in a way. but some authors aren’t equipped to write true poetic work. i get what mafi was trying to do with this book. it didn’t make sense until the end because it wasn’t supposed to the main characters thoughts were so jumbled because of GREIF, mafi just didn’t assemble it correctly. it had great potential, but the potential wasn’t met. she wrote this book with the write concept for the times, but the writing just doesn’t do it justice.

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aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

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emotional fast-paced

4.0

As a former Muslim who grew up during 9/11 and post 9/11, this book def hit some feelings. Def look up content/trigger warnings tho. There is at least brief mentions of a few different things.
Although I didn't love the romance aspect and would've loved to see more of Noah, I thoroughly enjoyed this book on family, grief, and struggles of being Muslim in a country that thinks you are the personification of pure evil. I was a little confused at the beginning with the switching of time a few times throughout the book tho.

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wrinnola's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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

4.0

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julierambaeck's review against another edition

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emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

I thought this was extremely repetitive! The characters were very flawed and not very likeable. I think if this was a short story, it would have been better, because the message was just repeated way too many times throughout the book…

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