A review by dianapiskor
Honor by Thrity Umrigar

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I didn't love this book. It wasn't that it was a bad story. On the contrary, I think it handled the ideas of Islamophobia, honor killings, and misogyny with a critical eye that was also honest without being too preachy, which has happened in other books that I've read. I think the multiple perspectives were interesting and I think the author does a great job in creating a narrative that focuses on these topics.

However, this book was very slow and terribly depressing. Part of this was the subject matter and the character growth happening with the main character: Smita. But I think part of it was the writing and structure of the story itself. The first part of the book was terribly long where nothing was really happening. And additionally, the writing where Smita just constantly reflects, has a realization, ignores that realization, and then realizes it again was too much for me and took up most of the book. I think the author has beautiful prose, but it became frustrating as it was narrated through the eyes of the main character. And due to the story itself, there is never a time where the reader can decompress from the amount of trauma and difficulty the characters face throughout the book.

Overall, this is an important story, one that definitely made me think. I just think the author's writing style for this particular book was not for me. 
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