A review by shaq
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak
2.0
Revelatory yet dubious.
I can't say that I very much enjoyed this book if Im being honest. The book is pretty decent, and has a rather unique context and reads well too, set up in a thrilling and ominous setup leading to its conclusion, but while that may be the case, the book felt a little distasteful.
Not due to the events described in the story, by any means, which do require a fair amount of meaningful discussion on the discriminatory and offensive treatments of the minority but because I felt that the book was rather plunged into a pool of melancholy that painted everything and everyone negatively.
So much so that it felt almost like the author had a bias against certain sects or classes and therefore just went with painting evil characters as evil without really putting any extra thoughts or reasoning behind it other than, thats what they do.
If Im being honest, I dont really know what else to say about this book, if nothing else, it really annoyed me that it hooked me with an excellent beginning that made me want to discuss every chapter step by step, and then it just turned into something so weird, almost like some form of slapstick comedy or totally off genre that made me question what the hell I was even reading.
Maybe there's some sense of history that made this book far greater in the eyes of others, but even with the integration of real life events and tragedies making this story a more of a historic fiction didnt really salvage the way the story was wrapped up together.
Genuintely felt that the author lost the motivation to complete this story properly somewhere down the road and therefore ended up writing whatever came to her mind by the end of it.
I can't say that I very much enjoyed this book if Im being honest. The book is pretty decent, and has a rather unique context and reads well too, set up in a thrilling and ominous setup leading to its conclusion, but while that may be the case, the book felt a little distasteful.
Not due to the events described in the story, by any means, which do require a fair amount of meaningful discussion on the discriminatory and offensive treatments of the minority but because I felt that the book was rather plunged into a pool of melancholy that painted everything and everyone negatively.
So much so that it felt almost like the author had a bias against certain sects or classes and therefore just went with painting evil characters as evil without really putting any extra thoughts or reasoning behind it other than, thats what they do.
If Im being honest, I dont really know what else to say about this book, if nothing else, it really annoyed me that it hooked me with an excellent beginning that made me want to discuss every chapter step by step, and then it just turned into something so weird, almost like some form of slapstick comedy or totally off genre that made me question what the hell I was even reading.
Maybe there's some sense of history that made this book far greater in the eyes of others, but even with the integration of real life events and tragedies making this story a more of a historic fiction didnt really salvage the way the story was wrapped up together.
Genuintely felt that the author lost the motivation to complete this story properly somewhere down the road and therefore ended up writing whatever came to her mind by the end of it.