Scan barcode
A review by isabellarobinson7
The Lines We Cross by Randa Abdel-Fattah
2.0
Rating: 2 (2.5? 2.25?) stars
There was a very strong theme of independence and finding yourself in The Lines We Cross by Randa Abdel-Fattah, which moved the story, especially Michael's, along nicely. Though, I did think that there were a few weak cliches surrounding this, like how Michael's dad wanted him to follow in his footsteps, but Michael didn't want to.
I found the writing overall to not be very mature, and at times it seemed it was written by a younger, less experienced writer.
As a New Zealander who has lived in Australia, where this book is set, I was able to understand and grasp the culture easily, and the harsh actions of the some of the Australians who were racist. This book displayed a lot of racist Australians, and although, on a whole, Australians tend to be quite racist by other country's standards, it may come as a shock in this book to people who have never lived there before. The culture there is very different, and this book represents a negative side of it, without showing the opposing, un-racist point of view from any white Australians. A lot of my family lives in Australia, and they are not racist at all. That being said, I know that other Australians can be extremely racist, but I feel that this book only represented these people, and not the other. I was disappointed that this book painted the white Australians as the enemy in this scenario.
There was a very strong theme of independence and finding yourself in The Lines We Cross by Randa Abdel-Fattah, which moved the story, especially Michael's, along nicely. Though, I did think that there were a few weak cliches surrounding this, like how Michael's dad wanted him to follow in his footsteps, but Michael didn't want to.
I found the writing overall to not be very mature, and at times it seemed it was written by a younger, less experienced writer.
As a New Zealander who has lived in Australia, where this book is set, I was able to understand and grasp the culture easily, and the harsh actions of the some of the Australians who were racist. This book displayed a lot of racist Australians, and although, on a whole, Australians tend to be quite racist by other country's standards, it may come as a shock in this book to people who have never lived there before. The culture there is very different, and this book represents a negative side of it, without showing the opposing, un-racist point of view from any white Australians. A lot of my family lives in Australia, and they are not racist at all. That being said, I know that other Australians can be extremely racist, but I feel that this book only represented these people, and not the other. I was disappointed that this book painted the white Australians as the enemy in this scenario.