bookreviewswithkb's reviews
592 reviews

“they went out laughing, full of love, and came back as corpses on stretchers.”

this is the most emotionally difficult book i have ever read - it is jarring and gruesome and haunting. Yemeni journalist, Bushra al-Maqtari, documents the accounts of the suffering of Yemeni civilians during and after the Yemeni civil war, leaving no detail out. she writes these stories in a way that brings the pain felt by the people she interviewed to the page. as much as i couldn’t put it down i could also hardly stomach it. al-Maqtari offers the gift of creating space for the voices of victims to be heard, for there to be an account of the absolute horrendous terror inflicted upon innocent civilians 

i highly recommend reading this. i think it’s especially harrowing as Palestinians are currently enduring genocide, living the same reality in the present moment as is documented here  

“i’m never sure if the sun will rise tomorrow or if a shell will kill us instead.”

“between 1945 and 1973, 1.5 million women in the U.S. lost their children to forced adoption in homes for unwed mothers”

this is such an important book and i’m so glad it exists - crating space for the voices of women forced into adoption, for the women oppressed by racism and poverty, for the women who have limited choices, for the various ways women can be mothers, for the sacrifices women make for the sake of others. this novel is heartfelt and tender, exploring the story through 2 interconnected narratives with several moving bits and pieces

i think the character development could have been stronger and some of the elements of the story weren’t explored fully, but i would definitely recommend this book, especially if you enjoy historical fiction 

okay let me just say, Ellen Craft and William Craft are badass heroes who we should have all been taught about in our history classes. Ellen literally disguised herself as an ill wealthy white man to escape slavery!!! fooling every white person she came across. the wit, the drive, the cunningness - absolutely INCREDIBLE 

butttt when i say this book is dry, like as dry as the Sahara. it is 100% an academic book and it serves it’s purpose. i hope history teachers and professors use it. but dont go reading this book looking for character or storytelling. read it because you want to hear about and Ellen and William’s story, because it is a story we need to hear and know 

“The Defendant peered back at me with black vacant eyes. they are scary eyes, don’t get me wrong, but what frightens me, what infuriates me, is that there isn’t anything exceptionally clever going on behind them. … law enforcement would rather we remember a dull man as brilliant than take a good hard look at the role they played in this absolute sideshow, and I am sick to death of watching them in their pressed shirts and cowboy boots, in their comfortable leather interview chairs, in hugely successful and critically acclaimed crime documentaries, talking about the intelligence and charm and wiliness of an ordinary misogynist. this story is not that. the story is not that.”

honestly once i realized the premise of this book, i couldn’t imagine not loving it. this books focuses on a few of the victims of an infamous serial killer in the late 70s, telling their stories and ultimately highlighting how our society uplifts the male ego, how we can’t turn away from the charisma or good looks of a man for long enough to understand he is evil. how the shame of queerness, of lesbianism, of women, of women supporting one another, is so abhorrent to us that we will do anything to get in it’s way, including supporting the cover up of our own daughter’s murder. i can understand the criticism of the plot but i don’t care, it didn’t take away from my experience of this book. i would read it again and i think you should too 

i really appreciated the themes centered in this book, particularly around cultural identity, difficult family relationships, and exploring Vietnamese history 

i struggled to follow the plot at times

thank you to @netgalley and @amistad for the review copy 🩷

this collection of interconnected short stories about the lives of Ghanaian youth explores the complexities of what it means to be a human being, our brokenness, the ways we hurt each other, the ways we get in our own way. how we navigate romantic, platonic, and familial relationships, through shame and neglect and trauma, through misogyny and body shame and low self-esteem

“there’s something about brokenness that makes you want to pass your fingers on cracked surfaces and trail them on their sharp edges, you know?”

this is for the music lover. for the one who hears a song and suddenly feels seen, feels like someone peered right inside of their soul, like if they just close their eyes they might find the world a little more tolerable while they’re swaying and singing. this is for the people growing up Black in america, feeling seen in the lyrics of a song. for the poets and the essayists. for the poets. for the hopeful, for the lovers. this is for you, you should read this 

this is a beautiful novel of a young girl’s life during the war in Lebanon ignited by the Israeli invasion in the 1980s. it’s about the ways we move through grief and heartache, how we have no choice but to break under the weight of unimaginable atrocities. how we can pick each other up, how we can make space for love and care even when all seems lost 

“but war isn’t only in the soldier’s heart[]. that’s what most people don’t see. it’s in the heart of the man in the suit - the man with the fat wallet, the smiling mouth and the sweet tongue - in his heart maybe most of all. perhaps he pulls more triggers than anyone, even though his finger never once touches a gun.”

cw: descriptive scene of rape, murder, torture 

i have such a love hate relationship with this book. did i enjoy reading it? absolutely not. do i think it is an extremely important read? absolutely yes. 

i appreciate how intelligently the sympathizer is written. it uses elements of satire and irony to make points about the Vietnam War, Communism, the aftermath of war. it is clever and insightful and certainly not written to appease and entertain the white audience

butttt it was often too intelligent for me to understand (which admittedly is a me problem, not a book problem). and although i can understand the use of sexual inferences and misogynistic viewpoints in order to make a point, i don’t always agree that it’s necessary, which i found true several times throughout this book. it is also pretty devoid of any emotion at all 

i don’t know, that’s all i have to say 

thank you so much to @oneworldbooks for the #gifted copy 🧡

“how long until their roots, planted in soft soil, are washed up my another rainstorm?”

this is a book that explores the local side of Nantucket - the side that lays the foundation for the white wealthy people to “summer” in their 2nd, 3rd, 4th house, the side of immigrants, of working hard in exchange for low wages, of holding onto the minimal amount of affordable housing left. it examines wealth disparity, racism, and gentrification all through deeply meaningful relationships. 

Burnham doesn’t answer our questions or provide us the insights - she leaves it bare for us to infer based on the conversations, the betrayals, the longings, allowing space for each reader to look inside of themselves and to the broader scope of the way our society operates 

i really enjoyed this novel