Reviews

Such a Beautiful Thing to Behold by Umar Turaki

mattlava's review against another edition

emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

sam556889's review

1.0

I went into this thinking I was going to love this book however I was super disappointed in how it turned out. It reminded me too much of the COVID pandemic and some of lord of the flies. I could see where it was trying to go but the delivery was wrong.

vivo_morior's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

sabretooth's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

qdove's review

adventurous challenging emotional reflective 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

5.0

alwayssunny's review

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

barbaraskalberg's review against another edition

2.0

2.5
I assume this takes place in some small fictional town in Africa (I tried "searching the web" for the village names and got nothing), but that's purely based on the dreadlocks that were mentioned a couple of times. I also assume it is some time present or future bc there was mention of phone chargers. It was frustrating to me to not have a handle on the setting. The Grey being contained to this one small village felt like a major plot hole and the resolution at the end seemed too convenient. I did like the way the kids created a new family, but overall I just found it boring and unbelievable.

lnoronha's review

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

osnapitzmajri's review

3.0

this was definitely a dark book with a lot of death due to the illness that was spreading in the town, but it also had themes of hope which i liked. i didn’t like how dark it was, but it had a good story? do what you will with it!

sci_mom's review against another edition

4.0

I received this book through a Goodreads Giveaway. I have mostly avoided dystopian stories centered around a pandemic in the past few months because, well...you know. When I found out I won this one, I was conflicted. Interestingly, it is only a pandemic for one specific community, so that made it different enough to make it not as hard to read. The writing is beautiful and the story is fascinating. It does jump around and different scenes are told from various POVs, which can be distracting, but I mostly found it to be enlightening. Without giving anything away, the ending was where I was most dissatisfied. It was a little too abrupt, even though it was sufficient, and felt more optimistic than what I would have expected.