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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Picked this one up for National Arab American Heritage Month. The Map of Salt and Stars is lyrical, layered, and deeply emotional—a story that blends historical fiction and the modern refugee experience. It tells two parallel tales: Nour, a young Syrian-American girl fleeing the civil war in 2011, and Rawiya, a girl in 12th-century Syria who disguises herself as a boy to apprentice under a legendary mapmaker. Their stories echo across time in ways that are subtle, powerful, and beautifully woven.
The writing is absolutely stunning. Joukhadar’s prose is rich and poetic, filled with sensory details that make the pain, beauty, and resilience of these characters come alive. There’s a dreamlike quality to it—especially in the way fantasy elements are introduced through stories passed from parent to child. It’s not quite magical realism in the traditional sense, but it toes the line, using myth and childhood memory to underscore the trauma and legacy of displacement.
I loved how the two timelines complemented each other, each journey echoing the other in theme and tone. But I’ll admit that listening to the audiobook made this WAY more difficult than I expected. Without clear markers between the two, the transitions could be confusing, and I often found myself scrambling to reorient, which pulled me out of the experience. This is one I’d likely recommend in print instead, where the structural beauty of the book can really shine. Unfortunately, since the narrator is excellent.
That said, this novel is haunting. It's sad—achingly so at times—but also shot through with hope. It's a story of survival, not just across countries and centuries, but across identity, memory, and grief. A powerful story that left me both heartbroken and quietly uplifted.
The writing is absolutely stunning. Joukhadar’s prose is rich and poetic, filled with sensory details that make the pain, beauty, and resilience of these characters come alive. There’s a dreamlike quality to it—especially in the way fantasy elements are introduced through stories passed from parent to child. It’s not quite magical realism in the traditional sense, but it toes the line, using myth and childhood memory to underscore the trauma and legacy of displacement.
I loved how the two timelines complemented each other, each journey echoing the other in theme and tone. But I’ll admit that listening to the audiobook made this WAY more difficult than I expected. Without clear markers between the two, the transitions could be confusing, and I often found myself scrambling to reorient, which pulled me out of the experience. This is one I’d likely recommend in print instead, where the structural beauty of the book can really shine. Unfortunately, since the narrator is excellent.
That said, this novel is haunting. It's sad—achingly so at times—but also shot through with hope. It's a story of survival, not just across countries and centuries, but across identity, memory, and grief. A powerful story that left me both heartbroken and quietly uplifted.
This is a slow burn of a novel where a tragic refugee story is interwoven with a mythical tale. It was hard to connect the two for a long time (I won't say more, to avoid spoilers). The story and characters are compelling, though the writing is a bit burdened by the prose--the protagonist has synesthesia, so the author relies heavily on description, and LOTS of it. This is worth the read, overall, especially when we're talking about the consequences of war on innocent people.
adventurous
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Joukhadar writes a novel that switches back and forth between two time periods. Protagonists from both settings are young women moving from the tween years to the teen years. They both have to travel through several countries around the Mediterranean Sea. They both are guided by maps.
The modern protagonist, Nour, is a Syrian refugee who previously lived in NYC. For the bulk of the novel, she's traveling with her family after they can no longer stay in Syria.
The other protagonist lived 800 years prior. Rawiya yearns for adventure, so she tells her mother that she's going to the market, but she keeps on riding until she finds a famous map maker. She disguises herself as a boy so that she can be accepted as an apprentice. But as they travel through the lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea, they face a lot of obstacles from both man and beast.
It's very well done. I read it faster than the pace I had set for myself. And I cried a couple of times. It's got a mix of fantastical elements and historical. And the plight of Syrian refugees is made quite salient.
The modern protagonist, Nour, is a Syrian refugee who previously lived in NYC. For the bulk of the novel, she's traveling with her family after they can no longer stay in Syria.
The other protagonist lived 800 years prior. Rawiya yearns for adventure, so she tells her mother that she's going to the market, but she keeps on riding until she finds a famous map maker. She disguises herself as a boy so that she can be accepted as an apprentice. But as they travel through the lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea, they face a lot of obstacles from both man and beast.
It's very well done. I read it faster than the pace I had set for myself. And I cried a couple of times. It's got a mix of fantastical elements and historical. And the plight of Syrian refugees is made quite salient.
…meh, it was boring.
And since I live in one of the worst countries in the world—not so far from Syria— I’m not obsessed with the idea of borders, home countries, or any of those be-proud-of-your-origins concepts or whatever.
That said, it did make me almost cry many times. Never cried, but almost-cried a lot.
I feel like I can be meaner but this is a book about Syrian refugees so I suppose the intentions are pure and at the end of the day, I did feel for the children so I'll leave it at that.
And since I live in one of the worst countries in the world—not so far from Syria— I’m not obsessed with the idea of borders, home countries, or any of those be-proud-of-your-origins concepts or whatever.
That said, it did make me almost cry many times. Never cried, but almost-cried a lot.
I feel like I can be meaner but this is a book about Syrian refugees so I suppose the intentions are pure and at the end of the day, I did feel for the children so I'll leave it at that.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
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:
No
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No