Scan barcode
canamac's review
3.0
written in a very easy style, a love story that is gentle and won’t completely smack you over the head with romance (plus, abu-jaber seamlessly peppers in info about food, faith, and storytelling in the arab-speaking world). a most solid 3.5/5.
nqcliteracy's review
4.0
Lyrical story telling - the intertwining of food and culture - appreciated hearing a voice at once so American and Arab
littlesprite21's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
renatasnacks's review
4.0
Mostly this made me super hungry. I wish Nadia's Cafe delievered!! But also it was an enjoyable romance (that didn't end with a baby, yayyy) with some social commentary, myth, and history. And recipes!
valariesmith's review against another edition
3.0
(SPOILERS) The writing in Crescent is just gorgeous; I would easily give it 5 stars just for that. But I had a hard time with some of the characters, particularly Sirine. (Why was she so suspicious of Han? And why on earth would she ever sleep with Aziz?) Also, I never could grasp the point of the fable that starts off every chapter (so a slave drowns or something, and a mermaid tells his mother where he is, and it turns out he's Omar Sharif, who's a good friend of Dean Martin's, and what now?) And the ending was just way, way too unbelievable to me. But the writing was so lovely that I still thought this was a compelling read.
dinoparker's review
1.0
This novel is so bad. It's problematic and troubling in so many ways from orientalist stereotypes to subtle anti-blackness. The author claims an Arab identity despite being half-white and she does nothing to acknowledge her whiteness in the novel or her privileges; it is a novel more concerned with reckoning with the author's own white guilt than portraying an accurate or at least respectable depiction of hybrid identities, especially Arab hybrid identities. It's one of those texts presented as progressive and politically correct but if anything it is insulting to Arabs in so many ways. Also, Crescent supposed to be a rewrite of Othello (with gestures to the Homeric epics, and the Arabian Nights) but does it so badly, it's either very on the nose or so obscure that it ceases being an allusion. And on top of that, it's terribly written. Like the writing is objectively bad. Really bad.
mrs_merdle's review
3.0
Well, the swimming-through-spices feeling this book gave me was not entirely off-putting, once I got past the middle. The first half reminded me slightly too much of the Twilight series in the utterly over-magically in-love sparkling-eyed romance (how's that for a phrase), but the second half picked up.