Reviews

Country of Red Azaleas by Domnica Radulescu

thenovelnikki's review against another edition

2.0

2.5 Stars. It was....odd. Just, odd. I think the part the bugged me most was how she wrote about the passage of time. She "dated" her chapters, but the way she described events and time passing, it just didn't seem to add up. Maybe it was just me. The whole book just felt very...shallow, incomplete, unedited, etc. I didn't hate it. In fact, I read it very quickly. But it was just okay.

romel's review against another edition

2.0

I wanted to like this book, but it just wasn't engaging. Seemed a bit disjointed.

car155a's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity and War

Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, and Murder

abookishtype's review against another edition

3.0

There’s an old game I’ve heard people play (and have played myself) about what might be a worse thing to happen. Players imagine the worst thing that could happen and are challenged by other players trying to come up with something worse. The challenge is followed by a long discussion about which is worse and why. Domnica Radulescu’s novel, Country of Red Azaleas, is not quite a game of what’s worse, but it strongly reminded me of one. The two protagonists of the novel, Lara and Marija, both have tough lives. One lives through war and rape. The other has more existential, less tangible problems. They can’t help comparing their lives and offering sympathy—not to see which of them had it worse, but because they are very empathetic women...

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration.

majean's review against another edition

3.0

Poetic writing. The characters are not well developed while the plot is meandering and, often, barely there. Ends abruptly.

kurstedt's review against another edition

5.0

An amazing story of a beautiful friendship between two incredibly strong women who find themselves on opposing sides during the Balkan wars. One is able to escape the conflict to the US while the other finds herself and her family victims of the conflict in Sarajevo.
A beautiful, intense novel that is difficult to put down and will remain with you for a long time.
I was fortunate to win a copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway.

aprileclecticbookworm's review against another edition

2.0

I won this in a Goodreads giveaway a couple years ago and it shouldn’t have taken this long to read but I put it down several times and lost it a few. The summary sounded good and I hadn’t read much about the Bosnian war so I was excited to start it but I found the main character so unlikeable and for most of the book it was all about her life in America and little about what was going on with her friend. The last 1/3 picked up some but I wish the whole thing had been from Marija’s POV instead of Lara’s.