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aislingwhelan's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
fast-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
4.0
jenmangler's review against another edition
3.0
I found the first 2/3 of the book quite compelling, but when Saeed and Nadia moved to Marin the book really started to lose me. There wasn't enough detail about their lives in this place, and it all felt a bit rushed.
ingari's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
kylie_hoodenpyle's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
jcsimbok's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.75
jennyluwho's review against another edition
3.0
Like quantum leap, but with locations, and a loftier objective.
3huskies79's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.25
cjvphd's review against another edition
3.0
This didn't really work for me. I found the first half of the book, set in Saeed and Nadia's home country in an unnamed Middle East city, to be vivid, evocative, and compelling. Unfortunately, I found the second half to be pretentious and amateurish.
I don't understand how the conceit of magic doors that whisk you away to an unknown place serve to illustrate the harsh reality of migration, and the constant use of phones, in a wold in which cell phone service is apparently free and available to anyone with a signal, to be jarring. But most egregious to me was that Saeed's school-boy naivete and Nadia's sophomore-at-Brown self-finding arc were not particularly believable. There is a fantastic book here somewhere, and Hamid is certainly a talented writer, but this one needed a bit more.
I don't understand how the conceit of magic doors that whisk you away to an unknown place serve to illustrate the harsh reality of migration, and the constant use of phones, in a wold in which cell phone service is apparently free and available to anyone with a signal, to be jarring. But most egregious to me was that Saeed's school-boy naivete and Nadia's sophomore-at-Brown self-finding arc were not particularly believable. There is a fantastic book here somewhere, and Hamid is certainly a talented writer, but this one needed a bit more.