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A review by fairymodmother
The Map of Salt and Stars by Zeyn Joukhadar
4.0
An extremely brutal, gutwrenching story of a family torn apart first by cancer, then by continents, then by war. A story about stories, and how we are the songs we sing to ourselves, and have sung back to us.
CONTENT WARNING:
Things to love:
-The reminders that Syria is more than a news clip. It was lovely to hear the beautiful parts of somewhere, even if right now it is a sad place.
-The helpers and family. The family ties, the people who do what they can for others out of goodness is lovely.
-The map story. Just lovely.
-The synesthesia. I never see this in books! A cool aspect to latch onto.
Things that were hard.
-Well, it's still a war. It's just unending bad stuff happening. I found this hard to read but not in a way that made me think new thoughts or examine old ones. It was just hard. And that's valid, but it did make reading difficult to pick up. And the number of boats that sink is really extraordinary.
-Not sure the painting was finished. I saw the shape of it, but I'm not entirely sure it all meshed together for me in a satisfying way, and was therefore a wee bit hard to understand sometimes.
A dolorous coming of age story with a lot of heart.
CONTENT WARNING:
Spoiler
all of them. Dead animals, dead people, crippled children, rape/assault, boats sinking, torture, cancer, amputation, separation from your children/parent.Things to love:
-The reminders that Syria is more than a news clip. It was lovely to hear the beautiful parts of somewhere, even if right now it is a sad place.
-The helpers and family. The family ties, the people who do what they can for others out of goodness is lovely.
-The map story. Just lovely.
-The synesthesia. I never see this in books! A cool aspect to latch onto.
Things that were hard.
-Well, it's still a war. It's just unending bad stuff happening. I found this hard to read but not in a way that made me think new thoughts or examine old ones. It was just hard. And that's valid, but it did make reading difficult to pick up. And the number of boats that sink is really extraordinary.
-Not sure the painting was finished. I saw the shape of it, but I'm not entirely sure it all meshed together for me in a satisfying way, and was therefore a wee bit hard to understand sometimes.
A dolorous coming of age story with a lot of heart.