I didn't know what to expect from this novel, but the storytelling is incredibly compelling. I had no defence, it pulled me right in.
We follow a young Palestinian-American woman who is exploring her sexual and cultural identity while struggling with the demons from her past. We are propelled from love story to love story, but all of them hurt and none of them stick.
This novel explores so many complicated subject without scruples and with a lot of thought. It might seem like we're propelled into a "Sex and the City" kind of tale with a bit more hurt and rehab than you would expect from the TV series, but it's actually so much more than that. All the while our narrator is likeable and easy to relate to and understand, even if you have almost nothing in common with her. That I feel is the strength of good writing. Zaina Arafat has done her main character justice.
An added bonus is that this novel doesn't only take place in the US, it also takes place in Palestine which brought back memories to my trip there in 2019.
My review might seem a bit more disjointed than it normally would be, but I loved the novel. The storytelling. The setting. The hard-hitting elements. I hope you will too.
Many thanks to the publisher Little, Brown Book Group UK and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy!
4 stars
Statistics:
Date read: November 13, 2020
Date published: November 19, 2020
Publisher: Little Brown Book Group UK
Format: eBook
Pages: 272
Genre: Contemporary
My Number of Books Read by this Author: 1
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