Select language, opens an overlay

Comment

Dec 28, 2017
this book has stayed with me for a long time after i read it. at first, i was alright with reading about nana and jalil, thinking that the story would continue with those characters throughout the whole thing. as the book went on, however, i realized there was more to it than thought. while well-written, the book frequently uses time skips which could prove confusing to a reader not ready for them. also, there is the misleading that confused me. such as one example: 'it was (mariam) who decided to dig the hole.' this is a quote from a scene in the book that, if i am correct (its been a while since i read this and ive tried to forget it), takes place after the birth of laila's second child, zalmai. zalmai is shown to be very much alive, so why would they dig a hole? unless they assume zalmai will not live very long. another thing that put me off this book is the mention of r*pe, specifically the first instance with rasheed and mariam. i had to write a journal entry for this part since i read it in school, and it was rather difficult to put down so my teacher wouldn't get offended or weird ed out. now the only reason i label this as r*pe is because it is clearly shown mariam does not want to do this, however rasheed leaves her no choice it seems. then there was the abuse mariam and laila had to endure. these scenes made me uncomfortable, and made me question as to why they endured it so long, why it took them a large fraction of the book to leave, and how rasheed greeted them. which was horrible. this book was very well written, however i don't highly recommend it. ((note: i am using my mum's account here. im a junior in highschool))