What I Read In May!

I might not remember a single thing that happened in April, but May feels like it's been the longest month of my life. I wrote down that I read A Thousand Splendid Suns on the 1st May, but it feels like it was years ago that I finished it.
It was a shoddy month for classics, I won't lie. My reading for school is slipping downhill as I've actually started acting on some of the recommendations I've been getting, and tried to pick up some of the hype I've seen, as well as getting huge bouts of nostalgia for fantasy and dystopian books from my preteens.

For me, it was a good month for POC representation! I only say that because I read two books with POC main characters, which is a lot for me since we're so starved of representation. I haven't realised how desperate I am to see South Asians in books until this month.

I have so much to say about some of the books I read this month, so I'll just get straight into it:


A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS, by Khaled Hosseini:
5 stars
This is without a doubt the best book I've ever read. After reading The Kite Runner, I was absolutely blown away, but A Thousand Splendid Suns was even better. As soon as I finished it, I had to go back and reread sections because I'm still so caught up in the story and the characters.

As a British Pakistani, who mainly reads books that feature white people, it was incredible to find a character that my Asian identity could resonate with. Laila is exactly how I picture that side of me - a thirst for learning, ambition, and a desire for independence and love. Of course, I'm not suffering from the horrors of war, but that didn't stop me from identifying with her.

It was actually this book that made me decide to study Khaled Hosseini for my EPQ, and I'm so excited to start it because I'm so blown away by his work.

*SPOILER REVIEW HERE* *SKIP TO THE END*
Mariam's early life was tragically realistic, especially the evil of her father we didn't see until too late, because we saw him through her eyes. Laila's upbringing, her disconnect from her mother and brothers, and blossoming romance with Tariq, was a gripping tale of childhood and teenage struggles. I still think about the description of Giti's death, and how her mother collected bits of her flesh into an apron.

The bomb that killed Laila's parents was so well built up, especially with her discussing the whistling that comes before bombs, only to experience it herself. I wish we could've seen more of her grief for her father, but most of that section was told from Mariam's point of view.

Of course, Laila's marriage to Rasheed is horrifying and brutal for both women, but the friendship that comes out of it is so touching, and the one of the most vivid and complex transitions to female solidarity and sisterhood that I've ever read. The scene where they have chai together, and then Mariam waiting for Laila in the mornings, is beautiful. When they get caught trying to run away with Aziza, my blood is chilled to the bone.

Is it just me, or is Zalmai so unlikeable? I understand Laila's motherly love for him, and I know he's an innocent child who doesn't know any better and can't be blamed for his actions, but I. Hated. Him. He's pathetic and spoiled, and pales in comparison to Aziza - she's such a strong, stoic child who puts up with so many terrible things, and even hides it to protect her mother, and she's like 7. She even looks after Zalmai, and loves him, even though she has every right to resent him. There is no character who deserves her happy ending more than Aziza.

Mariam's death is heartwrenching. This character we've watched grow up through pain and misery, and finally find some promise of happiness, has it snatched away from her at the last moment. The fact that she willingly sacrifices herself for her best friend, who is like a daughter to her, lets her become the mother figure she wishes she had. We feel Laila's grief with her, because just like their friendship has been their own salvation, it has also been our escape from the graphic descriptions of life under the Taliban.
*END OF SPOILER REVIEW*

To conclude, I would recommend this to everyone. It resonated with me specifically, as a girl of Pakistani heritage which is similar to Afghanistan, who has never seen the representation of my ethnicity in books that most people are accustomed to, but beneath it all, it's a beautiful story of friendship and loss in a country torn apart by war.


THE BEEKEEPER OF ALEPPO, by Christy Lefteri:
4 stars
This book is absolutely gorgeous, both the cover and the language. I was originally planning to just read this without writing in it, just to enjoy the story, but on the first page there was so much beautiful language that I couldn't not underline it. If I had time I'd love to write a paper on this book, but that's looking unlikely.

Honestly, I picked this up because reading A Thousand Splendid Suns made me desperate for representation, and really wanting to hear stories from more Asians. We don't have many books on the syllabus, even though there is pretty good African-American representation, because I think when exam boards try to throw in diversity, they forget there are more races than just black and white. (NOT to say that there should be fewer books about black people on the syllabus - those stories are just as important to tell).

I loved the constant returns to the same motifs of roses and the scents of night jasmine, and the presentation of bees as family, especially when this was juxtaposed with the horrors of war - 'and in the darkness I remembered the dogs eating human corpses in the fields where the roses used to be'. There are links between sight and trauma throughout the novel, linking to Afra going blind right at the very start.

Admittedly, this story was less plot driven than led by emotions and fear. The story is one we know - a Syrian refugee family trying to flee to the UK - so the journey just provides a general structure, and the enjoyment comes from seeing Afra and Nuri try to survive their marriage, Nuri beaten down by trauma, not knowing what is real or not, and the other characters all suffering a similar fate.

Something else I loved was the diversity of the other characters Nuri meets on his journey. Everyone staying with him in England is from a different background but still has some sort of terrible story. Everyone he meets in the various camps has suffered a variety of hardships. It really opened my eyes to the amount of suffering in the world, and how lucky I am to be from a privileged background. It lends a new insight and hatred towards people saying we need to close the borders without explicitly talking about them, just simply from seeing the desperation of refugee families, and how much they need human empathy and kindness.

I think everyone should read this book.


EXCITING TIMES, by Naoise Dolan:
3 stars
I had very mixed feelings about this, and actually wrote a post about the reading process, which is essentially an intensely detailed review, so if you want to know about that, you can read it here:
http://satin-ink.blogspot.com/2020/05/reading-exciting-times-by-naoise-dolan.html


THE DIVINERS, by Libba Bray:
4 stars
I had really hyped this up in my head, and while it didn't quite live up to my expectations, it was still a lot of fun to read. I would've preferred it to be more fast-paced with more plot points, rather than Evie having her own plot and all the other characters just slowly revealing their backstory. Especially the fact that we never found out what Theta's power was, and I'm still unsure who's a Diviner and who isn't.

There were a lot of characters to keep track of, which wasn't too difficult, apart from the fact that it was only Evie's story I really cared about. Most of Memphis' chapters just feature him wandering around the streets and thinking, or describing his brother. There were also a couple of chapters where the POV changed suddenly during a paragraph, which doesn't sound like a problem because it's in third person, but even so we are integrated inside a particular character's head for each definitive section, and it should stay that way.

Against what most people have said, I really liked Evie as a character - I thought she was funny and charming, and her being flawed also makes her interesting. I thought she had interesting dynamics with all of the other characters that kept the story moving. Another 'unpopular opinion' - I didn't love Theta. I thought her story unravelled too slowly, so I quickly lost interest.

The setting of 1920s America really manages to come through here, and skilfully, without the use of long sweeping descriptions. It's as simple as the language they use and the places they go, but it still feels like a modern novel. This was very gripping, as I was always able to picture exactly what was happening.

The mystery was a bit confusing, but I think that was more me being stupid than it being badly written. Religious language all sort of blurs together for me into 'generic preaching' so I tended to skim important passages with clues.

Despite all my apparent 'problems' with this book, I really enjoyed it and had a great time reading. For a book this long, two days is very fast for me to read it, and I did look forward to reading it when I wasn't. I think the set-up for the next book was done well; I'm hoping we'll be able to see all the Diviners working together, and we'll be able to explore Project Buffalo (whatever that is). I'm really excited to read Lair of Dreams!

LAIR OF DREAMS, by Libba Bray:
4.5 stars
I think it's pretty much agreed that this is better than The Diviners, but going into this I wasn't prepared for HOW much better it would be. The characters from the first book are fleshed out a lot more, whereas they started out quite stereotypical. We see a darker side to Evie, more of Sam's vulnerabilities, and I love Ling and Henry. I have to say, I didn't care that much about Memphis and Theta, but that might be because we haven't seen a lot of them so far. I was really just glad to find out what Theta's power was.

We didn't see much of Will, Mabel or Jericho, but I actually preferred the deep exploration of Henry and Ling, instead of Libba Bray trying to give all these different characters 'screen time'. I think the fact that Will was so absent throughout added to the mystery for the next books.

Guys. I am a SUCKER for fake dating, and this book served. It's cliché, yes, but there's a reason it's so popular. Even though the outcome is quite predictable, I just love it. I know it's tacky but I can't help it.

I will say, we didn't need to read about people dying in their dreams so many times. Two or three would've been enough. I got the message. I didn't need to see it over and over. But still, this mystery excited me a lot more than the murders in the first book, especially with Wai-Mae and her story. I got literal chills when Ling figured it out. It just felt so much more personal than John Hobbes.

The ending, when all the Diviners had to team up, was exactly what I'd been waiting for. I've read the description of Before the Devil Breaks You, and one of the things I'm most excited for is to see the group of characters I've become so attached to working together, and exploring their dynamics as a team.

We also have a nice set-up leading into the next book. I'm desperate to know about Project Buffalo, the man in the stovepipe hat, and Sam's mother. This was something Libba Bray did well in the first book too - she leaves you wanting more.

I thought the descriptions of race and homosexuality were really what gripped me, as well as Evie dealing with fame (and alcoholism??). While The Diviners described 1920s America in its glory, and threw you into the scene in the way a white person would've lived it, I really felt in tune with Ling's struggles in Chinatown because of racism. It was also funny how pertinent this was to coronavirus - a sickness that originated in Chinatown which people use to justify their racism?

Even though I've only just finished this book, I'm itching to reread it, and I'm absolutely dying to get my hands on the next book.


JANE EYRE, by Charlotte Brontë:
2.5 stars
Even though I read this for school, I still felt like it was a waste of my time. I don't have a physical copy of the book so had to listen to the audiobook, which might have been why - even though I listened to it on double speed, it couldn't be over fast enough.

This is a bit harsh. In general, it was pretty good - I liked Jane as a woman with agency and her own desires which she learns to put before her duty to men. Mr Rochester was creepy, frankly, and irritated me. If the book had ended with Jane becoming a school mistress, or even discovering her fortune and splitting it with her family, I would have been more satisfied.

There were long periods of time where not a lot happened, but once I got over this, I enjoyed the progression of the story and especially Jane's development, and her finding herself. Something I particularly liked about this book was that we were given closure on all the characters - Brontë
mentioned where they ended up throughout the story, and the epilogue meant the ending was satisfying, even if it wasn't the ending I wanted for Jane.


DOCTOR FAUSTUS, by Christopher Marlowe:
2 stars
I don't have a lot to say about this, but my rating is more than 1 star because I thought the play would've been good if I'd put more effort into reading it. It just isn't the time for it right now, with all the exhaustion and burnout that comes with quarantine, which meant I couldn't be bothered to try and understand passages, then googled the plot half way through. Once I knew what was happening, it was easier to read, and I actually laughed at the part where Faustus 'charms everyone dumb' halfway through all their sentences.

I'll probably read this again in a few months and enjoy it a bit more, because I can understand why people could like this play, but I was really just too tired and unmotivated to read it properly.


THE HUNGER GAMES TRILOGY, by Suzanne Collins:
5 stars
In quarantine, I started to feel really nostalgic for my preteen days and the books I could lose myself in. Alongside the release of the new Hunger Games spin-off, A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, it seemed like the perfect time to re-read this trilogy.

Oh. My. God. I feel like I completely missed all the nuances and perfect detail when I read it the first few times. I was only in it for the action and characters, but this time the politics and the mental illness really impacted me. I loved Mockingjay this time; when I was younger it felt like a boring waste of time, like Suzanne Collins had run out of plot and resorted to a mind-numbing last book.

Katniss's mental decline absolutely ruined me, because I've experienced what it's like to be trapped in your own head. It's more - dare I say it - relatable, now that I can empathise with her more (though, obviously, I've never experienced anything as awful as PTSD). I was also shocked at her decision to have another hunger games for the Capitol children, because in my memory she voted not to, and it seems slightly out of character for her - then again, she does kill Coin, which balances it out.

The first time I read it, I hated the ending because I was completely Team Gale. But, let's be real, I was just Team Liam Hemsworth, not the actual character of Gale. After reflecting for a few years, I decided I hated the ending because I would've preferred it if Katniss hadn't ended up with anyone; I definitely viewed her as an asexual character. Rereading the books really confirmed that to me, because she only really has a romance with Peeta for survival, and she doesn't even seem that into Gale. Him killing Prim was the last straw. But then, I feel like Suzanne Collins had to give Katniss that ending to satisfy the fans, because she couldn't leave the 'love triangle' unresolved.

It makes me a bit angry, because the love triangle was such a small part of a bigger picture. The trilogy is, for me, about war and discrimination - a group of people stamped down and suffering, controlled by the upper classes. The themes are pertinent to real life - it's about having the strength to rebel against wrongs. The 'love triangle' doesn't even seem like a love triangle to me, because Katniss isn't really in love with either of them. It seems like it's there to appease the publishers, because you can't have a teenage girl without a love interest.

Then again, with all this being said, the ending doesn't seem completely out of the blue. I can't imagine it would've been easy for Katniss to grow up alone, after everything she's gone through, which is why I can forgive the lovey ending.

THANK YOU FOR READING!
If you've got this far, please leave a comment with any recommendations, and let me know your opinions on any of the books I've talked about!