I was torn between three or four stars, but the ending made me cry so I gave this book the benefit of the doubt. I do like it, but as an adult, I see a lot more flaws. I love learning the history of Afghanistan and do appreciate that being brought into the story, but on the flip side, it felt awkwardly brought it. It wasn't a natural part of the character's lives and story. Instead it was mostly discussed in dialogue or just narration of who was in charge of the country.

It felt like it was borderline tragedy porn, which made me uncomfortable. Bad things happen, particularly in war torn countries. I expect heartbreak. But it felt like Hosseini was throwing every terrible thing he could think of at these women in order to make it more heartbreaking, rather than actually developing any of the issues further.

It felt somewhat disjointed, and I struggled to follow the timeline and remember how much time had passed. Sometimes there would be long sections covering the span of a few months, other times it would skip two years ahead, sometimes nine years ahead. And flipping between the two characters only made it worse. Following the chronology was easy, but because it covered so much time in such a short book, it felt like we were skipping through the story too quickly and missing major points of character development.

The characters felt flat to me. They seemed like ideas of people, rather than true people themselves. Despite that, I was sad in the end and this book did make me cry. For all the flaws, Hosseini made me connect to the story in some way, so I have to give credit for that.