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shealea 's review for:
The Weight of Our Sky
by Hanna Alkaf
If you're a reader of diverse books and want to know what representations this book offers, find the diversity tags here.
As someone with no significant background in Malaysian history, The Weight of Our Sky was truly an insightful and enlightening experience for me. The story takes on an extremely devastating, severely traumatizing event – the historic race riots of 1969 – and doesn’t shy away from thoughtfully portraying the brewing racial tension between the Malay and the Chinese, the flaws from both sides, as well as the underlying political forces at play. It was tough, dark, and hard-hitting, but also critical and sensitive.
Moreover, The Weight of Our Sky explores both external and internal struggles, wherein the latter comes in the form of Melati trying to work through her anxiety and OCD, and how they interact and, at times, aggravate each other. Much like everything else, Alkaf’s portrayal of Melati’s mental illness is remarkably nuanced. Melati showed feelings of helplessness, guilt, and grief, while continually drawing from her inner strength and was propelled by her love for her mother – and I thought her character was exceptionally written.
Fun fact: I finished the last few chapters of The Weight of Our Sky exactly one hour before my hosting gig. I ended up openly weeping in a huge – thankfully, mostly empty – auditorium. The feelings this book gave me are difficult to describe. Reading it was sort of like losing my faith in humanity, only to have it rebuilt brick by brick as the story drew closer to its conclusion. As much as this book is about pain and trauma and anxiety, it is also about strength, faith, and resilience – and I absolutely loved seeing both.
I am not at all surprised that Hanna Alkaf is experienced in the field of journalism because it is quite clear to me that she has really done the legwork necessary to give this story the justice it deserves. The Weight of Our Sky thoughtfully intersects culture, politics, mental health, and religion into a harrowing, gut-wrenching tale that is sorely needed in the world today. This debut novel is a difficult, potentially triggering read, but it is a painful narrative that is undoubtedly relevant to the current political climate we live in. Now more than ever, we need more stories like The Weight of Our Sky on our shelves.
I received a digital ARC of The Weight of Our Sky from the author and her publishing team (via Edelweiss) in exchange for an honest review.
Content/Trigger warnings:
5 stars.
* Read the rest of this review in my natural habitat!
As someone with no significant background in Malaysian history, The Weight of Our Sky was truly an insightful and enlightening experience for me. The story takes on an extremely devastating, severely traumatizing event – the historic race riots of 1969 – and doesn’t shy away from thoughtfully portraying the brewing racial tension between the Malay and the Chinese, the flaws from both sides, as well as the underlying political forces at play. It was tough, dark, and hard-hitting, but also critical and sensitive.
Moreover, The Weight of Our Sky explores both external and internal struggles, wherein the latter comes in the form of Melati trying to work through her anxiety and OCD, and how they interact and, at times, aggravate each other. Much like everything else, Alkaf’s portrayal of Melati’s mental illness is remarkably nuanced. Melati showed feelings of helplessness, guilt, and grief, while continually drawing from her inner strength and was propelled by her love for her mother – and I thought her character was exceptionally written.
Fun fact: I finished the last few chapters of The Weight of Our Sky exactly one hour before my hosting gig. I ended up openly weeping in a huge – thankfully, mostly empty – auditorium. The feelings this book gave me are difficult to describe. Reading it was sort of like losing my faith in humanity, only to have it rebuilt brick by brick as the story drew closer to its conclusion. As much as this book is about pain and trauma and anxiety, it is also about strength, faith, and resilience – and I absolutely loved seeing both.
I am not at all surprised that Hanna Alkaf is experienced in the field of journalism because it is quite clear to me that she has really done the legwork necessary to give this story the justice it deserves. The Weight of Our Sky thoughtfully intersects culture, politics, mental health, and religion into a harrowing, gut-wrenching tale that is sorely needed in the world today. This debut novel is a difficult, potentially triggering read, but it is a painful narrative that is undoubtedly relevant to the current political climate we live in. Now more than ever, we need more stories like The Weight of Our Sky on our shelves.
I received a digital ARC of The Weight of Our Sky from the author and her publishing team (via Edelweiss) in exchange for an honest review.
Content/Trigger warnings:
Spoiler
Graphic violence and war; graphic depictions of death; gore; obsessive compulsive disorder; anxiety and panic attacks; death of loved ones; racism; imagery/mentions of blood; and, depictions of grief5 stars.
* Read the rest of this review in my natural habitat!