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tej_reads 's review for:
Love Marriage
by Monica Ali
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a very mentally taxing read, which wasn't helped by the fact that it is over 500 pages long. The writing was clunky at times and characters were introduced that I don't feel added to the story. The 3rd person perspective changed frequently which wasn't a bad thing but I think it could have been better fleshed out in parts. Why do I need to care about the dementia patient, I don't feel she added anything, neither the psychologist. This book could have been trimmed do quite a bit and I think it would have been much better.
The book was well written ish but the story that was being told was like a 'dumpster fire' or a 'hot mess' where you only keep watching or in this case reading because you're curious as to how worse the characters' lives can get.
No character was particularly likeable which was nice, because in almost every book (I've read so far) the author tries to make at least one character likeable, I wasn't particularly rooting for anyone. Most of them were at times - at minimum racist or abusive or childish or hypocritical which made it hard for me to keep reading because I often just wanted to dnf because the characters were rubbish people. I also had issues connecting with the family dynamic, because it was so different from mine - not sure why.
Personally, I wasn't interested in the Joe/Harriet storyline; my initial impression was that Love Marriage was going to be a deep dive into the immediate family dynamics - as both Yasmin and her parents have a 'love marriage' but that was not the case. I don't think the ending was particularly fitting, everyone should've been sent to therapy - the underlying issues remained unsolved. Particularly, the mother going back to the husband because he diagnosed the baby? There was also a touch of LGBT+ but only for a chapter and a bit at the end... like if your mother has a 'special friend' I feel like maybe that's a concept that needs to be unpacked. Also, how did we end this book knowing absolutely nothing about Flame - when she's so important to a later story line.
I don't think my mental health can take a re-read but it was memorable, not sure in what way.
thoughts as I was reading:
The book was well written ish but the story that was being told was like a 'dumpster fire' or a 'hot mess' where you only keep watching or in this case reading because you're curious as to how worse the characters' lives can get.
No character was particularly likeable which was nice, because in almost every book (I've read so far) the author tries to make at least one character likeable, I wasn't particularly rooting for anyone. Most of them were at times - at minimum racist or abusive or childish or hypocritical which made it hard for me to keep reading because I often just wanted to dnf because the characters were rubbish people. I also had issues connecting with the family dynamic, because it was so different from mine - not sure why.
Personally, I wasn't interested in the Joe/Harriet storyline; my initial impression was that Love Marriage was going to be a deep dive into the immediate family dynamics - as both Yasmin and her parents have a 'love marriage' but that was not the case. I don't think the ending was particularly fitting, everyone should've been sent to therapy - the underlying issues remained unsolved.
I don't think my mental health can take a re-read but it was memorable, not sure in what way.
thoughts as I was reading:
- 9% in: It's slowly picking up but there are things I already don't like from the get-go. Yasmin to me puts Joe's mum Harriet on a pedestal in a way and to me sort of insults her parents throughout because she's embarrassed by them and is kind of critical of how they've sort of assimilated to the UK. I'm not a fan of Harriet, she sucks. Harriet calls herself a feminist but steamrolls the conversation on Yasmin's marriage, basically forcing her into a corner about the Imam. Yasmin also praises Harriet's intelligence etc. When Harriet gives off nothing but performative activism/tokenism vibes.
- 19% in: Harriet has no personal boundaries. Also introduced to Rania will she appear again or is she mentioned only in this chapter.
- 64% in: How is Joe so boring. Why don't we get more information Arif and Lucy's relationship which had been going on for longer than Yasmin and Joe (Actually near the end it felt like I knew more about Arif and Lucy than Joe and Yasmin).
- 73% in: Honestly at this point nothing surprises me anymore.
Book #149 of 2022