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anyaemilie's Reviews (1.57k)
Don’t read this if you hate miscommunication tropes as much as I do. This book wouldn’t even exist if the main character had ONE complete conversation with her best friend turned love interest 😒
Uggghhhhhh
I should know by now that if something is super popular on booktok, I’m probably going to hate it
Hated the MMC. He was a jerk the entire time. “If anyone else touches you, I’ll kill them” is not cute. Especially when he hates literally every other woman. Not a great sign
The fact that none of the men in this book respect the FMC or believe that she’s capable of doing anything by herself is infuriating as well. She’s treated worse than a child
The relationship is cringey. Not sexy. At all. And the fact that I know middle schoolers are reading this book is horrifying because I hope to god they aren’t looking for guys like Alex 😵💫
And the revenge subplot? Ridiculous. Unbelievable. Not at all interesting
I’m so annoyed I read this
I should know by now that if something is super popular on booktok, I’m probably going to hate it
Hated the MMC. He was a jerk the entire time. “If anyone else touches you, I’ll kill them” is not cute. Especially when he hates literally every other woman. Not a great sign
The fact that none of the men in this book respect the FMC or believe that she’s capable of doing anything by herself is infuriating as well. She’s treated worse than a child
The relationship is cringey. Not sexy. At all. And the fact that I know middle schoolers are reading this book is horrifying because I hope to god they aren’t looking for guys like Alex 😵💫
And the revenge subplot? Ridiculous. Unbelievable. Not at all interesting
I’m so annoyed I read this
This was really interesting and surprisingly neutral/unbiased considering the author is half Palestinian. I don't think unbiased is quite the right word, but the author is a journalist and came at the topic of a hundred years of oppression that personally affected him from a very professional, academic perspective. It was very lacking emotion even though the author had, I think, every reason to be angry considering how closely he and his family have been affected by Israel and its allies.
He is half Palestinian and half Lebanese. His family experienced violence in Palestine at the hands of British colonial rule before Israel was a state (something I learned while listening to this--there were Jewish settlers invading Palestine BEFORE the official attempt at creating the Israeli state). He and his wife experienced violence at the hands of the Israeli military while living with their children in Beirut in the 80s (which left his children traumatized). Anger would be perfectly justified in this case.
But he gives us a well researched book documenting the repeated failures of ANY country to acknowledge the struggle of the Palestinian people throughout the last 100 years (and honestly, to acknowledge the Palestinian people at all). He documents the handover of power from the British government to the US government in backing the Israeli military and really illustrates how Israel is nothing but a chess piece for Western governments in the Middle East.
Palestinians were constantly tricked and overlooked and intentionally left out of agreements so Israel could take over more and more land. And it's only gotten worse since this book was published in 2017. As we can see right now, considering we are living through a US-funded genocide of the Palestinian people by the Israeli government.
Anyone who still is on the fence about Israel's intent (or, honestly, the US government's) in what is happening in Gaza right now needs to read this book. It provides a hundred years of context for why and how the Palestinian people have ended up in the situation they are in today. And negates every claim that Israel is the victim in any of the violent situations that have happened in the last 100+ years.
He is half Palestinian and half Lebanese. His family experienced violence in Palestine at the hands of British colonial rule before Israel was a state (something I learned while listening to this--there were Jewish settlers invading Palestine BEFORE the official attempt at creating the Israeli state). He and his wife experienced violence at the hands of the Israeli military while living with their children in Beirut in the 80s (which left his children traumatized). Anger would be perfectly justified in this case.
But he gives us a well researched book documenting the repeated failures of ANY country to acknowledge the struggle of the Palestinian people throughout the last 100 years (and honestly, to acknowledge the Palestinian people at all). He documents the handover of power from the British government to the US government in backing the Israeli military and really illustrates how Israel is nothing but a chess piece for Western governments in the Middle East.
Palestinians were constantly tricked and overlooked and intentionally left out of agreements so Israel could take over more and more land. And it's only gotten worse since this book was published in 2017. As we can see right now, considering we are living through a US-funded genocide of the Palestinian people by the Israeli government.
Anyone who still is on the fence about Israel's intent (or, honestly, the US government's) in what is happening in Gaza right now needs to read this book. It provides a hundred years of context for why and how the Palestinian people have ended up in the situation they are in today. And negates every claim that Israel is the victim in any of the violent situations that have happened in the last 100+ years.