I spend through this in about a day. Harpman’s prose totally drowns you in the story, a bit rambling a times and harshly blunt at others. You leave the book thinking about what makes you human. My one complaint is that we never learn our narrators name. I would have liked to see the women help name her given she was their child, whether they liked it or not. 

Given the current events, this is a must-read. This summary of over a century of oppression and brutality lays out explicitly who is responsible for the current stage of the ethnic cleansing- and why that answer is largely the United States.    

While this book is a bit slow to start, once it gets going it catches you. There were twists that I didn't expect (really Claire??? you did WHAT?) and when it fell together, I was floored. At first it seemed that we didn't need all the POVs, but once the climax started building, it made sense why we had them from the beginning

SPOILERS: 
I do have a few complaints. The first is that we don't see what happens the Uriel and where Ramiel ends up. The second is: where the hell is God? I realize that is probably going to be explored in the rest of the series, but it felt like the one loose end.     

As my first five star of the year, I am obsessed. Wendell and Emily are so damn cute, even in the beginning with the bickering. I love them. This is such a cozy story despite the cold setting. The writing framing everything as journal entries works perfectly as a way to tell an academic tale. 

Desmond walks the reader through practical ways to end poverty. Blunt and honestly, he looks at the biases that make poverty possible. My one complaint is that there are moments where you get bogged in statistics. I would say that you need some background in sociology or social sciences to understand some of his points. 

This is an amazing primer for anyone who needs an intro to how language effects culture and vice versa. 

Ahed tells her story in terms as brutally honest as her oppressors are brutally cruel. 

I think I would have given this book a higher rating if I hadn’t recently read American Slave Coast. I began to feel bogged down in the last chapter. But the first few definitely rewrite what we think of as emancipation