I really enjoyed reading this book. It explored the family dynamics in a culture I had never read about before. I found the story interesting, disturbing, enlightening and powerful. This story showed the power of community and belonging and also the fear that can permeate generations of a family and scar its members when that sense of belonging is threatened. The ending, however, confused me. I won't mention what happened, but I read the last two chapters several times to see if I missed something. I came away still confused.

adults

I really liked the importance the story put on family and community. We all want to belong, well this book explored exactly what happens to the individual when that is threaten or taken away.

I didn't like the confusion at the end. What I will say is that something happened, then it was written as if it didn't happen.

I felt a lot of emotions while reading this book. I was especially sad for Isra, who had a fourth daughter, when the pressure was to give her husband a son. She had to endure so much abuse, just because he didn't have a son. I felt the emotional strain of three women living in such close quarters with their children.

Even though it is a sad book, I would recommend it to others, because it gave me a lot to think about. There were cultural attitudes being passed onto the next generation that were harmful. One such attitude led to death. We need to examine what we are teaching our children, and they ask why, we should have a better reason to give them than "because that's the way it's always been done".

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Created Sep 28, 2024 at 1:02am • Submit your own review...