I liked this book and when I finished it a while back I planned to read the others- but I haven’t got the motivation yet to continue.

The world building was great, the content was real/political/very relevant, and I liked the depth of the secondary characters. However I feel that the ratio of how explicit the sexual assault/rape scenes and content are to the positive/consensual sexual content was too high. I also found the ending to be a bit far fetched but that is not unique to this book in the genre. Overall I do recommend it to folks who love fantasy with queer romance thrown in.

This should be on every Palestine book list. Absolutely excellent, highly recommend. I often don’t have the attention span and staying power for finishing non-fiction (😬) but I was engrossed the entire time. His writing is beautiful and he uses storytelling very well to get his (extremely essential) points across. Listened to the audiobook and felt it brought me even closer to the material to hear him read it.

Medical fantasy set in a Persian-inspired world with a magical non-binary MC who has a trans brother - and it follows through in my opinion. I do think this novella could have been longer and only benefited from it, but it was great as is. The ethical ambiguity was quite compelling to me. I only wish we could follow some of the characters a little further past the events of the novella. I haven’t read the alternate ending but plan to. Will watch for more from Jamnia!

3.75 stars. I liked this book- it has a lot of heart for a food competition romance :). I would have loved more spice but also respect the decision not to include it. I enjoyed that the intergenerational nature of this book and the fact that both the MCs parents got story arcs.

4.25 stars. I listened to the audiobook and really liked Jarrar’s narration in addition to the book itself. She covers a wide breadth of topics and to me it felt cohesive. I got more into the book during the second half. As others have said, the road trip is only a small part of the book. It is quite sexually explicit which I appreciated and enjoyed- I always understood the deeper point of the stories she told, so to me it didn’t feel unnecessary. There aren’t enough stories of fat or queer Muslim or Arab women being published - so it felt really powerful to me for her to be as explicit and intimate as she was.

One of those books that lights up your neural pathways for days/weeks/months afterwards. I love magical realism and ambiguous endings so I loved it. I was hyperfocused for a few days after, reading threads on here and reddit discussing the ambiguous ending. The ending gives the reader so many themes and possibilities to ponder.

Also, there was more romantic (though also very heavy) queer content than I anticipated which was a huge plus for me :).

4.25 stars.

After reading this book, I see so many justice issues through the lens of brain injury where I wouldn’t have even considered that before. I read it for the pertinence to long covid and am very glad I did. The scope is way beyond the title.

I docked some points for her references which are robust but mostly white authors/researchers. In the essay on brain injury and prisons, she quotes way too many cops/guards/elected officials and not enough people who have been imprisoned. Overall definitely recommend- especially to fellow physical therapists.

Audiobook narration: 5 stars