The powerful appeal of funds turns tragic for everybody involved, and his family realizes that happiness is not something money can buy. They soon struggle with the murder of a family member that further crushes the young man's dreams for a happy ending. Not able to emotionally recover from it, a final blow imprisons him for life.
Reviewed by: Sandra L.
Rating: 3 stars
Review: What if you
were forced to marry someone you didn’t know? Born in Peru, Elena Martina
weaves an intriguing tale of a culture bound by archaic practices and
traditions.
“Hassan felt
his life and freedom had ended and fought tears.” (15) This is how it all
starts out for our main character, Hassan. He doesn’t want to marry a stranger;
instead, he wants to get to know this other girl that he noticed in his daily
whereabouts.
What shocked
me most was that he was going to marry a 14-year old girl, who still called her
mother “mommy.”
Although I
felt sorry for Hassan for being forced into this wedlock, my feelings toward
him changed as I read on, especially right after he stated, “I would never hit
a woman, unless she deserved it.” (23) That just blew Hassan out of the water
for “great guy;” then he graduated to “cocky and selfish bastard” with his
involvement with Seline (his manipulative, mystery girl) and his neglect for his
younger siblings. He definitely didn’t
deserve a nice, sweet girl like Aqquela, his arranged bride.
It was
frightening to learn how women get treated in third world countries. Ali,
Hassan’s father, was mean and scary; I didn’t like him at all.
The book had
a colorful mix of greed, drama, deceit, and betrayal. Some scenes made me sad
while others just had me confused. How could Aqquela’s family be so blind to
the troubles concerning Ali, Hassan, and the rest of the clan?
Executed in
a passive style, the writing was brief and contained a fair level of dialogue;
it almost read like a summary. There was also a little too much back-and-forth between
the characters’ points-of-view. We would constantly switch from one character
to another within the same paragraph. Still, a magnitude of potential existed
between the pages of this unique tale.
What I liked
best about this story was that even though you really couldn’t help despising
many of these characters, you still couldn’t wait to find out how it would all end
for them.
No comments:
Post a Comment