as long as the lemon tree grows | book review
"WITH ALL THE DESTRUCTION HAPPENING DOWN THERE, IT'S SO EASY TO FORGET THE BEAUTY THAT'S UP HERE. THE SKY IS SO BEAUTIFUL AFTER RAINFALL."
Salama Kassab was a pharmacy student when the cries for freedom broke out in Syria. She still had her parents and her big brother; she still had her home. She had a normal teenager’s life.
Now Salama volunteers at a hospital in Homs, helping the wounded who flood through the doors daily. Secretly, though, she is desperate to find a way out of her beloved country before her sister-in-law, Layla, gives birth. So desperate, that she has manifested a physical embodiment of her fear in the form of her imagined companion, Khawf, who haunts her every move in an effort to keep her safe.
But even with Khawf pressing her to leave, Salama is torn between her loyalty to her country and her conviction to survive. Salama must contend with bullets and bombs, military assaults, and her shifting sense of morality before she might finally breathe free. And when she crosses paths with the boy she was supposed to meet one fateful day, she starts to doubt her resolve in leaving home at all.
Soon, Salama must learn to see the events around her for what they truly are—not a war, but a revolution—and decide how she, too, will cry for Syria’s freedom.
publication date: september 13th, 2022 | source: owned
page count: 417 pages | genre: historical fiction, contemporary, fantasy, romance,
⩇⩇:⩇⩇ » review time .ᐟ
꒰ જ⁀➴ 5 depressingly beautiful stars ☆ ┆ tropes: soulmates 💕 ꒱
౨ৎ ⋆ ｡˚「🍋」» every lemon will bring forth a child and the lemons will never die out «「🍋」౨ৎ ⋆ ｡˚
HEY YALL IM ALIVEEE!!! Ahaha did not mean to ghost for um 7 months a while but reading slumps and burn out from mf school is actually the biggest pain ever and frankly I'm not sure how I'm still alive. I might be dead here but on Goodreads, I'm actually pretty active and occasionally I get the bright idea to make an aesthetic review because I don't want to do my homework so I'm going to transfer some reviews over in a new format so here come a wave (not really only like 3 or 4) of reviews!
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i am still quite traumatized but i did just finish my ap lang exam so i have some time (and im also ignoring my upcoming tests/projects/finals hehe) so i will attempt to untraumatized myself (very unlikely) and write a review about a book that made me ugly cry in public!!! please excuse any incoherent sobbing and screeching down the line :D
˚₊‧꒰ ♯ now playing ▸ love wins all, iu ↻ ꒱
‧₊˚ ⤿ 💌: dearest, darling, my universe ᡣ𐭩
꒰⚔️꒱ ➷ the story
okay so like the story actually broke me?? i was 27 pages in when i cried for the first time and proceeded to tear up several times in school as the book went on. salama's story was nothing but heartbreaking and i think i cried a little each time the hospital was overrun with all these children sustaining critical injuries. reading about it only broke my heart more and i think i was so close to crying when reading ahmed's story bUt i cOuLdNt because i was in cLaSs. katouh did a perfect job weaving salama's trauma and amplifying hopelessness of the syrians and i am now forever traumatized but also in awe by how much suffering people can go through yet still be inspired to fight for their freedom and lives. it was beautiful yet devastating and reading this broke me in the best way possible.
⋆.˚🦋༘⋆ "we fight while we're still here, salama, because this is our country. this is the land of your father, and his father before him. your history is embedded in this soil. no country in the world will love you as yours does." ⋆.˚🦋༘⋆
꒰🏰꒱ ➷ the romance
the romance? oh my god the romance. kenan and salama were actually soulmates and you cannot convince me otherwise. he's the pazu to her sheeta and together they make each other stronger and so much better and give each other something to fight and live for. i was incoherently screeching while watching salama slowly fall in love with kenan and their love story was genuinely so beautiful i now want to curl up in a ball and cry.
"you're my sheeta."~♡~"you're my pazu."
꒰🥀꒱ ➷ the trauma
the trauma is trauma-ing!! i am now forever scarred, never recovering, bawled my eyes out public and died a little inside as the story went on. katouh wrote salama's trauma perfectly and as much as i hated khwaf in the beginning, his personification only reflect the struggles so many war veterans and refugees experience in their head. those drowning thoughts that assume the worst of the worst, that eat you up from inside out, and essentially prey on your worst regrets and fears is the worst possible thing anyone should ever had to go through. i wanted to cry and then scream at khwaf so many times to leave salama alone yet at the same time, i hated that i understood where the irrationality of all her fears and regrets came from. khwaf is a forever going to be a part of salama, but katouh showed that she can overcome it with kenan by her side. also can we talk about chapter 29??? respectfully, ms. zoulfa katouh, please pay for my therapy.
˚˖𓍢ִ໋🕊️˚ “for every life I can’t save during my shift, one more drop of blood becomes a part of me. no matter how many times i wash my hands, our martyrs’ blood seeps beneath my skin, into my cells. by now it’s probably encoded in my dna.” ˚˖𓍢ִ໋🕊️˚
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okay im done yapping and im going to go back to sobbing!!! go read this book but make sure u bring a hefty amount of tissues because you will cry but it would be nice to not bawl in public like my dumbass did so- happy readingg lovelies <33
「🌷 」ೀ⋆｡ » and to all the syrians who loved, lost, lived, and died for syria.
we will come back home one day.「🌷 」ೀ⋆｡«
FINAL RATING:
what was the most traumatizing book you've read?
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