Fer Bañuelos ✨'s Reviews > An Emotion of Great Delight

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EN:

Thank you netgalley for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I'm stuck between 2.5 and 3 stars. It's been a long time since I've been this conflicted about a book.

We follow Shadi, a muslim girl living in a post 9/11 America. She struggles to find balance between her beliefs and her feelings, having a lot of problems at home. She takes us in an extremely emotional journey, one that you can't leave without feeling the weight of it in your heart.

Something that I really enjoyed about the story is how powerful it is. Every emotion that Shadi feels you feel it too as you read her words, packed with anger and hope. Tahereh's writing style has always been of my favorites. Her way with words is so distinctive and I always enjoy reading her work. Shatter Me and A Very Large Expanse of Sea are some of my favorite books because of that.

Another aspect I quite liked was reading about a culture completely different from my own. To be honest I'm not that aware of Iranian culture but I really liked learning more form it, even it was in little amounts, from the book.

That being said, I had some problems with the book, but I feel most of them are due to some personal preferences.

I've never been a fan of stories that take place in a few days. Sometimes they start to feel a little rushed to me and that's what happened with AEOGD. On the other hand, "slice of life" stories are some of my favorites, and I was hopping this book could reach a happy medium with both of them. That didn't happen though.

So many things happened, a lot. That would not had bothered me as much if they were somewhat resolved at the end, but I just felt a little unsatisfied when I finished the book. I completely understand why the author did it, there's a beauty in how the story wrapped up and how we say goodbye to Shadi, but I just wanted a LITTLE more. Overall that made me feel a little disconnected with the book, not only with Shadi as a character but with everything else that happened.

I think that maybe I will be in the minority here. An Emotion of Great Delight is a beautiful but heart-wrenching story that I could foresee myself returning to in the future to give it another chance, but as of right now it isn't my favorite of Tahereh's work sadly.

ESP:

Tengo que decir que no estoy seguro si es un 2.5 o un 3, hace mucho que no estaba tan conflictuado con la calificación de un libro. Y también estoy triste de decir que este definitivamente es una de mis decepciones del año.

Ya saben que AVLEOS es uno de mis favoritos de la vida, entonces cuando vi un nuevo contemporaneo de Tahereh yo tenía las ganas por los cielos. Pero al final este libro no me terminó satisfaciendo como yo esperaba. De hecho, me dejo medio abrumado.

Lo bueno del libro es algo que nunca falta en un libro de Tahereh: está bellamente escrito y cada emoción planteada es inevitable que no la sientas tú también. Es una historia que, a pesar de corta, trae un golpe emocional consigo muy fuerte y tuve una experiencia bastante diferente mientras lo leia. Podría decir que si me dejo mucho al terminarlo.

Pero, diciendo eso, si tuve problemas con el libro.

No me encantan las historias que toman lugar en pocos días, porque siempre me quedo con las ganas de tener más desarrollo que unos cuantos días no me puede dar. Y, con eso, en este libro está sucediendo mucho, demasiado. Eso no me hubiera molestado si hubieramos tenido un poco de resolución para ellos al final, pero cuando lo terminé quedé muy insatisfecho. Entiendo el porqué la autora tomó esa dirección, de hecho creo que hay un cierto tipo de belleza en la forma en la que se da el final, pero me quedé con ganas de más.

Si podría decir que AEOGD es un libro al que, posiblemente, le de una segunda oportunidad en el futuro y volver a visitar a la historia, especialmente ya que tenga la copia final ya que este se lanze, pero puedo decir que es mi libro menos favorito de la autora por mucho.

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Donaria ambos de mis riñones y mi nalga izquierda por una copia avanzada de este libro