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Rosanne Hawke

Auteur de Soraya the Storyteller

31 oeuvres 264 utilisateurs 15 critiques

Œuvres de Rosanne Hawke

Soraya the Storyteller (2004) 28 exemplaires
Shahana (2013) 28 exemplaires
Marrying Ameera (2010) 23 exemplaires
Mountain wolf (2012) 16 exemplaires
Taj and the great camel trek (2011) 16 exemplaires
Zenna Dare (2002) 16 exemplaires
The Truth About Peacock Blue (2015) 15 exemplaires
Borderland (2003) 14 exemplaires
Spirit of a Mountain Wolf (2014) 12 exemplaires
Daughter of the nomad (2016) 12 exemplaires
The Last Virgin in Year 10 (2006) 8 exemplaires
Mustara (2006) 7 exemplaires
Sailmaker (2002) 6 exemplaires
Jihad (1996) 6 exemplaires
The Keeper (2000) 6 exemplaires
The messenger bird (2012) 6 exemplaires
A Kiss in Every Wave (2001) 6 exemplaires
RE-Entry (1994) 5 exemplaires
Wolfchild (2003) 5 exemplaires
The leopard princess (2016) 5 exemplaires
Dear Pakistan (Beyond Borders) (2016) 4 exemplaires
Yardil (2004) 3 exemplaires
The Collector (Start-Ups) (2004) 3 exemplaires
Killer ute (2013) 2 exemplaires
Liana's dance (2017) 2 exemplaires
Mountain wolf 1 exemplaire
Across the creek (2004) 1 exemplaire
Finding kerra (2018) 1 exemplaire
The War Within (2016) 1 exemplaire

Étiqueté

Partage des connaissances

Sexe
female
Nationalité
Australia
Lieux de résidence
South Australia, Australia

Membres

Critiques

Representation: Asian characters
Trigger warnings: Imprisonment and incarceration of a child, death of a brother and murder of another person mentioned, gun violence, sexism, racism, racist slur, religious persecution, sexual harassment
Score: Five out of ten.
I own this book. Find this review on The StoryGraph.

Well that was a book that could've been better, but I liked where it was going. The Truth About Peacock Blue was a book from a familiar author, Rosanne Hawke, since I've read and enjoyed her other work, Zenna Dare. I headed in with high expectations, but when I closed the final page, it was worse than disappointing.

It starts with the first person I see, Aster, having to go a boarding school, with negative reactions from one of her teachers and her peers, but she tries her best to do well in the opening pages. Everything changes when the police arrest Aster for breaking a blasphemy law and put her in prison, and that is where she stays for the rest of the story, all while her cousin, Maryam, living in Australia, creates a petition to try to free Aster. I liked that Hawke tried to tell a story about the sexism Pakistanis face, but I've already read about this topic before, so it's not too surprising.

Did I mention Aster's username is Peacock Blue to avoid discovery? The pacing is only one of the many issues, as it's slow, even though it's below 300 pages because of filler, which Hawke could've removed for a better reading experience. Like another novel, Yellowface, The Truth About Peacock Blue heavily relies on social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, wait--Twitter is now X, and also mentions CD players and Skype. It's outdated now. I liked the characters and could root for them, but if Hawke wrote them better, they would've been more relatable, too. I like the easy to follow plot, since other subplots don't detract from it, because there aren't any. It only focuses on Maryam trying to free Aster from prison, but I didn't like the conclusion, since it was too open, and there's nothing satisfying about that. Perhaps writing a finish where Aster is free from prison would've been a better choice.

Worst of all is the cultural appropriation since the author doesn't match Aster's attributes. A Pakistani author would've done a better job, and please read Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed for a better fictional creation on this subject.
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
Law_Books600 | May 13, 2024 |
7/10, I picked this up from one of the two libraries I go to and this book is 20 years old now, wow throwback to the books in the 2000s, and this had a lower than 4-star rating so I went in with pretty low expectations considering that I've never read from this author before and this might be her debut book however it was interesting though certainly not one of the best historical books out there so where do I even begin? Did I mention that it's so obscure only a few people know of this book? The two stories within this novel were disconnected from each other at first, but they became related as I read through the book. There were two main characters, Zenna, and Jenefer, but Zenna for me was the better main character, since she experienced struggles such as finding a boyfriend, performing, and moving to Australia, but she overcame those challenges, it showed how resilient and perseverant she was, but Jenefer was rather flat in contrast if she wasn't, maybe this book would have received a higher score, but that issue is rather glaring and prevents me from rating this book any higher than that. It's such a shame that this book is so obscure therefore more people need to know about this book since it's a good one. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed this book, if you like a quick read about family relationships and relatives, and historical theatre, this is the book for you, but if you want an in-depth look into historical theatre, I suggest you research it instead of reading this.… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
Law_Books600 | 2 autres critiques | Nov 3, 2023 |
Review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley.

This story about reverse culture shock rang so real, I had to go back to the summary and make sure it was really fiction.

Jamie is still in high school when her family decides to leave Pakistan and move back to Australia so she and her siblings could continue their education. Even though she is supposed to be home, she feels like an alien, and as if she has lost her identity.

The story is narrated in first person and has few parts initially in a diary form—where Jamie changed the greeting for "Dear Pakistan—and then as a story inside the story, a kind of a what-if in case she had remained in Pakistan. I didn't like those parts for most of the book but it gradually caught me.

I haven't experienced anything close to Jamie but even I could relate to her situation. The author knew to put in words the feeling of not knowing where home is, and having lived through something though less intense I could identify word by word.

On the other hand, I still had a problem with Jamie. I have no idea how she was able to make so many friends when I couldn't feel any charisma on her part. I really wanted to like her, as I understood so well her feelings and even agreed with most of her choices, but it never happened.

The other flaw in the book was that it never engaged me. It did have a great conflict, it felt real but I didn't feel entertained. It was a very short story and easy to read, so this isn't a big loss. Still, had it been a longer book, I might have never remembered to finish it.

Even though this is the part of a series, the conclusion was more than satisfying, so I believe it can be read as a standalone. Still, I do feel curious about the next one in the series, as it brings again Jamie as the main character.

I believe it is the perfect pick for a younger public, middle-grade level. Moreover, the different point of view on Pakistan was very enriching, and would make for a heated discussion in a group, when compared to what one would usually think of the country and its costumes.
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
AnnaBastos | Jun 13, 2017 |
Really well written, engaging characters and page-turning plot. What more can you ask?
 
Signalé
mmacd3814 | 3 autres critiques | May 30, 2016 |

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Statistiques

Œuvres
31
Membres
264
Popularité
#87,286
Évaluation
½ 3.7
Critiques
15
ISBN
121
Langues
1

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