Reviews and Comments

Absolutely phenomenal book, I have listened to nearly half of it in a single day. The story is entirely character driven, and the author does an incredible job at describing and embodying the main character. Makes me feel like I know the guy. Besides the lovely characterization and dialog, there is also a wealth of historical information to absorb from this story. And it is a very educational and sobering experience about the everyday reality of black people in America (I'm pretty sure the attitudes described in the story still very much exist, but maybe in a slightly different form).

This is an absolutely phenomenal book. Having grown up in a country that has been on the receiving end of the titular shock doctrine, this book gave me the tools to better understand my experience. While I have always been aware of different aspects of the issue, I can now put all of it together and understand the bigger picture.

Naomi Klein has an excellent writing style, explaining her thoughts in very clear and understandable terms. I listened to the audio version, but when I checked out a written copy of the book, I was really impressed by the sheer amount of sources/references she names. That's why I believe that this work is not just a think piece, but a product of actual, serious research.

Overall I would 100% recommend reading The Shock Doctrine, just with a warning that it might make you very, very angry at the world.

Absolutely lovely book, 100% recommended.

It creates a beautiful, highly interesting Iran-inspired setting. The fantasy medical mystery is not quite the hardest to solve, but the book remains a very fun read. Learning more about its queer-normative society and the land's history kept me turning the pages. Not to mention that some very interesting thoughts about imperialism are expressed through the world building.

The audiobook version is also recommended, the reader does a very good job portraying the different characters, and it is really nice hearing all the non-English words pronounced properly (as far as I can tell, at least).

I urge anyone who feels like venturing outside western fantasy settings to give this a chance.

I found the book very frustrating to read and gave up no more than four chapters in.

One of the two protagonists is incredibly anxious and has really low self-esteem, constantly being caught in a loop of negative self-talk. I am generally very open to books with introspective characters and characters with mental health problems, but this guy occupies a fairly important position politically and he seems barely able to think of himself on that level. It's partially explained on a narrative level, but still.

Most of his internal monologue is spent berating himself. It's to such a degree that it put me in an unhealthy mental space for a couple of days, and I had to drop the book to get out of it. So if you're a highly anxious person, I suggest going in very carefully on this one.

I saw somewhere that the narrator is an ex-linguist, so it might be fun?