Review by amcanelly3 -- My trip to Adele
Posted: 06 Aug 2017, 15:52
[Following is a volunteer review of "My trip to Adele" by R.I.Alyaseer and A. I Alyaseer.]
3 out of 4 stars
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Three different people in three different places who all are touched by the same singer, My Trip to Adele by R. I. and A. I. Alyaseer is a fictional book about the journey to happiness and love. The novel intertwines the stories of Elias, Yaser, Nadia, and their motivations to make the trip to Rome to see Adele perform: Elias searches for a remnant of love he felt years before, Yaser tries to save his marriage, and Nadia tries to enjoy raising her son without her abusive ex-husband controlling her.
When intertwining stories there’s the risk of spending too much time with one character. With this book, the authors do a good job balancing the stories. I did find myself wanting to skip around to finish the story of one character more than the others, but I resisted that urge and kept with the order the authors intended. The stories flowed well and in the last chapter they combined all the stories to wrap up the endings. Overall, good organization.
If you like being taken to exotic places you’ve never been before, this book does a good job at it. Yaser lives in Las Vegas, Nadia lives in Amman, Jordan and Elias lives in Rome, but returns to Marrakesh, Morocco. The authors do a wonderful job of not only describing the physical settings but relaying the cultural or mystical importance of landmarks. I could almost feel myself in El-Fnaa Sqaure, on the busy streets of Las Vegas, and outside the Arena Di Verona listening to Adele’s music echo into the night.
Each chapter shares its name with an Adele song, and at the end of each chapter lyrics from that song are given. At first glance, this format seems forced. Once the reader gets to know the characters, how much Adele touches their lives with her music, the reader can see how the lyrics enhance or summarize the situation. This book is very relatable in that regard. Most people relate to the songs they listen to one way or another and replay them in situations where they feel it could make them feel deeper or sum up how they feel.
I had problems with only a few things. In almost every story, there is one character who interacts with one of the main characters that seems flat. Characters should be complex, especially if they are a big part of a protagonist’s life. This novel is written in first person, so of course with this point of view the reader knows the speaker is bias in one form or another, but I still feel the authors could have done a better job showing us all the characters.
Overall, the authors do a good job of immersing the readers, intertwining the stories, and showing the reader their love of Adele. The flat characters and my dissatisfaction with the ending will be the reasons I give this book 3 out of 4 stars. I still recommend it to any Adele fans, and anyone looking for relatable life struggles.
******
My trip to Adele
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
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3 out of 4 stars
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Three different people in three different places who all are touched by the same singer, My Trip to Adele by R. I. and A. I. Alyaseer is a fictional book about the journey to happiness and love. The novel intertwines the stories of Elias, Yaser, Nadia, and their motivations to make the trip to Rome to see Adele perform: Elias searches for a remnant of love he felt years before, Yaser tries to save his marriage, and Nadia tries to enjoy raising her son without her abusive ex-husband controlling her.
When intertwining stories there’s the risk of spending too much time with one character. With this book, the authors do a good job balancing the stories. I did find myself wanting to skip around to finish the story of one character more than the others, but I resisted that urge and kept with the order the authors intended. The stories flowed well and in the last chapter they combined all the stories to wrap up the endings. Overall, good organization.
If you like being taken to exotic places you’ve never been before, this book does a good job at it. Yaser lives in Las Vegas, Nadia lives in Amman, Jordan and Elias lives in Rome, but returns to Marrakesh, Morocco. The authors do a wonderful job of not only describing the physical settings but relaying the cultural or mystical importance of landmarks. I could almost feel myself in El-Fnaa Sqaure, on the busy streets of Las Vegas, and outside the Arena Di Verona listening to Adele’s music echo into the night.
Each chapter shares its name with an Adele song, and at the end of each chapter lyrics from that song are given. At first glance, this format seems forced. Once the reader gets to know the characters, how much Adele touches their lives with her music, the reader can see how the lyrics enhance or summarize the situation. This book is very relatable in that regard. Most people relate to the songs they listen to one way or another and replay them in situations where they feel it could make them feel deeper or sum up how they feel.
I had problems with only a few things. In almost every story, there is one character who interacts with one of the main characters that seems flat. Characters should be complex, especially if they are a big part of a protagonist’s life. This novel is written in first person, so of course with this point of view the reader knows the speaker is bias in one form or another, but I still feel the authors could have done a better job showing us all the characters.
Overall, the authors do a good job of immersing the readers, intertwining the stories, and showing the reader their love of Adele. The flat characters and my dissatisfaction with the ending will be the reasons I give this book 3 out of 4 stars. I still recommend it to any Adele fans, and anyone looking for relatable life struggles.
******
My trip to Adele
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
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