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ZOË's Reviews > As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow
As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow
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by
DNF at 75%, How I wish I loved this one as much as everybody else does!!
As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow is no doubt a very important story; anything that sparks awareness in people (especially young people) when it comes to tragedies in our modern world is a net positive in my eyes, so my issues lie solely in how this was written and executed.
I know this is YA so I’ll try to cut it some slack, but I found the writing here to be quite juvenile and downright cringy at times. Of course there are going to be books in the genre that lean a bit younger / towards middle grade, but our protagonist is 18 so that doesn’t exactly add up for me.
As for the romance… I’m so sorry but you’d have to try HARD to write something more corny. From the cookie cutter perfect love interest who can’t make a mistake to save his life, to the many declarations of love without any actual chemistry, to the fact that it took up sooooooo much of the story, I was sick of it.
The rest of the plot (sans the romance) I found to be lacking as well. The same few conflicts repeated themselves over and over with hardly any variation, and while I get that it probably makes for a more realistic depiction of the real life events the novel is based on, it’s very annoying to read.
I will say the plot twist was well-written and did surprise me (though I didn’t feel enough attachment to the characters to actually… care, unfortunately), and Khawf as a character was definitely one of, if not the most, compelling part of the book as a whole. Another thing I really enjoyed was how important religion was to these characters, and how they never strayed from it even when things like a blossoming romance could’ve gotten in the way of their values. That’s something I think we’re seeing a lot less often in YA as time goes on, and it was really refreshing to read as a young person who wants to be more religious!
Overall I didn’t HATE this, but the writing style and execution ended up not being my cup of tea, and that’s okay!! Life is too short to finish books you aren’t enjoying.
As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow is no doubt a very important story; anything that sparks awareness in people (especially young people) when it comes to tragedies in our modern world is a net positive in my eyes, so my issues lie solely in how this was written and executed.
I know this is YA so I’ll try to cut it some slack, but I found the writing here to be quite juvenile and downright cringy at times. Of course there are going to be books in the genre that lean a bit younger / towards middle grade, but our protagonist is 18 so that doesn’t exactly add up for me.
As for the romance… I’m so sorry but you’d have to try HARD to write something more corny. From the cookie cutter perfect love interest who can’t make a mistake to save his life, to the many declarations of love without any actual chemistry, to the fact that it took up sooooooo much of the story, I was sick of it.
The rest of the plot (sans the romance) I found to be lacking as well. The same few conflicts repeated themselves over and over with hardly any variation, and while I get that it probably makes for a more realistic depiction of the real life events the novel is based on, it’s very annoying to read.
I will say the plot twist was well-written and did surprise me (though I didn’t feel enough attachment to the characters to actually… care, unfortunately), and Khawf as a character was definitely one of, if not the most, compelling part of the book as a whole. Another thing I really enjoyed was how important religion was to these characters, and how they never strayed from it even when things like a blossoming romance could’ve gotten in the way of their values. That’s something I think we’re seeing a lot less often in YA as time goes on, and it was really refreshing to read as a young person who wants to be more religious!
Overall I didn’t HATE this, but the writing style and execution ended up not being my cup of tea, and that’s okay!! Life is too short to finish books you aren’t enjoying.
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Reading Progress
February 26, 2023
– Shelved as:
to-read
February 26, 2023
– Shelved
March 28, 2023
–
Started Reading
April 6, 2023
–
62.59%
"“The way he’s looking at me makes the air vanish from my alveoli.” ALVEOLI…😭😭"
page
261
April 10, 2023
–
78.42%
"Half the reason I haven’t finished this yet is that I hate reading out of hardcovers 💀"
page
327
April 10, 2023
–
Finished Reading
April 13, 2023
– Shelved as:
unpopular-opinion
Comments Showing 1-4 of 4 (4 new)
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message 1:
by
marwah
(last edited Mar 03, 2023 11:23AM)
(new)
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rated it 5 stars
Mar 03, 2023 10:27AM
sabaa gets it!! I would DIE for this book
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Wow. I’ve heard such good things about this one. That’s too bad. But as you said, it’s not worth pushing through a book you aren’t enjoying!
Clearly you missed the point of this book if your talking abt the plot being “lacking” and “repeating”—it’s that way because that’s what actual PEOPLE are going through.
Leen Tabbakh wrote: "Clearly you missed the point of this book if your talking abt the plot being “lacking” and “repeating”—it’s that way because that’s what actual PEOPLE are going through."I understand the point she was making, I personally don't think that the style translates to fiction well and would rather read nonfiction on the subject. That's just my opinion though, I'm glad you (and many others) got more out of this story than I did!
