growinginbrooklyn:

Rating: 4/5

The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini 

The Kite Runner is the story of Amir, a privileged boy of Afghanistan and his Hazara servant, Hassan.  Hassan is unfailingly loyal to Amir, but Amir neglects him when Hassan needs him most and is forced to live with that guilt for the rest of his life.  

I want to give this book five stars, but I just can’t do it because it took me four or five months to get through.  

It’s beautifully written and the story is compelling, but something about it just didn’t have me hooked.  I didn’t feel drawn towards it or the characters, nothing was keeping me going other than how great the writing was and how great a storyteller Khaled Hosseini proved to be.  

It’s possible that I just didn’t feel bad for Amir.  What he did left a sick taste in my mouth and I blamed him for it almost as much as he blamed himself throughout the story.  I didn’t really care about how great his life was going because I wanted to know more of Hassan and it made me sick that he just buried his guilt underneath the time that passed.  

This story has a really authentic feel.  Stories about writers always imply to me that the author poured a lot of himself into the novel, and that’s the feeling you get after reading this.  The events are cataclysmic and stunning and just when you think you know how it will end, Hosseini sweeps in and reveals something else entirely.  

It’s a beautiful book and worthy of a read, it just lacked something for me that I can’t explain.  Beautiful writing.  I’m glad that I read this.