Book Review: We Are Called To Rise

Sunday nights are probably my least favorite time of the week. I almost never do anything productive and although you may have enjoyed the day off of work/school, you can't stay up late and there's the looming week ahead. Anyways, enough of those depressing thoughts and on to the book review!

It actually took me three whole days to read a book, but that's because my sister was visiting. The aforementioned book is We Are Called To Rise, by Laura McBride. Not gonna lie, I started out not really feeling this book. I enjoyed the alternative perspectives but it just felt a bit dry in the beginning. Slowly but surely, it picked up and that's when I really started to delve in. The novel is told from four different points of view-- a middle aged housewife, a soldier, a social worker, and a young immigrant boy. Since I read the description, I knew there was some sort of event going to occur that would tie all of their stories together (obviously not gonna give that away though). My only problem was that this event didn't occur until halfway through the (rather long) novel, so I felt like I kept waiting for something to happen. Once that occurred, I grew to rather like this book.

The most touching perspective is probably that of Bakshim, an eight year old boy living in America from Albania. It's not easy to write from the perspective of a child, especially as an American woman like McBride who probably can't relate very well, but she is touching and honest and captures it well. I wasn't super thrilled with Avis, the housewife's perspective, unless it centered around her son. Another unique aspect of this book is its choice of setting--it takes place in Las Vegas, typically known for its casinos and nightlife, but exposes the everyday side non-natives wouldn't think about.

This is definitely not a light beach read, and ended up being way heavier than I expected, but it was overall pretty good and I would recommend it if you are looking for something to make you think, with characters you will really empathize with.

Rachel's Rating (a new thingy I'm gonna try to keep up): 4/5

Currently Watching: I just started Weeds, which has eight seasons (yessss). American Horror Story finished WAY too quickly, and since Weeds has the same writer as Orange Is The New Black, I'm hoping I'll enjoy it as much.