Hi everyone. I'm Rincey and this is
Rincey Reads. Today i'm going to be doing
a book review on american war by omar
el-akkad. This book is a dystopian novel.
It takes place in the near future in the
year 2074. There has been
a second American Civil War that has
broken out and significant portions of
the South have basically been like
ruined it seems like. The main character
in this story is named Sarat. She is
born in Louisiana which is at this point
mostly under water. Her and her family
get sent to a what's basically a
refugee camp in what I believe to be is
what we would consider like Georgia-ish area.
And while she and her family are at
the camp a bunch of things occur. I won't
go into all of it because I think part
of what's interesting about this novel
is seeing what occurs. But she does meet
someone there who shows her sort of
another way of living or a way that she
could do something about the situation
that she's in. And also sort of fight
against some of the in justices that she
is seeing and facing. Although I say that
slightly hesitantly and I will get into
that a little bit as we go into the
review. So yes, I really enjoyed this one.
I gave it a four out of five stars with
a couple of caveats to that rating.
One of the major flaws to this book I'll say right
off the bat is the fact that it starts
off really, really slowly. This book is
broken up into four parts and for the
first part a significant portion of that
goes like really, really slow because
Omar El-Akkad is really sort of like
laying down the groundwork for what will
happen later on and he's also providing
the reader with a lot of sort of history
about what the United States has been
through between like what we currently
know and what happens in this book
through 19- or 2074.
I originally thought I was going to DNF
this book around the 10% mark but I
decided to keep going through partially
because this was the book that I was
reading on my train and so I just had
train ride to fill. So I decided to just
keep pushing through and see how I felt
by about the 20% mark and that was
really sort of was the turning point for
me. So if you have read this book and you
gave up on it early
or if you decide to pick this book up
just know that it gets off to a slow start.
And I would say push through through the
first part because I feel like once you
get into the second part it really
starts to pick up. And I also feel like
the book builds on itself so the ending
is like really, really strong. But it sort
of needs that time to build to that
point. So that is definitely one of the
flaws I could see a lot of people sort
of getting frustrated with this book.
But like I said, I ended up really enjoying
it. I think it's mostly because it made
me think about a lot of things that I
don't normally think about or made me
sort of like contemplate sort of the way
I view the world right now. I don't read
a lot of war novels partially because
they don't interest me and partially
because I find them really upsetting.
Seeing what people have to deal with
when they're in war-torn countries is
just so so heartbreaking. And so while I was
reading this book, obviously it takes place
in 2074 in a fictional United States,
a lot of what is talked about in here is a
reality for a lot of people in a lot of
different countries currently. That's one
of the main things that had me thinking about.
Sarat as a character is really
interesting because she is extremely
complex and extremely flawed and she
makes some really -- I don't wanna say she
made poor decisions but the decisions
that she makes are not ones that I think
most people necessarily would make. And 
Omar El-Akkad doesn't try to apologize for them.
He just sort of like presents it as
it is. And I feel like in another world
or if this book was placed in another
setting or something along those lines,
Sarat would be considered like a
terrorist basically. And so seeing the
world through her perspective I feel
like was just so interesting because
it's a point of view that obviously I
will never have. It sort of the idea of
like seeing how and why someone could
take that extremist action
sort of becomes a little bit clearer in this
book. Not that it's ever okay and not that
I think that Sarat's actions were justified,
but I can at least slightly understand
her perspective a little bit better. 
This book is so brutal. It's very, very
just open. It lays it all out there in
terms of like violence and death and
destruction and pain and the personal
sort of destruction that people have to
go through when they're in these sort of
war-torn countries. I think it does a
really good job of providing a
perspective on war that isn't normally
given just because-- So the way this works
is setup is every other chapter there is
like an excerpt from like a history book
or like a news article or an interview
or something along those lines that
provides sort of like broader context to
what we're reading about in these
specific situations. And I feel like
those chapters especially provided me as
a reader with a lot of sort of
understanding of how like we read things
in books, like history books, or read
about these sort of events that unfold
after the fact. But the way that they
affected individuals is so completely
different than the way that it's
portrayed in news articles or the way
that it's portrayed in history books or
the way that it's portrayed even in like
a broader sense of like when you think
about major wars. We very rarely think
about the individuals who are affected
on a day-to-day basis and what their
lives are like. And I feel like American
War just present all of that and
provides you with that contrast of like
here's the bigger scheme of things the
ways that we would look at the war, and
here's it sort of on just an individual
level and the way that it's affecting
day-to-day living. So yeah I feel like
this is a book worth reading. I really
enjoyed it. It's a bit of a slower read.
It's definitely more character-driven.
It takes a little bit to get into but I
feel like there's so much to unpack here.
It's completely worth picking up. 
I highly recommend it. Again I gave it four
out of five stars. So yeah, that's
everything that I have for you guys in
this video. If you've read American War,
definitely leave a comment down below
letting me know what you guys thought of
it. I know a bunch of people picked that
one for the Book of the Month box for
whichever month it was it came out.
So definitely let me know down below if
you've read it and have what you thought
of it. I know a lot of people were sort
of like 3-star ish reads for that one
but I just love to hear your perspective
on the book. So yeah that's all I have for
now and thanks for watching.
