Rosewater

2.5 stars

How did I end up picking two books back-to-back with the same frustrating narrative style?!? Once again, I don't mind jumping back and forth between timelines IN THEORY, but this one was even worse about constantly killing its own momentum. There was one timeline that got really confusing toward the end because I started to forget where we had last left off with it, and it took me several paragraphs to jog my memory each time we switched back to it.

And once again, we have an MC who's hard to like. I didn't dislike him, but I definitely didn't like him. It can be really interesting to read a character you have nothing in common with -- get a new perspective, learn how to empathize with similar people you meet in real life, etc. But I know this guy, and he has nothing new to teach me. (Except for the parts that were culturally driven. That was definitely interesting and part of why I kept reading.)

I was also really intrigued by one aspect of the world-building, the one I would have said was the main plot until the utterly unsatisfying climax. WTF?? That's probably where it lost half a star for me.

The MC is also blazingly apathetic (this is his main personality trait), so that did not help me care about him. And he's sexist (intentionally and acknowledged). And there's a romance sub-plot that I hated.

It's also original and unlike anything you've read before. But if it weren't set in Nigeria, I don't think I would have finished it.