The Kite Runner

I don't quite understand the hype. This book is meaningful and thought-provoking in some ways, but the convenient plot and all the coincidences followed by the contrived justification of said coincidences felt very unpolished to read. I enjoyed some of the discussions that were had, but overall nothing quite stood out to me as amazing. I thought I would be heartbroken after reading this based on what the general consensus seems to be, but while I did find it very sad, it just did not hit me in the emotions as much as I'd been told it would. This could be due to the fact that—despite being mostly nuanced—I did not care about our main character Amir a whole lot. Also, the frequent tidbits of information in the book regarding the turmoil and situation in Afghanistan felt a bit... off. I'm not quite sure what it is, maybe it's because this story seems to be highly catered towards people a part of the western audience who may be ignorant about all this.

I don't think this is a bad book, but for the amount of popularity it has, I just don't see what the big deal is. It was fine, but nothing that praise-worthy in my opinion.