The Kite Runner // book review

True story - The whole time I was reading this book, I was thinking about this book review. I kept reminding myself that hey, when the time comes that you review The Kite Runner, that's the book you're reviewing, and you gotta review that one...not the other book you've read by Khaled Hosseini. Buttttt........

Let me tell you the whole story...The first book I ever read of Hosseini's was "A Thousand Splendid Suns", and I read this book almost as an act of defiance. I had heard sooo many endless great things about The Kite Runner. "You will love it SO much"... "You will cry your face off"..."It is the most incredible book ever"...."I bawled, hysterically."

It's probably easy to see why I had high expectations for this book.. My act of defiance, if you will, was my decision to not read his seemingly most popular book first, but instead, read one of his lesser known books. Thus came about the decision to pick up A Thousand Splendid Suns.. and not ever having read any of Hosseni's novels, I wasn't sure what to expect. 

Remember all those things I heard from others about The Kite Runner? All those, and more, so so so much more ended up being true for me...but for A Thousand Splendid Suns. It was beyond amazing. I truly bawled my face off. You do nothing but find yourself relating to, rooting for, and wanting the best for the characters who don't even exist!! It's out of this world good. 

SO, I say all that because as for how I feel about The Kite Runner....Goodness. In my opinion, it doesn't hold a flame, doesn't even come close to holding a flame to A Thousand Splendid Suns. Like, I'm nearly shocked that all I ever hear about is The Kite Runner. People!! Read A Thousand Splendid Suns, for the love!! 

The Kite Runner was good....there's no question about that, but I felt such a disconnect from the main character, he came across as such a spoiled child who let those around him get hurt in the most awful ways all because he didn't want to ruin his "perfect" little world. That's a strong opinion, I know - and admittedly, the book got better, and the character grew up and was less of a spoiled brat - ha. But when you start off that way, it's hard, for me at least, to feel that connection to the character, and that disconnect just followed me the whole time. Whereas, back over in A Thousand Splendid Suns, from the very beginning it was characters you immediately connected to, rooted for, and felt drawn to. 

Ultimately, I still recommend it...but only because at the end of the day, Hosseini is one seriously fantastic story teller. But I recommend it on one condition, that if you read this, you sooo have to swear you'll read A Thousand Splendid Suns as well!! 
3.5 STARS