14/09/2025
Decided to do a book review 🤓📚
I just finished reading Daughters of Smoke and Fire by Ava Homa ✨❤️🔥
So, let me tell you about this book.
This is a story of Leila, a young Kurdish woman, as she grows up amidst political oppression, family struggles, and the fight to have her voice heard. The story blends personal pain with the larger struggle of her people, making it both intimate and universal.
It is not just about revolution or activism, it’s about the hunger for equality, justice, and human rights. You might have heard news about dictatorship and cruelty in these regions, especially against women, and felt pity or anger… but this story goes deeper.
It shows the struggles of an entire nation, including men. Of how it feels to be taken away from your culture and homeland. I used to only hear about it in history class but reading this made my heart physically ache. 💔
It also made me reflect on our own history as Filipinos, about something every third world country experience.
And here’s why I’d recommend it even to non-readers: there’s a truth behind fiction, and stories like this are the best way to grow our sympathy. They let us step into other people’s shoes, into another woman’s shoes. The pain of one woman is the pain of all women.
But don’t get me wrong, this isn’t just a heavy book. The main character is so relatable, there are hopeful lessons throughout, and yes, there’s even a touch of romance (I actually giggled and kicked my feet at some parts 🥰). And I really love the ending. My heart still aches though.
⭐ 5/5 Highly recommend this one — powerful, heartbreaking, and yet still full of hope.
I'll post some lines from this book soon.
