Book Review #1 - The Kite Runner

Title: The Kite Runner
Author: Khaled Hosseini
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Pages:371

Amir has always felt a secret guilt ever since he could remember. He felt guilty that he had killed his mother by being born and felt guilty that he was never quite what his father had wished he would be. One day he took on a new guilty memory one that would follow him everywhere and would change his life. He peered from the behind a wall into an alley where his friend Hassan, who had always been so loyal to him, was raped by Assef. Amir could have at least made the attempt to stop them before it happened but instead he ran. Soon after, when seeing Hassan’s face only reminded him of what wrong he had done, Amir framed him for theft and made Hassan and Hassan‘s father, the servant, leave forever. Getting rid of his best friend didn’t stop the memory from haunting him and he knew Hassan had seen him that night in the alley.
Years later, Amir and his father had moved to America due to the raging war in their country of Afghanistan. By this time Amir had achieved his dream of being a writer and had gotten married. Years after that he had received a phone call from his father’s business partner, Rahim, in Pakistan asking him to visit. When Amir arrived, Rahim confessed that Hassan had told him everything, then told him of Hassan’s death and how Rahim himself was dying. Rahim’s story did end with a bang! He told the truth about Amir’s father and his two son’s one was Amir and the other Hassan. Hassan was Amir’s half brother. Rahim gave him a last request before running away to die and that was that Amir rescue his young half nephew, Sohrab in the dangerous Kabul.
Amir had no idea what he was getting himself into going to Afghanistan but knew that every cut, bruise or broken limb that he got while trying to rescue Sohrab was fully deserved from the pain he caused Hassan. Eventually Amir found Sohrab in Kabul, the problem was that he was now owned by an important member of the Taliban, one that knew Amir as a child and had hated him. The proud owner of Hassan’s son was Assef. Amir left Kabul with broken bones, missing teeth and his nephew who he later adopted and made his son and the guilt was finally gone.
This book came with a lot of surprises and a twist towards the end making it easily read with very few rough patches. I would give it a 5 out of 5 stars. I would recommend The Kite Runner to kids in high school and anyone older because some of its content isn’t appropriate for anyone in middle school.