Rating: 2.5/5 
 ***Minor spoilers*** 
 Amir is from a wealthy family in Afghanistan, who lives with his father. He has two servants, Ali and his son Hassan. Amir and Hassan are best friends, though Hassan has always been more loyal than Amir. While they work well together, Amir teases Hassan due to his illiteracy, while Hassan always stands up for Amir when he refuses to stand up for himself. This novel follows Amir both before and after he parts ways with Hassan, and focuses on Amir's relationships with Hassan and the others around him, and the state of Afghanistan before and after the Russians/the Taliban step in. 
 I have friends who had to read this book as assigned reading last year, and most of them have said that this was the best assigned reading they're ever had. I can see why some people would think that, but in my opinion I didn't think it was that great. I did think that the writing was amazing, and I really enjoyed getting to learn more about Afghanistan, since I wasn't really all that educated about it before. I always love learning about places other than those in North America, so I appreciated this book in that sense. 
 However, I couldn't get past my dislike of Amir, which made me not care all that much about the story since I didn't care about him. It all went downhill with him when (view spoiler)[ he stood by and watched Hassan get raped. (hide spoiler)] I could have gotten past that one thing if (view spoiler)[ Amir hadn't been a complete ass about it later. He's just going to stand by and then treat Hassan like trash? How is that supposed to make Hassan feel about himself after? (hide spoiler)] Hassan was way more forgiving than me. Hassan was my favourite character, and if there was more of him later in the book I think I would've liked the book more, but having so much of Amir after determining that I don't like Amir just made me indifferent to everything that happened to him. 
 Overall, this book was great in terms of writing and learning the history of Afghanistan. However, I didn't like it for the plot itself, which focused on Amir, a boy I didn't care about due to his actions early on in the book. I think your ability to enjoy this book depends on how willing you are to forgive Amir. Personally I wasn't able to, but I truly believe that my friends who enjoyed it a lot simply got past Amir's actions. I'd definitely tell you to give it a try if you're thinking of reading this book, and even if you don't like Amir, it will be a learning experience regardless.