There’s a lot going on in this short story by a female Canadian author of Lebanese descent. It’s only a short story, so I’ll use spoilers to hide some things.A young girl living in London with her mother is terribly stressed by the absence of her father. He sent them out of a war-ravaged country in the Mideast and she will not see him again for three years. She has unusually black eyes and she comes to believe that she has evil powers. It looks like she is going to start taking it out on herself...

“Owls have eyes that match the skies they hunt through. Amber-eyed owls hunt at dawn or dusk; golden-eyed owls hunt during the day; black-eyed owls hunt at night.” Image: Owls (Source.)This is a poignant bildungsroman about a Lebanese girl, living in Scotland. Her first encounter with an owl is scratched deep in her memories: horror, fear, and guilt. Nevertheless, she develops an affinity for a captive owl, and thence the Welsh myth of Blodeuwedd, “a beautiful woman, made of flowers, who was tur...

"Sometimes--I feel like I'm just a collection of bits of things that someone brought together at random and called girl, and then Anisa, and then--" she shrugs. "Whatever.""The Truth About Owls" is a coming-of-age story about a Lebanese girl who has been through some difficult experiences in both Lebanon and Scotland. She bonds with a barn owl (who has dark black eyes like Anisa) and the warm handler of the owl. The owl was named for the Welsh Blodeuwedd, a beautiful mythical woman, "made of flo...

This was an enjoyable listen.I listened on LeVar Burton Reads, and of course he is amazing as usual.This short story is all about balance. Balance in all things.Loved the owls. Loved the flow of the story. this review does not do it justice at all, because unfortunately I started listening far too long ago, and only got to finish it today.

i good little short story about identity and otherness. i liked the motif of the owls and folklore, i thought it was very smartly used.

Love it. I can't fathom anyone not liking it, too. So read it. Oh look, here it is available for free online:http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/th...Don't want to read it? LeVar Burton will literally read it to you.

A lovely wisp of a story. I need to read more of Amal El-Mohtar’s stories. They are wonderful.

http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/th...Loved this. I recently read "The Owl Service" by Alan Garner and both talk about "The Mabinogion" which I now want to read. 🦉Thanks to Carolyn for her review and the link to the story! :)

Owls have eyes that match the skies they hunt through. Amber-eyed owls hunt at dawn or dusk; golden-eyed owls hunt during the day; black-eyed owls hunt at night.Powerful little short story that deals with magical thinking using an owl theme. Deals with cross-culturalism, fitting in, parents, and all those things that make figuring out your place in the world a challenge. It weaves in owls and language in a lovely way.Note: I have a fascination with owls, so your mileage may vary. This child-narr...

I couldn't do a better review tha that by Cecily, so I post the link to hers. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[not the audiobook]4.5★“The summer Anisa saw the owl kill the rooster was the summer Israel bombed the country. She always thinks of it that way, not as a war—she doesn't remember a war.”This is a curious story about a girl in England who visits the Scottish Owl Sanctuary with her school and is reminded of the owls back in her parents’ home country. Interesting facts about owls are interspersed with her memories and her subsequent visits to the Owl Sanctuary, where she befriends a keeper and a t...

A gorgeous idea that is lost in fanciful writing. It distracts and sends the mind spinning in eddies of broken thoughts.

Beautiful magical-realism. The only reason I took one star from the rating is because towards the end one tragic event felt to me like it was added just as an emotional manipulation.

This was "a beautiful and heartbreaking coming of age story that deals with identity, loss, magic, and, of course, owls". - "'It's easy to like people who ask nothing of you ... Or at least, it's easy to not hate them.'" - "'It's me,' she manages, 'I made her sick, it's my fault, I don't mean to do it but I make bad things happen just by wanting them even a little...'Izzy looks at her, squeezes her hands, and says, calm and even, 'Bullshit.'" (Izzy is so cool. I just wanna be an Izzy to someone

This is a great short story about accepting heritage, magic, and owls! Here's the link if you feel like reading it: http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/th...

Canada defines herself by her diversity and we are celebrating it more. I have nonetheless never seen a melting pot, in a short story no less; crafted to the extent that Amal El-Mohtar has achieved it in “The Truth About Owls”, published in “Kaleidoscope” magazine in 2014. Elementary schoolgirl, Anisa, recently emigrated from Lebanon at a time of war, to Scotland. Her Dad and Grandma have stayed in their native country but she was able to go to safer ground with her English Mom.I don’t know how

I listened to this on Levar Burton Reads and I may have cried. It's very sad and very beautiful. I really, really love Amal El-Mohtar's imagery.

Why do I get the feeling that I will have devoured everything Amal El-Mohtar has written by the end of the year?Oh, perhaps because her writing is a thing of true beauty.

Popsugar 2021: The shortest book (by pages) on your TBR list. Originally a short story published in Strange Horizons, I believe.I like owls, and I think Amal El-Mohtar does too. Real owls- birds that act like birds instead of supernatural creatures. I also like playing with languages and seeing how names like Blodeuwedd mean something very specific in Welsh that can be both description and name. And how concepts like transformation and amalgamation can link with folklore magic and with a young g...

It's easy to like people who ask nothing of you. Or at least, it's easy to not hate them.It's a happy new year but this was not entirely a happy new reading. The story is dry, plain and not with the usual poetic prose that one will expect of Amal. The only thing she offered in plenty are tidbits about owls and I didn't like how she highlighted them almost at the beginning of every page and made it obvious that she is feeding us with information. I wish she could have found a clever way of embedd...