Rating: 
Summary: Important Topic but Lackluster Writing
Review: Honor killings are an every day occurrence in many countries such as India, Israel, and Palestine. Unfortunately, over five thousand of these horrific murders plague the world by victimizing women throughout the world. "Burned Alive" is just one of many tales of these atrocities.
In this book, author Souad tells the tale of what is was like growing up an unwanted female in a violent, patriarchal society. In her village, men are treated like kings while women are treated like garbage. The birth of a female child is cause for grief, not celebration. In her small village, her brother and only male in the family is treated like royalty while she and her sisters are exposed to treatment worse than slavery. The author describes her own father as an evil and abusive man. When the author recalls a time when she accidentally let the sheep escape, she writes the following about her father:
"He pulls me by the hair and he drags me on the ground into the kitchen. He strikes me while I kneel, he pulls on my braid as if he wants to pull it out, and he cuts it off with the big scissors used for shearing wool. I have hardly any hair left. I can cry, yell, or please but I'll get more kicks."
When the author does the unthinkable and shames the family by getting pregnant before marriage, her brother-in-law is given the duty of killing her. She describes in great detail how she had been doused with gasoline, lit on fire, and left to die. Her escape from her family, her village, and ultimately her country is a source of motivation.
"Burned Alive" is not the best book written on the subject of honor-killings or on atrocities committed against women. While the topic is important for readers to become aware of, the writing is the book is rather lackluster for such a powerful subject. However, for readers who are not aware of how thousands of the female population is murdered simply for being female, the book will serve as an interesting introduction to this shameful yet important issue.
Rating: 
Summary: Needed in Today's Society
Review: i bought this book because I needed something to read. I had never even heard of this book but it jumped out at me in the store. I am glad that I read it. When faced all the horrible things happening in the news in our world today, it so refreshing to learn about other cultures in a first person sense as oppose to what the media says.
This book is written quite differently than most because the author is learning english and how to write as the book is written. So the book kinda jumps from thought to thought which is a new way of writing. It makes you feel like she is talking diirectly to you instead of you reading a book. I learned alot by reading this book and appreciate being an American more now. No matter how hard you think your life is, it is nothing compared to what she went through. See for yourself.
Rating:
Summary: Great book to read and share with friends and family
Review: I could not put this book down once I started to read it. It captured my attention from the first page. It gives you such an insight on this woman's life and the different culture and ways that these men treat their women.
It shows how strong the human spirit can be and how you can overcome adversity.
You sometimes live in your own little world and don't realize what goes on in other countries. It sure does open up your eyes and your heart. A must read!!
Rating:
Summary: Riveting
Review: I read this in one sitting. It was extraordinary. I can't believe after reading this book a reviewer could complain the author did not provide cross-referencing and documentation. She didn't even know her birthday when she escaped. She is still in hiding, fearing for her life, and would not be at liberty to send a request for documents. She wrote a personal (not historical) account, from personal memory, and it was compelling.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling
Review: I too read this book in one sitting. I agree that the prose is not of the best but given that this book was written by a woman with no education who is virtually illiterate this was extremely realistic, making the story all the more true to life and therefore more chilling - this woman was utterly defenceless - no education, no family support, no social advantage at all. The insight that she gives that had she too might have engaged in the same behaviours (eg infanticide of female infants) as her mother had she not been rescued, demonstrates an incredible honesty.
It has challenged me to think about how we can support the work of the organisations working for these women.
Rating:
Summary: What can we do to stop these horrors?
Review: I was introduced to the lives of women in the Middle East several years ago when my freshman college literature class was assigned Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia by Jean Sasson. My entire class became "Sultana admirers" and vowed that we would change the world. (Before Sasson raised the topic, there was little or no information about honor killings and sex slaves and child brides.) Since Sasson's best-selling PRINCESS there has been many such books to follow. In my opinion, this is the most chilling. "Souad" was completely helpless as her entire family, INCLUDING HER MOTHER, conspired to have her killed for the crime of "sexual misconduct." This poor girl was kept so closed away from society that she remained totally naive. How could she judge right from wrong? She was a woman-child who easily gave in to a man pretending to love her. My question is this: Where are the governments and authority figures in these countries? Why can't they make such crimes a capital offense, instead of honoring men or women who take the lives of innocent young women. I'm ready to join any organization that can show me that they are working on behalf of such issues. I recommend this book to everyone, and when you finish this one, I highly recommend that you move on to Sasson's books, true stories about women in the Middle East, including The Princess Trilogy and Mayada, Daughter of Iraq. All these books together will give you the education of your life about the reality of women in countries where few males respect the life of a female.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing read
Review: If you liked the books First They Killed My Father and Stolen Lives, this is just as good. The actual story is sometimes a bit redundant, but overall the story about surviving comes across.It will hopefully bring awareness to a horrible problem that exists today.
Rating:
Summary: Incredibly Moving Account
Review: Incredibly moving account of a woman's survival of an attempted honor killing. I found her writing to be honest and true. Souad provided an intriguing and detailed account of day-to-day life as a young girl, growing up in a West Bank village. I was taken in by the honesty of her story.
Other reviewers have commented on how this "wasn't the best book" and I totally disagree. This was a woman's life story, and I found her account far more moving than a generalized report on honor killings. To be frank, I don't understand what *isn't* moving about this book.
This woman survived a difficult early life, where beatings and unappreciated hard work were the norm. She hoped to escape this life through marriage to a neighbor that she loved, and whom had asked for her hand. The marriage was delayed, as she had to wait for an older sister to wed, and fearing losing her intended, she gave in to his requests. Once pregnant, he deserted her. Her family tried to kill her, as they had killed a number of her sisters (as infants, and one as a teenager). Apparently this was common practice in her village; the lives of women and girls are at the whim of the menfolk.
The story of her arrival in Europe, her inner struggle with her role as a birth mother (she gave her child up for adoption to a family in Europe) and her subsequent marriage and family life are all fascinating stuff, as is her struggle with her sense of self worth. Once she was physically safe, she had to come to terms with valuing herself as a person worthy of a life.
There is a happy ending to this story, which provides a moving first-person narrative of this brave and resiliant woman known as Souad.
Rating:
Summary: A sad state of affairs
Review: Souad says she was born in a tiny village in the late 1950's in the West Bank, Palestine, (not Jordan like the book description states). She describes the torment of her childhood; being savagely and regularly beaten by her father, witnessing her mother suffocate newborn baby girls, one of her sisters being strangled by her brother, her married sister and sister-in-law being beaten by their husbands. She describes a demonic conspiracy amongst the people of her village (and in many Middle Eastern countries as well as Pakistan and India) to terrorize, beat and murder females; and this conspiracy includes women. After she is burned and taken to the hospital, the nurses neglect her because having been raised in an environment where honor murders are acceptable, they believe Souad has gotten what she deserves. It would seem that centuries of killing off the women who resisted male oppression has resulted in a female population largely lacking in self-respect and spirit.
After escaping the Middle East with the help of aid worker Jacqueline, Souad undergoes numerous operations to repair her burned skin. She then marries and raises a family in Europe. She is asked to speak on behalf of victims of honor crimes for an aid organization called SURGIR, which she agrees to.
Souad tells us that several thousands of women are murdered each year, not including the disappearances and "suicides" that have not been counted as honor crimes, and that the men who commit these murders are considered heroes in their villages, getting at most a light jail sentence or slap on the wrist from the authorities. She hopes to help stop honor murders by telling her story and raising awareness.
Rating:
Summary: An important book
Review: Souad should have known that anyone who supports Arafat, supports the killing of innocent people.
So when her family decided she was the heretic, she found herself on the other end of a match and petrol.
this book should be read by anyone with a heart.
It shows how backwards the mindset of the Palestinians are.
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