What do you think?
Rate this book
Vulture
Catch-22
on speed and set in the Middle East,
Vulture
is a fast-paced, brilliant satire of the war news industry and its moral blind spots.
An ambitious young journalist, Sara is sent to cover a war from the Beach Hotel in Gaza. The four-star hotel is a global media hub, promising safety and generator-powered internet, with hotel staff catering tirelessly to the needs of the world’s media, even as their homes and families are under threat.
Sara is determined to launch herself as a star correspondent. So, when her fixer Nasser refuses to set up the dangerous story she thinks will win her a front page, she turns instead to Fadi, the youngest member of a powerful militant family. Driven by demons and disappointments, Sara will stop at nothing to prove herself in this war, even if it means bringing disaster upon those around her.
Greenwood’s debut novel brings readers into the heart of the maelstrom, and with audacity and humor depicts the media’s complicity in the ongoing tragedy.
An ambitious young journalist, Sara is sent to cover a war from the Beach Hotel in Gaza. The four-star hotel is a global media hub, promising safety and generator-powered internet, with hotel staff catering tirelessly to the needs of the world’s media, even as their homes and families are under threat.
Sara is determined to launch herself as a star correspondent. So, when her fixer Nasser refuses to set up the dangerous story she thinks will win her a front page, she turns instead to Fadi, the youngest member of a powerful militant family. Driven by demons and disappointments, Sara will stop at nothing to prove herself in this war, even if it means bringing disaster upon those around her.
Greenwood’s debut novel brings readers into the heart of the maelstrom, and with audacity and humor depicts the media’s complicity in the ongoing tragedy.
256 pages, Hardcover
Published August 12, 2025
113 people are currently reading
2690 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 101 reviews
August 20, 2025
Vulture is Phoebe Greenwood’s debut novel gorging on the ruthlessness of war-reporting ethics through a satirical-cynical-propulsive narrative. From the very beginning, the reader gets the idea that this is not going to be the usual emotionally heavy, politicised kind of book, albeit still critical. Sara, daughter of renowned writer Bill Byrne, is an ambitious young journalist pursuing consolidation as a war correspondent. After a year meandering around Jerusalem, searching ceaselessly for any conflict to write about, and drinking fancy cocktails at a bar in Jerusalem – since every other competent journalist from The Tribune was somewhere else – Sara is called to cover the 2012 Gaza–Israeli conflict after the assassination of Ahmed Al Jabari, a Hamas military commander.
Her new home? A private room at The Beach Hotel, the main headquarters for nomadic professionals covering the war, with an incredible view of the Mediterranean Sea. “An oasis of humanity in a blighted desert.” The Beach Hotel represents all Gazans cannot have: great food, safe haven, beach view, concierge service. Sara is a very cynical character, a trademark style of this novel, who often ignores everyone else’s pain and the horrors surrounding her. Likewise, her fellow journalists give the titular meaning: vultures festering on the obscenities of war. Her characterisation is great – and so is her cast – yet there is little character development, which somehow serves to amplify the satiric element in Vulture. Here, the reader does the heavy lifting as a judge, and through the absurdism of the attacks, deaths, and the destruction of fields, houses, culture, and dignity, is exposed to the logistics of war journalism. I appreciate the politics of sending correspondents to report on war zones, and I’ve learned a great deal about the matter. Nasser, Jihad, and Muhammad are great representations of a journalist fixer, a child’s innocence being shredded by war, and the caring nature of Muslim culture, respectively. They serve as counterpoints that contrast with the predatory behaviour of foreign media.
Greenwood is a London-based journalist, and she says in an interview: “The first year you’re in Jerusalem, you come to loathe the Israelis. The second year, the Palestinians. And the third year, you come to loathe yourself.” [link to the article] She explains that her decision to write a novel about the horrible truths and tragedies in Gaza was better told in fiction, even though she reiterates her belief in journalism as a democratic tool, and I can roughly imagine the politics behind reporting. This couldn’t be more evident than in Vulture, and Greenwood does an excellent job of not over-politicising; instead, the focus is on the humanity of people under such distress and the logistics of war reporting. There are a few graphic descriptions of deaths and sexual content, but they do not overextend nor are conspicuously present.
Sara’s demeanour changes as the war progresses, becoming increasingly paranoid, overwhelmed, and careless. On a surface level, she has no regard for her colleagues (or herself). There is no empathy towards the people of Gaza. No moral compass. All she wants is to achieve success from the suffering of people under the guise of reporting. Certainly, there must be an explanation for such behaviour. Perhaps Freud can explain. Therefore, a few chapters explore her familial relationship, yet there is no clear answer, and it rests on the reader to interpret the impact of Sara’s upbringing.
There is much to discuss in this book, and it makes an excellent book-club pick. Vulture is a thought-provoking debut that will make you uncomfortable, angry, flabbergasted, and appalled. I had hoped for the author to go deeper and be harsher at some points, but I understand it may not have been the novel’s focus, since the subject is broad and there is much to explore, and Vulture examines the news-reporting industry. It is a lightning-fast read experience that will keep you on your toes, will upset you, and make you laugh at the absurdity of the lack of humanity found in this and many other conflicts. Phoebe Greenwood is a new voice to keep tabs on.
Rating: 3.5/5
Disclaimer: I received an Advance Reader Copy (ARC) of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
Her new home? A private room at The Beach Hotel, the main headquarters for nomadic professionals covering the war, with an incredible view of the Mediterranean Sea. “An oasis of humanity in a blighted desert.” The Beach Hotel represents all Gazans cannot have: great food, safe haven, beach view, concierge service. Sara is a very cynical character, a trademark style of this novel, who often ignores everyone else’s pain and the horrors surrounding her. Likewise, her fellow journalists give the titular meaning: vultures festering on the obscenities of war. Her characterisation is great – and so is her cast – yet there is little character development, which somehow serves to amplify the satiric element in Vulture. Here, the reader does the heavy lifting as a judge, and through the absurdism of the attacks, deaths, and the destruction of fields, houses, culture, and dignity, is exposed to the logistics of war journalism. I appreciate the politics of sending correspondents to report on war zones, and I’ve learned a great deal about the matter. Nasser, Jihad, and Muhammad are great representations of a journalist fixer, a child’s innocence being shredded by war, and the caring nature of Muslim culture, respectively. They serve as counterpoints that contrast with the predatory behaviour of foreign media.
Greenwood is a London-based journalist, and she says in an interview: “The first year you’re in Jerusalem, you come to loathe the Israelis. The second year, the Palestinians. And the third year, you come to loathe yourself.” [link to the article] She explains that her decision to write a novel about the horrible truths and tragedies in Gaza was better told in fiction, even though she reiterates her belief in journalism as a democratic tool, and I can roughly imagine the politics behind reporting. This couldn’t be more evident than in Vulture, and Greenwood does an excellent job of not over-politicising; instead, the focus is on the humanity of people under such distress and the logistics of war reporting. There are a few graphic descriptions of deaths and sexual content, but they do not overextend nor are conspicuously present.
Sara’s demeanour changes as the war progresses, becoming increasingly paranoid, overwhelmed, and careless. On a surface level, she has no regard for her colleagues (or herself). There is no empathy towards the people of Gaza. No moral compass. All she wants is to achieve success from the suffering of people under the guise of reporting. Certainly, there must be an explanation for such behaviour. Perhaps Freud can explain. Therefore, a few chapters explore her familial relationship, yet there is no clear answer, and it rests on the reader to interpret the impact of Sara’s upbringing.
There is much to discuss in this book, and it makes an excellent book-club pick. Vulture is a thought-provoking debut that will make you uncomfortable, angry, flabbergasted, and appalled. I had hoped for the author to go deeper and be harsher at some points, but I understand it may not have been the novel’s focus, since the subject is broad and there is much to explore, and Vulture examines the news-reporting industry. It is a lightning-fast read experience that will keep you on your toes, will upset you, and make you laugh at the absurdity of the lack of humanity found in this and many other conflicts. Phoebe Greenwood is a new voice to keep tabs on.
Rating: 3.5/5
Disclaimer: I received an Advance Reader Copy (ARC) of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
September 8, 2025
This is a satirical look at war correspondents in Gaza and feels especially relevant today with the ongoing genocide there. Our main character, Sara, stays in a luxurious beachfront hotel, an ironic contrast to the Palestinians around her who have lost their homes and families to Israel’s relentless attacks. Sara is desperate for her big scoop, convinced that reporting daily death tolls won’t hold readers’ interest. Instead, she’s chasing something “juicier,” like interviewing a senior Hamas fighter or entering what she calls a “terror tunnel.”
Sara is not a likable character. She lacks empathy and common sense, coming across as selfish, ignorant, and entitled. But since this is satire, her extreme behavior in a war zone is both absurdly amusing and disturbingly true to aspects of modern media. As the story progresses, she unravels further, weighed down by war and her own unresolved issues. At times, her unhinged behavior was more annoying than entertaining, which is part of why I didn’t rate this higher.
While the story starts out sharp and satirical, it becomes increasingly bleak by the end, which fits since war never offers neat or happy endings. Overall, this was an engaging, timely look at journalism in a war setting that is relevant to today.
Sara is not a likable character. She lacks empathy and common sense, coming across as selfish, ignorant, and entitled. But since this is satire, her extreme behavior in a war zone is both absurdly amusing and disturbingly true to aspects of modern media. As the story progresses, she unravels further, weighed down by war and her own unresolved issues. At times, her unhinged behavior was more annoying than entertaining, which is part of why I didn’t rate this higher.
While the story starts out sharp and satirical, it becomes increasingly bleak by the end, which fits since war never offers neat or happy endings. Overall, this was an engaging, timely look at journalism in a war setting that is relevant to today.
October 2, 2025
I came across Vulture in a local bookshop, and having heard nothing of it, was intrigued by the synopsis. Boy oh boy, how misguided I was!!
I have no real criticisms of how Greenwood writes, I think her use of symbolism and imagery is really clever, and command of language is really clear. I did especially love the bird references.
I do, however, take issue with how she markets her work. It feels almost disrespectful that a book that is marketed and described as the story of a journalist in Gaza is in fact about someone who isn’t a journalist, with severe daddy issues, over-sexualising any man over 50 that she meets, even within a war zone.
The tropes and degrading stereotypes that Greenwood uses are so overdone, unnecessary and uninteresting. I really don’t see what value they add to the story other than just further setting Sara as an unreliable narrator.
The whole ‘young woman sleeping with men twice her age and getting on her knees at any opportunity’ narrative is BORING. Fat jokes are BORING. Causing the murder of innocent civilians to impress A MAN because you are desperate for his attention is BORING. Old men taking advantage of an underage girl is BORING. What’s even more boring is that this author should have probably known better than to lean into these tropes.
I understand that this isn’t meant to be a joyful and jolly piece of work, that it’s meant be satirical and dark, but it feels as if Greenwood has given no consideration to the fact that the events she so brutally describes in Gaza are taking place as we speak. I don’t have experience as a foreign correspondent and I gather that they may not be as moral and humane as often is suggested, but Sara’s narcissism and inhumanity, coupled with this overbearing and unnecessary backstory, seems somewhat excessive, especially when mixed with the above stereotypes.
t makes the use of Gaza come across as ‘click-bait’ for a book that is just about a really misguided 30 year old who makes really questionable life choices.
Every book has a purpose and contributes something to society, good or bad, but I have no idea what Vulture adds. Maybe I misunderstood Greenwood’s intentions, maybe I’m just not the right audience for this, maybe the way I feel about this book IS how Greenwood wanted us to feel but I don’t think that this was the most well considered manuscript to be published.
Honestly a book wish I’d not encountered.
I have no real criticisms of how Greenwood writes, I think her use of symbolism and imagery is really clever, and command of language is really clear. I did especially love the bird references.
I do, however, take issue with how she markets her work. It feels almost disrespectful that a book that is marketed and described as the story of a journalist in Gaza is in fact about someone who isn’t a journalist, with severe daddy issues, over-sexualising any man over 50 that she meets, even within a war zone.
The tropes and degrading stereotypes that Greenwood uses are so overdone, unnecessary and uninteresting. I really don’t see what value they add to the story other than just further setting Sara as an unreliable narrator.
The whole ‘young woman sleeping with men twice her age and getting on her knees at any opportunity’ narrative is BORING. Fat jokes are BORING. Causing the murder of innocent civilians to impress A MAN because you are desperate for his attention is BORING. Old men taking advantage of an underage girl is BORING. What’s even more boring is that this author should have probably known better than to lean into these tropes.
I understand that this isn’t meant to be a joyful and jolly piece of work, that it’s meant be satirical and dark, but it feels as if Greenwood has given no consideration to the fact that the events she so brutally describes in Gaza are taking place as we speak. I don’t have experience as a foreign correspondent and I gather that they may not be as moral and humane as often is suggested, but Sara’s narcissism and inhumanity, coupled with this overbearing and unnecessary backstory, seems somewhat excessive, especially when mixed with the above stereotypes.
t makes the use of Gaza come across as ‘click-bait’ for a book that is just about a really misguided 30 year old who makes really questionable life choices.
Every book has a purpose and contributes something to society, good or bad, but I have no idea what Vulture adds. Maybe I misunderstood Greenwood’s intentions, maybe I’m just not the right audience for this, maybe the way I feel about this book IS how Greenwood wanted us to feel but I don’t think that this was the most well considered manuscript to be published.
Honestly a book wish I’d not encountered.
August 15, 2025
Sara is a young, ambitious reporter who is determined to make a name for herself in Gaza reporting on the latest hostilities. She has a lot to live up to - her late father having been a correspondent before her. She also wants the love of her life, Michael, to notice she is gone.
But Sara's attempts to circumvent the tried and tested method of following the conflict continues to let her down. That is until she swaps her agreed fixer, Nasser, for Fadi who may be able to get her access to the top man in Hamas. But will she be triumphant or should she listen to her increasingly frustrated editor?
Throughout Vulture (named after the bloodthirsty war correspondents who prey on the misery of the population) Sara gives us glimpses into her childhood and youth giving us a look at the two men she reverse- her father and Michael. But her unorthodox methods not only don't sit well with her editor but also her fellow journalists, the locals and the wildlife.
Sara is a complex character who rubbed me the wrong way with everything she did and said but even her selfishness makes her a compelling character to read.
A fascinating look at the life of war correspondents whose lives are endless hours of boredom interspersed with near death experiences. Kept me hooked till the end.
Thankyou to Netgalley and Europa Editions for the advance review copy.
But Sara's attempts to circumvent the tried and tested method of following the conflict continues to let her down. That is until she swaps her agreed fixer, Nasser, for Fadi who may be able to get her access to the top man in Hamas. But will she be triumphant or should she listen to her increasingly frustrated editor?
Throughout Vulture (named after the bloodthirsty war correspondents who prey on the misery of the population) Sara gives us glimpses into her childhood and youth giving us a look at the two men she reverse- her father and Michael. But her unorthodox methods not only don't sit well with her editor but also her fellow journalists, the locals and the wildlife.
Sara is a complex character who rubbed me the wrong way with everything she did and said but even her selfishness makes her a compelling character to read.
A fascinating look at the life of war correspondents whose lives are endless hours of boredom interspersed with near death experiences. Kept me hooked till the end.
Thankyou to Netgalley and Europa Editions for the advance review copy.
September 30, 2025
Respectfully--DO NOT market a book about a journalist in Gaza as being like "Catch-22 on speed" unless you are 100000% ready to back that up. That is too high a bar and too sensitive of a subject for you to not deliver.
October 10, 2025
I just wrote it so I doubt you have, but if you did then you’ll remember, and that will be fun for us, that in my Buckeye review I talked about what I view as an increase in gray main characters in lit fic. With this book in particular I didn’t enjoy the early part of the book because I couldn’t get a grip on the protagonist.
But, the book does a good job of alternating timelines and each look in the past is another puzzle piece set in place to help understand her behavior in the present.
This book reminded me a bit of Elif Bautman, specifically The Idiot, and The Rachel Incident for the suspense angle.
Be advised there is some trauma involved.
But, the book does a good job of alternating timelines and each look in the past is another puzzle piece set in place to help understand her behavior in the present.
This book reminded me a bit of Elif Bautman, specifically The Idiot, and The Rachel Incident for the suspense angle.
Be advised there is some trauma involved.
December 3, 2025
I was initially super keen to read a (fiction) book about Gaza and to understand the war in a more “narrative” way. But the main character was just so unlikeable (I understand that this is the point) that the book was just not fun to read. I think her evil-ness was a bit exaggerated at times, especially towards the end. I will also note that many reviews (on the cover) praised this book for being funny, which I definitely wouldn’t agree with – and I do like dark humor ! But this was just gross humor considering the very real war. Not for me !
January 13, 2026
Totally unhinged novel with unlikeable/unreliable/narcissistic narrator, yet somehow, a great read. The narrator is the personification of spoiled western woman preying off Palestinian pain and suffering. I hated the fact that the characters were probably fairly realistic (the author spent many years reporting from Jerusalem and covering the war in Gaza), though presumably their horrible qualities were a bit exaggerated in novel form. Darkly funny, but definitely not for everyone.
October 17, 2025
I get that this is a satire of the war news industry and that journalist Sara is supposed to be unlikeable and situation abhorrent. But there was not a chuckle to be had.
January 31, 2026
Interesting. I realised at the end this is meant to be a satire - dark humour?? Dunno but didn’t find it funny… i was confused a lot with the random chapter going back to Sara’s past. Some bits felt a bit incoherent. Unsure
June 22, 2025
This is a difficult topic, and I'm not sure I entirely loved the perspective. I wanted the book to be pro-the side I'm on, and I felt like it wasn't pro any side. And I think that may have been the point, but it was a struggle for me. That being said, I didn't judge it based on ideology.
It was a harsh interesting look at the Israel/Palestine situation and probably closer to the truth than I'd like to believe. That doesn't change the fact that if a side is exaggerating their losses or misattributing how the losses happened, all war is an atrocity.
I read it very quickly and thought it was good, but certainly not edifying in any way.
It was a harsh interesting look at the Israel/Palestine situation and probably closer to the truth than I'd like to believe. That doesn't change the fact that if a side is exaggerating their losses or misattributing how the losses happened, all war is an atrocity.
I read it very quickly and thought it was good, but certainly not edifying in any way.
January 30, 2026
Had potential. Did not meet it.
June 5, 2025
oh girly, how far the daddy issues have brought you....
ho pianto per l'86% della lettura btw
ho pianto per l'86% della lettura btw
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 30, 2025
(oh boy, I don't want to be the first one to review this book... or any book! But I guess that's the danger with Netgalley)
An excellent insider's view of the complicated, dangerous, dirty, dark world of the Gaza conflict from someone who was actually there (I looked her up around the midpoint; she seemed way too spot-on to just be going off secondhand stories). The opening felt like more of a nonfiction book, but it quickly settled into a fiction groove that didn't let up for the rest of the story. Well-written and puts you right into the action.
Weirdly, second book in a row that features a mess of a woman living in a middle eastern hotel (Gaza here, Egypt in Havoc by Christopher Bollen) who gets over-involved with a young boy who is hanging around. It's not BAD, it's just very weird to run into that same plot element twice in a row.
An excellent insider's view of the complicated, dangerous, dirty, dark world of the Gaza conflict from someone who was actually there (I looked her up around the midpoint; she seemed way too spot-on to just be going off secondhand stories). The opening felt like more of a nonfiction book, but it quickly settled into a fiction groove that didn't let up for the rest of the story. Well-written and puts you right into the action.
Weirdly, second book in a row that features a mess of a woman living in a middle eastern hotel (Gaza here, Egypt in Havoc by Christopher Bollen) who gets over-involved with a young boy who is hanging around. It's not BAD, it's just very weird to run into that same plot element twice in a row.
May 29, 2025
Thank you to the publishers, Europa Editions, for giving me access to this book as an E-Arc via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
A book that felt very current with the current war. Maybe a bit too current. I feel like the emotions hit me as I read – even though this was sort of a dark humour vibe sometimes – the weight of it all was felt.
It was an engaging read.
A book that felt very current with the current war. Maybe a bit too current. I feel like the emotions hit me as I read – even though this was sort of a dark humour vibe sometimes – the weight of it all was felt.
It was an engaging read.
August 4, 2025
The vulture of Phoebe Greenwood’s often-compelling debut novel “Vulture” is its narrator, freelance war reporter Sara Byrne.
We meet Sara after she lands an assignment with a London newspaper and heads into Gaza in 2012 amid falling Israeli bombs. She soon wearies of interviewing the “sad Mohammeds” whose children and wives have just been blown apart, frustrated that all her stories are “getting a bit samey.” Desperate to show her editors she can produce drama and capture the stakes, she wonders, “Does ten make a massacre?”
Young, ambitious and, theoretically, fearless, Sara wants to go down into the secret “terror tunnels” where Hamas’ fighters are. She doesn’t see why that should be so hard to pull off.
Sara, a Londoner, is an unlikely war reporter. She tells us that, before donning a flak jacket and setting up shop in the Gaza Strip, she “liked dressing in brown corduroy and turtlenecks and walking alongside the Thames like I was on the cover of a Simon and Garfunkel LP.”
Greenwood is writing what she knows. The British journalist-turned-novelist reported from Gaza during Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense, and large chunks of “Vulture” read like newspaper dispatches. But it’s hard to say whether the novel counts as a fudged memoir.
Greenwood’s author photo does suggest she might be comfortable wearing brown corduroy and turtlenecks, but, seeing as The Guardian hired her on as an editor after her freelance Gaza work, she surely was more competent and resourceful in a war zone than her fictional narrator.
Sara really just can’t handle it, and Greenwood has fun capturing her meltdowns. Sara screams at her fellow journalists in a hotel dining room when deadline pressure paralyzes her. She makes fun of another female correspondent’s “arse” (too big to fit in the terror tunnels, she unfunnily jokes). She sloppily forces herself on a surprised Italian news photographer in her hotel room.
Time and again, Sara convinces herself of her toughness, that the people and places she’s reporting on are just characters and sets for her star turn. But then her pushed-down decency inconveniently intrudes. After yet another interview with a Sad Mohammed, she relates:
“I excused myself from the widower’s flat to sob in his concrete hallway. I’d had episodes like this before. I just needed to be alone until the crying spasm passed, then the numb hollowness would come and everything would be back to normal.”
For Sara, a big part of the problem is that she’s in Gaza not because of a passion for journalism or the region but because she has something to prove to herself, something she can’t even identify.
The novel flashes back repeatedly to Sara’s former life in London, to her anxious mother, to her father’s funeral – and to the older, married man who calls her “Girly” and promptly walks out of her apartment after perfunctory sex.
“Vulture” is full of dramatic set pieces, variously haunting and amusing, though the first-person narration tends to work against them. The endless “I” never entirely feels right for the circumstances, leading one to muse that in the last chapter it’ll be revealed that this whole time Sara actually has been on a couch in a well-appointed office trying to impress her handsome psychiatrist. A close third person might have kept us more in the moment, disbelief suspended.
By the book’s midway point it’s clear that no traditional plot is going to take form, that “Vulture” certainly isn’t about the Arab-Israeli conflict or even about whether a reporter will get into Gaza’s tunnels. Hopes for a modern-day “Scoop” are dashed.
The novel ultimately is only about Sara, who’s not really a press-badge-wearing vulture but instead a lost, self-lacerating woman who has run away from her problems – straight into the much worse problems faced by others.
We meet Sara after she lands an assignment with a London newspaper and heads into Gaza in 2012 amid falling Israeli bombs. She soon wearies of interviewing the “sad Mohammeds” whose children and wives have just been blown apart, frustrated that all her stories are “getting a bit samey.” Desperate to show her editors she can produce drama and capture the stakes, she wonders, “Does ten make a massacre?”
Young, ambitious and, theoretically, fearless, Sara wants to go down into the secret “terror tunnels” where Hamas’ fighters are. She doesn’t see why that should be so hard to pull off.
Sara, a Londoner, is an unlikely war reporter. She tells us that, before donning a flak jacket and setting up shop in the Gaza Strip, she “liked dressing in brown corduroy and turtlenecks and walking alongside the Thames like I was on the cover of a Simon and Garfunkel LP.”
Greenwood is writing what she knows. The British journalist-turned-novelist reported from Gaza during Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense, and large chunks of “Vulture” read like newspaper dispatches. But it’s hard to say whether the novel counts as a fudged memoir.
Greenwood’s author photo does suggest she might be comfortable wearing brown corduroy and turtlenecks, but, seeing as The Guardian hired her on as an editor after her freelance Gaza work, she surely was more competent and resourceful in a war zone than her fictional narrator.
Sara really just can’t handle it, and Greenwood has fun capturing her meltdowns. Sara screams at her fellow journalists in a hotel dining room when deadline pressure paralyzes her. She makes fun of another female correspondent’s “arse” (too big to fit in the terror tunnels, she unfunnily jokes). She sloppily forces herself on a surprised Italian news photographer in her hotel room.
Time and again, Sara convinces herself of her toughness, that the people and places she’s reporting on are just characters and sets for her star turn. But then her pushed-down decency inconveniently intrudes. After yet another interview with a Sad Mohammed, she relates:
“I excused myself from the widower’s flat to sob in his concrete hallway. I’d had episodes like this before. I just needed to be alone until the crying spasm passed, then the numb hollowness would come and everything would be back to normal.”
For Sara, a big part of the problem is that she’s in Gaza not because of a passion for journalism or the region but because she has something to prove to herself, something she can’t even identify.
The novel flashes back repeatedly to Sara’s former life in London, to her anxious mother, to her father’s funeral – and to the older, married man who calls her “Girly” and promptly walks out of her apartment after perfunctory sex.
“Vulture” is full of dramatic set pieces, variously haunting and amusing, though the first-person narration tends to work against them. The endless “I” never entirely feels right for the circumstances, leading one to muse that in the last chapter it’ll be revealed that this whole time Sara actually has been on a couch in a well-appointed office trying to impress her handsome psychiatrist. A close third person might have kept us more in the moment, disbelief suspended.
By the book’s midway point it’s clear that no traditional plot is going to take form, that “Vulture” certainly isn’t about the Arab-Israeli conflict or even about whether a reporter will get into Gaza’s tunnels. Hopes for a modern-day “Scoop” are dashed.
The novel ultimately is only about Sara, who’s not really a press-badge-wearing vulture but instead a lost, self-lacerating woman who has run away from her problems – straight into the much worse problems faced by others.
February 12, 2026
Find it so hard to read books where I hate the main character. But that is what the entire book is trying to get across. Happy that bookclub changed my mind on this book a bit.
September 9, 2025
I’m finding it hard to sum up how I felt about this book.
I’ve seen Sara described as ‘pitiless’ and ‘vapid’ and ‘heartless’ but I was full of despair for her. As we learn more about her past, the image builds of a deeply traumatised young woman, struggling with severe mental health issues, who was potentially groomed as a young woman and also has some serious daddy issues… but the choice to explore these in the context of the war in Gaza…
Is the idea that a reader’s intense sense of frustration at Sara’s lack of compassion or awareness of the horrors around her meant to somehow galvanise them to action?
By not exploring any meaningful narrative elements to instead focus on Sara’s own obsessive and all-consuming spiralling behaviour is Greenwood highlighting foibles we can all be guilty of?
The novel has made me read up on the conflict in order to understand things Sara mentions but never explains in any real depth… so, in that way, is Greenwood actually pulling off a masterstroke?
Essentially, I think it best to approach this novel as deep and progressive satire.
I’ve seen Sara described as ‘pitiless’ and ‘vapid’ and ‘heartless’ but I was full of despair for her. As we learn more about her past, the image builds of a deeply traumatised young woman, struggling with severe mental health issues, who was potentially groomed as a young woman and also has some serious daddy issues… but the choice to explore these in the context of the war in Gaza…
Is the idea that a reader’s intense sense of frustration at Sara’s lack of compassion or awareness of the horrors around her meant to somehow galvanise them to action?
By not exploring any meaningful narrative elements to instead focus on Sara’s own obsessive and all-consuming spiralling behaviour is Greenwood highlighting foibles we can all be guilty of?
The novel has made me read up on the conflict in order to understand things Sara mentions but never explains in any real depth… so, in that way, is Greenwood actually pulling off a masterstroke?
Essentially, I think it best to approach this novel as deep and progressive satire.
September 23, 2025
There's not all that much to say about Vulture - It's a solid 3 star read, it will make a great book club pick because it does allow you to ask a lot of questions, but beyond that, it's just one of those books that you read and then promptly move on from.
November 29, 2025
A thoroughly unpleasant read (complimentary)
August 28, 2025
A young British war reporter in over her head takes an assignment in Gaza (in 2012), bringing along her ambition and her emotional baggage. This satire targets journalist culture in war zones, framing some as “vultures” or “conflict cowboys.” In this context the reporter makes some supremely bad and consequential decisions. She also rightly sees through the cookie-cutter storytelling of a few of her peers. But like a wayward missile the plot spirals into the reporter’s personal life, past and present. That means time with some unpleasant men, a physical health crisis, a seemingly ongoing mental health challenge, and some imagery that I found repetitive and distracting. When the war wins the fight for plot prominence we get a better understanding of what life is like for those who live there and don’t just blow through for bylines. The fixers who jostle for the best papers and network to help. The staff at the “safe” hotel for reporters. The shadowy leaders of resistance groups. The children aged by constant violence. Overall the story is gritty, grimy, cynical, sometimes tender, almost always interesting.
October 29, 2025
A depressed, misanthropic, jaded, ineffective journalist navigates the neverending Palestine conflict in 2012 Gaza. She lands on a plan to save her job by convincing a terrorist cell to take her into the secret tunnels crisscrossing beneath the territory; but there's a reason established journalists don't attempt this.
The bones of Vulture are interesting: it's an inside look at the nuts and bolts of the journalistic process inside the most persistent war zone of the last century. The implicit critique of the lopsided coverage and the humanization of the Palestinian people are refreshing.
And I liked how various of the main character's puzzling aphorisms and poor choices suddenly make more sense after glimpses into her past. Puzzle pieces fitting together.
Still, it felt a slog. The protagonist's endless self-hatred and self-sabotage is exhausting. The sex scenes are intensely offputting. The conflict is demoralizing. Nothing gets resolved: no career-making scoop, no lives turned around, no lessons learned. I'll probably be chewing on Vulture for a while but I'm relieved to be finished.
The bones of Vulture are interesting: it's an inside look at the nuts and bolts of the journalistic process inside the most persistent war zone of the last century. The implicit critique of the lopsided coverage and the humanization of the Palestinian people are refreshing.
And I liked how various of the main character's puzzling aphorisms and poor choices suddenly make more sense after glimpses into her past. Puzzle pieces fitting together.
Still, it felt a slog. The protagonist's endless self-hatred and self-sabotage is exhausting. The sex scenes are intensely offputting. The conflict is demoralizing. Nothing gets resolved: no career-making scoop, no lives turned around, no lessons learned. I'll probably be chewing on Vulture for a while but I'm relieved to be finished.
November 28, 2025
slow start, increasingly strung out, compelling, odd, relateable ending. themes: war, middle class resentment, intergenerational sex, venereal disease, father issues, mental health dissolution, exploitation. despite all that, quite funny - zippily written, actually develops nice pace after a somewhat ponderous first half. would recommend.
Did Not Finish
February 16, 2026Got about halfway through this one. I liked the writing style and the satire of it all, but it’s very unfocused. I was increasingly like, where is this going?? Probably would enjoy it more as a movie.
There was also a good bit of backstory for Sara that felt irrelevant. Especially for a satire - this shouldn’t have a sincere attempt to explain why Sara is who she is.
There was also a good bit of backstory for Sara that felt irrelevant. Especially for a satire - this shouldn’t have a sincere attempt to explain why Sara is who she is.
December 28, 2025
Interesting read! I can’t make my mind up on this book but I thought it posed some great questions and I’m glad it didn’t try answer any. Perhaps the book is self indulgent but I also appreciated that for the “entertainment” aspect of this type of fiction.
February 22, 2026
Got a bit weirder as it went and I was looking for it to wrap up.
October 5, 2025
Greenwood's writing is excellent, and maybe I gave this 4 stars instead of 5 because I really wanted the main character to do better. But this book is a tragedy through and through. Yes, it's a satirical poke at vulturous journalists who swan into Gaza looking for the next front page story and then get the hell out of dodge. Honestly, reading anything about Gaza right now that isn't from the last year feels outdated.
It is painful to read about the bad decisions that Sara, the main character, makes again and again in Gaza. However, the most haunting parts of this novel are the parts about how she was preyed upon by an older man - another kind of vulture. What makes this novel stand out from other similar stories about ravenous, selfish men predating on young women and girls is that Greenwood allows Sara to share her raw needs and her delusions with us - it is cringey and very, very real.
The part I didn't really get is the bird. I mean, I get it as the internalized critical voice of her dad - but it felt distracting.
I keep trying to reconcile all the parts of this novel into a a neat story, and, like real life, it refuses to oblige. I look forward to reading more by Greenwood - her writing is sharp and fast-paced.
It is painful to read about the bad decisions that Sara, the main character, makes again and again in Gaza. However, the most haunting parts of this novel are the parts about how she was preyed upon by an older man - another kind of vulture. What makes this novel stand out from other similar stories about ravenous, selfish men predating on young women and girls is that Greenwood allows Sara to share her raw needs and her delusions with us - it is cringey and very, very real.
The part I didn't really get is the bird. I mean, I get it as the internalized critical voice of her dad - but it felt distracting.
I keep trying to reconcile all the parts of this novel into a a neat story, and, like real life, it refuses to oblige. I look forward to reading more by Greenwood - her writing is sharp and fast-paced.
February 5, 2026
If someone had told me the plot of this book before I picked it up, I might never have read it, but I am glad I did.
This is a clearly satirical commentary on war, politics, and performative journalism. That being said, this book also provides the reader with the opportunity to psychoanalyze the “protagonist” Sara. She has a very ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ decent into madness throughout the story which is like a car crash you can’t look away from. If you don’t like books with unlikable main characters, this is not for you.
While initially, I found myself irritated with the many symbols/themes that seem abandoned by the author at the end of the book, after more thought, it seems like it may have been an intentional tactic to disorient and overwhelm the reader; attempting to mimic the psychosis brought on by daily life in a war zone.
I am sure I will be left thinking about this book for the next few weeks, and I am looking forward to reading other peoples thoughts on (a) the theme of virility/fertility, (b) the pigeon/birds generally, and (c) the repetitive mention of the size of things/people.
This is a clearly satirical commentary on war, politics, and performative journalism. That being said, this book also provides the reader with the opportunity to psychoanalyze the “protagonist” Sara. She has a very ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ decent into madness throughout the story which is like a car crash you can’t look away from. If you don’t like books with unlikable main characters, this is not for you.
While initially, I found myself irritated with the many symbols/themes that seem abandoned by the author at the end of the book, after more thought, it seems like it may have been an intentional tactic to disorient and overwhelm the reader; attempting to mimic the psychosis brought on by daily life in a war zone.
I am sure I will be left thinking about this book for the next few weeks, and I am looking forward to reading other peoples thoughts on (a) the theme of virility/fertility, (b) the pigeon/birds generally, and (c) the repetitive mention of the size of things/people.
October 26, 2025
Vulture is marketed as “A Darkly Funny, Heart-wrenching satire”, and this is an important thing to remember when reading about Sara’s journey through the Middle East. Sara is an ambitious journalist trying to get out of the large shadow her father casts. She is staying at a journalist saturated hotel in Gaza, when she sees all of the well established journalists every morning at breakfast getting ready to write their great stories, she feels that pressure to become a more important name in the room. This ambition leads her to be careless, demanding, impulsive, and to forget that there are actual humans involved on the other side of the stories she is trying to write. As a reader, it is difficult to like Sara from the beginning, not because of the way that she treats other people, but the way that she views them as humans, as if they are just props that will help her to succeed. We can see that Sara is one of those people that will use anyone to gain an advantage and if she is successful, she will immediately forget anyone who helped.
Vulture is a perfectly fitting title. We see vultures as scavengers, ones who eat off of carcasses of animals, but also ones who will kill the animals who are wounded and sick. In the case of Vulture, the entire hotel of journalists is finding nourishment on the bombings and killings of the citizens around them. They are rushing to these events, picking the bones of the victims, asking questions of the survivors that feel intrusive and callous in a moment where a person has lost everything, and rushing back to their computers and Wi-Fi to report these stories back as fast as possible to the world. The satisfaction of getting their articles, meeting their deadlines, and possibly winning an award at the end of the year is the sort of nourishment that the journalists find in all of the death around them. Sara spends the entire book looking for her own carcass, one she does not have to share, even if that means creating one.
I found Vulture to be a frustrating novel at some points. There are moments when the humanity of the situation is not considered because ambition is way more important. There are moments when the citizens, the hotel workers, and the victims are treated as subhuman, people whose intelligence and opinions do not matter in the moment because the journalists know best. I see some of the colonialism that comes from journalists from around the world coming to Gaza to take over, to get stories about a culture they know very little about, and it is almost like the local politics and actual danger of the situation are just hurdles to jump to get the real story. This is satire at it’s best because it is really bringing up these issues without flinching, and it is up to the reader to sort it out and form an opinion.
I received a galley from Europa Editions in exchange for an honest review.
Vulture is a perfectly fitting title. We see vultures as scavengers, ones who eat off of carcasses of animals, but also ones who will kill the animals who are wounded and sick. In the case of Vulture, the entire hotel of journalists is finding nourishment on the bombings and killings of the citizens around them. They are rushing to these events, picking the bones of the victims, asking questions of the survivors that feel intrusive and callous in a moment where a person has lost everything, and rushing back to their computers and Wi-Fi to report these stories back as fast as possible to the world. The satisfaction of getting their articles, meeting their deadlines, and possibly winning an award at the end of the year is the sort of nourishment that the journalists find in all of the death around them. Sara spends the entire book looking for her own carcass, one she does not have to share, even if that means creating one.
I found Vulture to be a frustrating novel at some points. There are moments when the humanity of the situation is not considered because ambition is way more important. There are moments when the citizens, the hotel workers, and the victims are treated as subhuman, people whose intelligence and opinions do not matter in the moment because the journalists know best. I see some of the colonialism that comes from journalists from around the world coming to Gaza to take over, to get stories about a culture they know very little about, and it is almost like the local politics and actual danger of the situation are just hurdles to jump to get the real story. This is satire at it’s best because it is really bringing up these issues without flinching, and it is up to the reader to sort it out and form an opinion.
I received a galley from Europa Editions in exchange for an honest review.
November 9, 2025
Vulture presents itself as a satire on foreign war journalism in Gaza, which is the most important point of the entire book. The story is about a correspondent for a British paper who is sent to cover the 2012 Israel-Hamas war, and her various misadventures within the Gaza Strip.
Our main character, Sara (not a Jew, as she asserts), is presented as the most odious woman alive, the most vile person imaginable. The writing borders on gratuitous in certain sections: asking her Palestinian guide to show her someone interesting (handsome terrorist!) instead of, verbatim, "sad Mohammads" upset that their entire families were killed; . Throughout the entire novel, she's more concerned with hooking up with the Italian photographer than the fact that his best friend was blown up by Hamas, willing to risk children's lives for a meeting with the nephew of a terrorist, interested in getting the story to impress her ex-paramour rather than truth or other journalistic virtues. This is clever, and it's nice to see the naked Western exploitation of the Middle East, but it makes the book acutely revolting to read. Phoebe Greenwood said of the Middle East "the first year here you’ll hate the Israeli government, the second year the Palestinian leadership, by the third you’ll hate yourself", and she seems quite intent on making us hate the protagonist (which, as broadly Westerners, is a reflection of our "selves", from the apathetic masses to the performatively boycotting leftists such as Sara's deplored mother), but a first-person narrative with a loathsome narrator is difficult to read.
(Geo)politically, the story is inoffensive–not neutral, because neutrality is offensive to everyone, but inoffensive. Greenwood zooms in so far onto Gaza, 2012, that the roots of the conflict are completely ignored. We know that Hamas is firing rockets at Israel, we know that Israel is bombing Gaza, we know that Israel claims that each attack targeted a Hamas member, we know that Gazans dispute this (although Greenwood is intelligent even here, one victim is noted to be a "traffic cop"–thus, an ostensibly innocent that must logically still adhere to the Hamas quasistate), we know that Hamas imposes Sharia law and executes civilians under the guise of "collaboration" but the roots of the conflict are completely ignored: we have one terrorist leader claim that all the land "from the river to the sea" is Palestine, and we have one mention that "when the Jews left Gaza, it was bad for business", and nothing else from outside the year and Strip. There are almost no Israelis or Jews, barring Doron, an IDF spokesperson, who is presented as, at worst, morally equivalent to the leader of an Islamist terrorist group. In this story, the villains are the vultures, the Brits and Americans and Europeans feasting on the corpse of Gaza.
I would not recommend this book to those who do not know about the conflict, partially because Vulture seems to presume a high level of knowledge, and partially because the extreme lack of context obfuscates the actual information. I also don't think I'd recommend it to those who do. Vulture is British, sardonic, and deeply satirical, yet painful to read in an unemphatic, self-centered, revolting way–deliberately, of course, but still not easy to read and not informative.
Our main character, Sara (not a Jew, as she asserts), is presented as the most odious woman alive, the most vile person imaginable. The writing borders on gratuitous in certain sections: asking her Palestinian guide to show her someone interesting (handsome terrorist!) instead of, verbatim, "sad Mohammads" upset that their entire families were killed; . Throughout the entire novel, she's more concerned with hooking up with the Italian photographer than the fact that his best friend was blown up by Hamas, willing to risk children's lives for a meeting with the nephew of a terrorist, interested in getting the story to impress her ex-paramour rather than truth or other journalistic virtues. This is clever, and it's nice to see the naked Western exploitation of the Middle East, but it makes the book acutely revolting to read. Phoebe Greenwood said of the Middle East "the first year here you’ll hate the Israeli government, the second year the Palestinian leadership, by the third you’ll hate yourself", and she seems quite intent on making us hate the protagonist (which, as broadly Westerners, is a reflection of our "selves", from the apathetic masses to the performatively boycotting leftists such as Sara's deplored mother), but a first-person narrative with a loathsome narrator is difficult to read.
(Geo)politically, the story is inoffensive–not neutral, because neutrality is offensive to everyone, but inoffensive. Greenwood zooms in so far onto Gaza, 2012, that the roots of the conflict are completely ignored. We know that Hamas is firing rockets at Israel, we know that Israel is bombing Gaza, we know that Israel claims that each attack targeted a Hamas member, we know that Gazans dispute this (although Greenwood is intelligent even here, one victim is noted to be a "traffic cop"–thus, an ostensibly innocent that must logically still adhere to the Hamas quasistate), we know that Hamas imposes Sharia law and executes civilians under the guise of "collaboration" but the roots of the conflict are completely ignored: we have one terrorist leader claim that all the land "from the river to the sea" is Palestine, and we have one mention that "when the Jews left Gaza, it was bad for business", and nothing else from outside the year and Strip. There are almost no Israelis or Jews, barring Doron, an IDF spokesperson, who is presented as, at worst, morally equivalent to the leader of an Islamist terrorist group. In this story, the villains are the vultures, the Brits and Americans and Europeans feasting on the corpse of Gaza.
I would not recommend this book to those who do not know about the conflict, partially because Vulture seems to presume a high level of knowledge, and partially because the extreme lack of context obfuscates the actual information. I also don't think I'd recommend it to those who do. Vulture is British, sardonic, and deeply satirical, yet painful to read in an unemphatic, self-centered, revolting way–deliberately, of course, but still not easy to read and not informative.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 101 reviews