The Queue takes the narrative of an allegory of life in an authoritarian regime to absurdist lengths, you follow an assortment of characters that act as archetypes of the people who exist in this kind of landscape. The third-person perspective makes most of this book feel impersonal, but with the way these characters were designed, I think that was purposeful. 

Following how each of these characters reacts to The Gate's new decrees as they slowly become more and more absurd and blatantly untrue, with some deciding to believe the lies if it can benefit them, others succumbing to obedience out of fear, a few still fighting against it - each in their own ways. It's portrayal of how authoritarian forces will turn people against each other is the most accurate representation of the Arab Spring in my memory. As an Egyptian, it's interesting reading and reflecting on events like the Arab Spring that I lived through as a child, written about by someone who has a far greater understanding of Egypt's complicated political history. 

I appreciate Abdel Aziz representing how misogyny and religion are used in these situations and how different people react to them. It paints a picture of Egypt that as depressing as it might sound, is honest about how our government systems have constantly failed our people. 

So much of this story is left unresolved, which at first left me a bit shocked and disappointed but with more time I think only shows how little resolution there is in situations like these. This was a powerful and interesting read, I'd highly recommend it to any who wants to learn more about modern Egypt.

THE QUEUE is a slow-burn bureaucratic dystopia following the increasingly complicated web of regulations, restrictions, and inconveniences imposed by a society 1) requiring everyone to get documents and permissions from a particular building to get anything done and then after a failed revolution 2) “temporarily” closing the building. 

The narration is matter-of-fact, dispassionately relaying the increasingly convoluted circumstances as every character figures out their own way to adapt to life in the queue. It gives the whole thing a bleak air, punctuated by brief happiness and grounded by dashed hopes. The underlying elements are quite simple, but the characters' woes are deaths of a thousand cuts as the fact that they need something from this building and cannot (currently) get into the building combine over and over to create problems for everyone, which are sometimes temporarily solved by workarounds, and those workarounds fail to address the underlying constraints. The audiobook narrator’s voice suffuses the story with a wry wit, understanding that it’s an incredibly bleak story but able to make the happy moments bright along the way (for as long as they last). 

The main characters are a doctor in a government building who is tracking down a discrepancy in some patient files, and then a bunch of people waiting in the Queue. Gradually they do more things away from the Gate, but every action, no matter its location, has something to do with the Queue and with the Gate, even if incidentally. 

The plot meanders as every bit of progress made is either stymied by eventually requiring paperwork only obtainable by waiting in the queue, or made by ignoring the Gate entirely and existing wholly in the Queue. The most urgent needs revolve around attempts to get medical care for oneself or others, including one man who is trying to get a bullet removed from his torso, the difficulties begin when the Gate refuses to acknowledge that any guns were fired in the event where he was shot. Things slowly deteriorate from there, mentally, physically, and bureaucratically, as the whole city is being gaslit and many of them start to believe the lies despite the evidence in their own memories.

Dry and bleak in all the best ways, read THE QUEUE for a dystopia borne of bureaucratic demands, futile paperwork, and bullets fading beyond memory even as every breath draws blood.