Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Cat I Never Named: A True Story of Love, War, and Survival by Amra Sabic-El-Rayess, Laura L. Sullivan

6 reviews

bookwookie's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Violence, War, and Child death

Moderate: Rape

nitya's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Read for MLIS elective

RTC when I stop sobbing

And I don't know why this is under the graphic novel shelf. For the record, this is a prose memoir! The only picture is of Amra and Maci (the cat), which also is a section/time divider. 

Content warning: Islamophobia, war, violence, death (it's a theme), genocide, rape (not to the narrator/author but it is mentioned), animal death, sexual harassment, humans being terrible and cruel*

*Probably my inner nihilist talking but I will include it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Animal death, Child death, Islamophobia, Death, Genocide, Violence, and War

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Rape

Minor: Confinement

serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

4.25

 The Cat I Never Named is a memoir detailing some of Amra’s experiences during the Bosnian war/genocide of the early 1990s. We first meet her as a sixteen year old excited about new volleyball shoes, a seven tiered birthday cake and a planned sleepover. But the sleepover falls apart when her friends are unable to stay. Amra realises it is because she is Muslim. Almost overnight her life changes. Muslim refugees begin to stream in to Bihac from elsewhere. Then all the Serbians flee the town and its bombardment begins. Gunfire and bombings become commonplace, food scarce as the siege drags on. We see Amra’s resentment of Serbian friends and neighbours who fled but didn’t warn them of the danger, and at the UN for doing nothing to protect them. Amra shares her experiences of being caught in bomblasts, of seeing people killed, of fleeing her home and sheltering in the overcrowded basement of a relative, of watching her father’s health decline as a result of his frontline duties, of fearing ending up in a rape camp. Yet this is not an unrelentingly grim story. The reader also shares Amra experience of first love and sees her doggedly pursue her education. And then there is the loving bond that she develops with Maci (that’s cat in Bosnian), a stray who follows her home one day and refuses to leave. The love, joy, comfort and companionship Maci provided to Amra and her family was heartwarming. And I haven’t even mentioned Maci’s role as a guardian angel.

In an age rife with political, social and cultural divisions, with othering, this book is a powerful cautionary tale. War, especially when caused by ethnic and religious hatred, is never an easy topic to read about. But because we view it through the eyes of positive teen who we know survived, and because of the bond between her and Maci, the horror and carnage never became overpowering. Rather this memoir simultaneously highlights the horrors of living in a city under siege, and the ways in which life can and does continue.
 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Genocide

biacedbooks's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

This book was absolutely incredible and heartbreaking. It shows the realities of what some people have had to go through and really made me realize my privilege. 

I found myself crying on the last page, still holding out hope that Maci would find her way home one last time

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Islamophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual violence, and Violence

bookswithsoumi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Bullying, Blood, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Vomit, Violence, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Medical content, Islamophobia, Hate crime, Gun violence, Grief, Gore, and Genocide

Moderate: Trafficking

peeniewallie's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Gun violence, Death, Child death, Rape, Islamophobia, Misogyny, and Genocide

Minor: Animal death and Medical content