Reviews tagging 'Grief'

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

8 reviews

creolelitbelle's review

emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

4.0

Normally, I do not read books that will likely make me sad, but this memoir is a good account of one teen's experience during the Bosnian War in the early 1990s. Schools in the US taught me that the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union were only positive for Eastern Europeans, but books like this show the negative side to the history that America does not necessarily want us to know. The world promised that nothing like the Holocaust would happen again, and it did within the same century. 

Amra Sabic-El-Rayess's story gave me hope and nearly made me cry multiple times. She escaped some of the harsher realities of the war that some Bosniaks suffered, but she still struggled to survive and make a life for herself in the world thanks to the war. Maci (the cat) is a larger than life character in the memoir, and the author's note emphasizes that she was a huge impact on her family and life. My heart broke for the author when she described the sad pieces from her life during and after the war, but learning of her successes today is inspiring. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Death, Hate crime, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Islamophobia, and War

Moderate: Grief

jennswan's review

challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Islamophobia, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and War

Moderate: Gore, Racial slurs, Rape, and Animal cruelty

whisper88's review

emotional inspiring fast-paced

5.0

Okay, so yes the cat is lost at the end, but only in the epilogue. Otherwise she's unhurt in the book. I don't think this is a spoiler because it's a huge deciding factor whether someone could/couldn't read this book. (I literally can't read anything where animals are hurt or killed.)

You'll still end up ugly crying, but it's worth every snotty tear drenched tissue.

I keep asking everyone older than me (I was born in the '90's) what they remember of the time and how the news reported (if it ever did) a literal genocide. Happily this brave family avoided the most extreme losses and torture. It's truly a survival story which may be some of the most important messages we can share. Death can be a relief, or at least a definitive resolution, where as surviving leaves so many questions unanswered. Learning how to sit with life as it is (or was) is an undertaking where any support from any source is always badly needed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Death, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Antisemitism, War, Gore, Rape, Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, and Grief

scmiller's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Grief, Genocide, War, and Death

Moderate: Rape and Hate crime

booksngrannies's review

emotional reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Islamophobia, Racism, Grief, Death, and War

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Rape

Minor: Torture

danajoy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

This is one of the most important books I've ever read.

I can't say I knew much about the atrocities that occured in Bosnia just a few years before I was born. It was never taught in my schools (possibly just mentioned in passing while we studied the Holocaust). It is deeply upsetting that I didn't know much at all about this, especially when it all occurred recently. Amra was 16 in 1992, when the Yugoslav Wars came to her home city of Bihać. 

The brutal realities of war are blatant in this book. I wasn't expecting the risk of r*pe to be so blatantly addressed in the opening chapter in a "YA" book. War and l ethnic cleansing aren't shied away from. 

It's very well written. Its a good starting point for education about the war and genocide. I found myself researching places and events every time I put the book down. 

Read this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Death, Islamophobia, Genocide, Grief, Violence, War, and Animal death

Moderate: Rape and Animal cruelty

Minor: Alcohol

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