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zorhose's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
2.0
Honestly disappointing. I don't usually know how to rate shortstory collections as the quality often differs and while that can also be said here, the better stories/poems seemed to be the exception, not a rule.
With a cover and title like this, I was hoping for stories that would feel me empowered and hopeful that we can create change. The stories inside did not match up. Most of them were incredibly dark and depressing and while I don't mind a few of those, certainly pointing out the freedoms that still don't exist is vital, it did seem to be the majority.
Furthermore, most of the stories seemed uninspired. They depended solely on the shock factor and awfulness of their material and neither the writing nor the story itself were creative. A great counter example from this collection is "The Invention of Peanut Butter"; I loved the folktale feeling and the visualization of capitalism which it provided, but sadly it was of the few stand outs.
Considering how many stories in this dealt with racism and the fact that this is made in support of Amnesty International, I was shocked at how few PoC writers were a part of this (unless I missed someone, there are four). The stories from white people about racism or islamophobia often seemed like they just learned about the issue or that now that they were invited to write about freedom they could bring out some real bummers to show how socially aware they are. I didn't like it.
I also would've appreciated trigger warnings for each story. Some tw just within the first few stories would've been: pedophilia, suicide, rape, homophobia, etc. (during the first few stories I tried to rate them individually and I also noted down trigger warnings for myself but I got lazy). Going into these stories without knowing any of what was gonna happen made me feel physical ill at times, and again I don't think that's due to author's writing talent in many cases.
Last, but not least. I don't want to leave you guys feeling depressed, so here's the list of stories I actually liked:
Dulce et Decorum Est, Chibundu Onuzo
The Invention of Peanut Butter, Matt Haig
Black/White-Amy Leon
Darling, Amy Leon
Robot Killers, Tim Wynne-Jones
Harmless Joe, Tony Birch
The Importance of Screams, Chrisitie Watson
Push the Week, Jackie Kay
With a cover and title like this, I was hoping for stories that would feel me empowered and hopeful that we can create change. The stories inside did not match up. Most of them were incredibly dark and depressing and while I don't mind a few of those, certainly pointing out the freedoms that still don't exist is vital, it did seem to be the majority.
Furthermore, most of the stories seemed uninspired. They depended solely on the shock factor and awfulness of their material and neither the writing nor the story itself were creative. A great counter example from this collection is "The Invention of Peanut Butter"; I loved the folktale feeling and the visualization of capitalism which it provided, but sadly it was of the few stand outs.
Considering how many stories in this dealt with racism and the fact that this is made in support of Amnesty International, I was shocked at how few PoC writers were a part of this (unless I missed someone, there are four). The stories from white people about racism or islamophobia often seemed like they just learned about the issue or that now that they were invited to write about freedom they could bring out some real bummers to show how socially aware they are. I didn't like it.
I also would've appreciated trigger warnings for each story. Some tw just within the first few stories would've been: pedophilia, suicide, rape, homophobia, etc. (during the first few stories I tried to rate them individually and I also noted down trigger warnings for myself but I got lazy). Going into these stories without knowing any of what was gonna happen made me feel physical ill at times, and again I don't think that's due to author's writing talent in many cases.
Last, but not least. I don't want to leave you guys feeling depressed, so here's the list of stories I actually liked:
Dulce et Decorum Est, Chibundu Onuzo
The Invention of Peanut Butter, Matt Haig
Black/White-Amy Leon
Darling, Amy Leon
Robot Killers, Tim Wynne-Jones
Harmless Joe, Tony Birch
The Importance of Screams, Chrisitie Watson
Push the Week, Jackie Kay
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Suicide, Islamophobia, and Trafficking
curlyhairedbooklover's review against another edition
5.0
This book was really good and I enjoyed all of the stories there was not one bad story or poem.
carrotchimera's review against another edition
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Xenophobia, Blood, Islamophobia, Trafficking, and Mass/school shootings
dreamingpoet's review against another edition
2.0
Kind of dragged on, some of the stories were good but I didn't feel connected to the characters
lostwithoutabook's review against another edition
5.0
Wow! This is the most fantastic book and I urge everyone to pick up a copy. It’s a series of short stories and poems on the topic of freedom but the scope is huge and there are so many different topics covered. Fantastic authors have contributed to the book and there’s so much to discover - the first two stories completely captivated me and I couldn’t put it down. Please, please read it - such an important and beautiful book.
poisoncourt's review against another edition
4.0
I liked most of the short stories in the book, the very extremely moving. Some of the stories were a little boring. I still support the message behind each story and hope that a lot more people read this book.
martha_is_reading's review against another edition
4.0
Trigger Warning - sexual and physical violence
This is a collection of short stories collected by Amnesty International to highlight the human rights abuses that are still pervasive across the world today. When I picked it up, I initially assumed it was true stories of people that Amnesty had worked with; but it is actually fiction from authors such as Matt Haig, John Boyne, Christie Watson and Jackie Kay.
The power of this book lies in the settings of many of the stories - the UK. Some are inspired by real-life events that happen overseas, as a means of bringing home the horror to a UK audience; but others are set in the UK because these things do also happen in the UK. The collection demonstrates the global nature of abuse and terror, from the sexual abuse of children and female genital mutilation, to the sexual abuse of children and institutional racism.
As I mentioned at the top, this book requires a strong trigger warning for anyone who is triggered by that kind of content - the very first story is about childhood sexual abuse, so it's not something to open up and browse if you are affected by those issues. I will say that none of the content is particularly graphic, so I didn't find myself to be particularly triggered by it, but of course everyone is different.
The final chapter is an interview with Chelsea Manning, the soldier imprisoned for whistleblowing. This ties the whole collection together, by featuring part of the story of a woman who spoke out against the abuse of human rights, and was herself abused for it. It serves as a final call to action for all of us to speak out against the kind of abuse featured throughout the collection. A worthy read.
"The greatest threats to liberty today come not from terrorism but the fear of terrorism and our politicians' misguided quest for absolute security."
This is a collection of short stories collected by Amnesty International to highlight the human rights abuses that are still pervasive across the world today. When I picked it up, I initially assumed it was true stories of people that Amnesty had worked with; but it is actually fiction from authors such as Matt Haig, John Boyne, Christie Watson and Jackie Kay.
The power of this book lies in the settings of many of the stories - the UK. Some are inspired by real-life events that happen overseas, as a means of bringing home the horror to a UK audience; but others are set in the UK because these things do also happen in the UK. The collection demonstrates the global nature of abuse and terror, from the sexual abuse of children and female genital mutilation, to the sexual abuse of children and institutional racism.
As I mentioned at the top, this book requires a strong trigger warning for anyone who is triggered by that kind of content - the very first story is about childhood sexual abuse, so it's not something to open up and browse if you are affected by those issues. I will say that none of the content is particularly graphic, so I didn't find myself to be particularly triggered by it, but of course everyone is different.
The final chapter is an interview with Chelsea Manning, the soldier imprisoned for whistleblowing. This ties the whole collection together, by featuring part of the story of a woman who spoke out against the abuse of human rights, and was herself abused for it. It serves as a final call to action for all of us to speak out against the kind of abuse featured throughout the collection. A worthy read.
jenggala's review against another edition
4.0
this was such a heavy read, but i really love it and i'm glad i didn't dnf it. it's such a needed read in today's political climate. still somewhat relatable even for an indonesian like me.
it's choke full of gems. some are miss, but a lot hits me in the guts. it's just really that strong. beautiful and bold in its passion.
Harvester Road: 4/5
Dulce et Decorum est.: 5/5
Glasgow Snow: 4.5/5
The Invention of Peanut Butter: 4/5
Love is a Word, Not a Sentence: 4/5
Darling: 5/5
Stay Home: 4/5
A Suicide Bomber Sits in the Library: 5/5
School of Life: 4.5/5
Constant: 4/5
Redemption: 4.5/5
Sludge: 5/5
Bystander: 4/5
Black/White: 4/5
The Colour of Humanity: 3.5/5
When the Corridors Echo: 4/5
I Believe: 5/5
The Importance of Screams: 5/5
What I Remember About Her: 3.5/5
Barley Wine: 3/5
Deeds not Words: 5/5
Harmless Joe: 4.5/5
Push the Week: 4/5
Robot Killers: 4/5
Speaking Out for Freedom: 5/5
it's choke full of gems. some are miss, but a lot hits me in the guts. it's just really that strong. beautiful and bold in its passion.
Only a grown man can will himself not to think.
Harvester Road: 4/5
Dulce et Decorum est.: 5/5
Glasgow Snow: 4.5/5
The Invention of Peanut Butter: 4/5
Love is a Word, Not a Sentence: 4/5
Darling: 5/5
Stay Home: 4/5
A Suicide Bomber Sits in the Library: 5/5
School of Life: 4.5/5
Constant: 4/5
Redemption: 4.5/5
Sludge: 5/5
Bystander: 4/5
Black/White: 4/5
The Colour of Humanity: 3.5/5
When the Corridors Echo: 4/5
I Believe: 5/5
The Importance of Screams: 5/5
What I Remember About Her: 3.5/5
Barley Wine: 3/5
Deeds not Words: 5/5
Harmless Joe: 4.5/5
Push the Week: 4/5
Robot Killers: 4/5
Speaking Out for Freedom: 5/5
afrolicthroughfiction's review against another edition
3.0
Originally posted on A Frolic Through Fiction
*Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book. This in no way affects my opinion*
RATED 3.5/5 STARS
Oh, where to start with this book.
A collection of short stories, poems and even a couple of doodles/comic strips, you get so many things in this book. They all handle topics relating to the rights of freedom – of course, all of which being quite large, heavy subjects. But considering they’re short stories, they’re done really well. They’re the sort of story where just enough is said. The rest is self explanatory.
With the topics being heavy, there’s probably a whole host of trigger warnings needed. The one’s I spotted were suicide, child abuse, child exploitation and trafficking. But that’s not to say I didn’t miss any. And also, I’d be wary if you’re part of a minority group and get hurt by harmful comments easily, because with it being based on the fight for freedom, it also points out prejudices and injustices. With that comes insults to minorities. Not in a way that endorses them, thankfully, but still I just felt I ought to mention it in case it hurts any potential readers.
An example: There’s a story about a girl, during which she gets heckled with insults and shunned from friends for being a lesbian.
So yes, anyway. Now all of the warnings are given, onto the rest.
With every turn of the page, I was fascinated to see what topic would come up next. It was such a wide array, from immigration to oil spills to the suffragettes. I especially loved it when the authors left notes at the end of their story, explaining why they wrote about that specific topic. Something about that made it more personal.
And they’re all topics we know about. They’re all things we’ve heard about before. But too often, we just think “oh it doesn’t happen that often, it’s nothing to worry about”. But this book just shows exactly why we should be worrying about it, and not just leave it to the people suffering to fight.
Obviously, I liked some stories more than others. They’re all different topics and different authors, there’s no doubt they’d take on various styles. But I honestly think they all fit together really well as a book too, and I’d love to come back to this book in the future when looking for new author to discover. It’s the perfect thing to trial each author, especially with there being a mix of authors I’ve heard of – like Neil Gaiman and Frances Hardinge – and authors that are new to me.
I’m really glad I read this book. Though not a favourite, I enjoyed it in the way I read about hard topics without it being too hard hitting, since you’d move on after a few pages. They left their mark, without being too much. I don’t know. It was just exactly what I wanted at the time, and I feel like this is a book I’ll revisit quite a few times.