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Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'
The Cat I Never Named: A True Story of Love, War, and Survival by Amra Sabic-El-Rayess, Laura L. Sullivan
4 reviews
creolelitbelle's review against another edition
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Death, Hate crime, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Islamophobia, and War
Moderate: Grief
jennswan's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
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 against another edition
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Death, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Antisemitism, War, Gore, Rape, Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, and Grief
booksngrannies's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Islamophobia, Racism, Grief, Death, and War
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Rape
Minor: Torture
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