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Reviews tagging 'Genocide'
The Cat I Never Named: A True Story of Love, War, and Survival by Amra Sabic-El-Rayess, Laura L. Sullivan
13 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
good_names_dont_exist's review
adventurous
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Genocide
Moderate: Animal death
scmiller's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Grief, Genocide, War, and Death
Moderate: Rape and Hate crime
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
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Death, Islamophobia, Genocide, Grief, Violence, War, and Animal death
Moderate: Rape and Animal cruelty
Minor: Alcohol
bookwookie's review
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Violence, War, and Child death
Moderate: Rape
nitya's review
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
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
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death and Genocide