Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After by Clemantine Wamariya

11 reviews

mscalls's review

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Genocide, Blood, Child death, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual harassment, War, Abandonment, Chronic illness, Cursing, Infidelity, Gore, Death, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse

markandcover's review

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

I’m not rating the content… this is a memoir and is deeply respected. Rating memoirs always gives me the ick. How can I give “stars” to someone’s real life experiences? The only thing that gives me pause is nonlinear structure in nonfiction. It confuses me sometimes and feels unnecessary when telling a story in a memoir style. Additionally, I purposefully use audiobook format in memoir so that I can hear the literal voice of the author, which I did not get here.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Genocide, and War

jordynkw's review

challenging emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, War, Death, Deportation, Grief, Violence, and Domestic abuse

frances_chan's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Murder, Genocide, Death, and Violence

Moderate: War, Sexism, and Rape

Minor: Domestic abuse

clairetierney22's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Murder, Death, Genocide, and War

abitbetterbooks's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

5.0

I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting but I don’t think this was it. I’ve had the physical book on my shelf for a while but I’m so glad I decided to listen to the audiobook instead. Robin Miles is an absolute masterclass is narration and she gave so much depth and nuance to this already powerful story.

While this book is about the Rwandan genocide, not too much detail is provided about the genocide itself; there are plenty of books I’m sure you can read to learn more about it. Of course the author contextualizes it and what happened, but the majority of the book is about the impact of the conflict on her life and the subsequent journey, through many countries, refugee camps, bus rides, generous families and friends, evil guards and immigration police, and ultimately, her life in America. I appreciated in particular Clemantine’s exploration of her feelings of anger, lack of safety, need for survival, and fears of abandonment, and the deconstruction of the role of “refugee” she was meant to play, both on the Oprah show and other instances of tokenization. 

I flagged many moments in this book and I can’t wait to go though and annotate them in my physical copy. Obviously there are many trigger warnings for this book but I highly recommend reading, with caution! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Domestic abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Child abuse, War, Violence, Grief, and Genocide

Moderate: Colonisation, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual violence, and Rape

Minor: Infidelity

leighskarz90's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide

Moderate: War, Death, Hate crime, Rape, and Grief

katemariea514's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Rape

massivepizzacrust's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

I knew going into this book that it was going to be informative and that the subject was going to be harrowing. But I didn't know how engaging the writing was going to be, and I didn't know how much of the book was going to be set after Clemantine received asylum in the US. It adds a certain comfort and safety for the reader to immediately know the family is going to survive. This shifts the focus from placing yourself in the middle of terrible conflict to wider reflections on colonialism, how we treat refugees, and human nature. I don't think this was meant to be an uplifting or optimistic book but it manages to be critical and emotional without being depressing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, and War

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Self harm, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, and Animal death

This book discusses the genocide in Rwanda and it doesn't hide much but it also doesn't dwell on the gruesomeness of the violence. Things that happen to the author or her sister are described in past tense. The author discusses sexual violence throughout the book but never a specific incident.

ahaimhere's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide

Moderate: Domestic abuse, War, and Death

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault