Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

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

20 reviews

jess_vitale's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Domestic abuse, and Genocide

funky_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Violence, and War

Moderate: Sexual violence, Colonisation, Sexism, and Classism

mkrabbe's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Genocide, Sexual assault, and Racism

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.

tarisc's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Genocide, Violence, and War

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

sarah984's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring medium-paced

4.0

In a lot of ways this memoir is about being displaced, especially the dehumanization involved in being a refugee. The author does a great job of describing the feelings associated with trying to survive their situation and turns an unflinching eye on the way that this childhood experience still affects her life as an adult.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Animal death, Death of parent, Excrement, Blood, Gun violence, Rape, Slavery, Trafficking, and Vomit

milliebrierley's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide

balladofreadingqueer's review

challenging emotional hopeful medium-paced

3.5

3.5* This memoir was difficult to read. I found it interesting and wanted to finish it but there was also a detachment and distance in the storytelling style which made it hard to connect to. 

The memoir’s chapters jump between Wamariya’s refugee journey in the 1990s and her life in the US in the 2000s. The author’s description of herself vacillating between rage and disinterest as a form of self-protection can be seen in the writing but leans towards disinterest/disengaged.   

The tensions between Wamariya wanting to remember, wanting others to remember and her family’s  (particularly her sister and mother) desire to move forward and not dwell on the past dominate this memoir. Wamariya discusses her feelings of rootlessness, loneliness and fear throughout her travels as a Rwandan refugee in a largely unemotional observational way. The distrust of men whilst a refugee, distinction between her experience and African American experiences once in the US, and complex familial dynamics with her parents, sister, niece and nephew throughout the book are compelling.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide