Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

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

3 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

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.

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