Reviews

The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya

dolphinlvr0920's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

marginaliant's review against another edition

5.0

I was really taken aback by the amount of rage I felt this book exuded, but not in a bad way.
The most powerful theme in this book, for me anyway, was storytelling. Wamariya allows that stories are important to tell, but to be someone caught up in the middle of an event that other people have determined to be a good (or important, or powerful, choose your adjective) story can feel isolating. During the course of this book she recounts her story to many different audiences and she acknowledges how it changes with each telling, depending on how she wants her audience to perceive her and her story. It was during the sections in which other people tried to tell her story for her that her rage flitted through, absolutely unapologetic in her desire not to fit a preconceived narrative.
This isn't a book to go into to feel good about yourself or to feel a close emotional bond to Wamariya (at least for me), because she keeps her audience at arm's length emotionally speaking, but it is well told and leaves the reader with a lot to chew on. For those of you who like to read memoirs that extrapolate the author's experience into interesting, big ideas, this is definitely one to read.

sdudek12's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative medium-paced

3.0

I think I did myself a disservice by listening to this on audio. I own the physical copy and I was extremely excited about this memoir when I first heard about it. The book time jumps quite a bit and it's very easy to lose track of where Clemantine is within the story while listening on audio. I don't tend to reread memoirs often, but I think I will read this again using my physical copy so I can fully understand, process, and appreciate the author's story.

katelyl's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

2.0

libraryjen's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad medium-paced

3.5

3.5 stars

Obviously, the real life experiences of Ms. Wamariya are not what I'm rating, it's the writing itself. The experiences of the author and her sister were horrific and interesting and inspiring, but the book itself was sometimes confusing and jumped around too much to easily follow. Still, it's a story that needs to be told and I'm grateful to the author for writing the book and telling her story. I'm grateful that I got to read it.

emherrick's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

snowreads1's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

colo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

5.0

Clemantine is a very unlikable person but who am I to judge, you know? I’m not the one who went through a genocide and had to migrate across seven African countries alongside her sister, her sister’s abusive husband, and play mother to her sister’s kids…. 

I always find writing reviews on real stories hard because how can you possibly critiques another person’s real life journey? What are you going to say? 

aboxer6490's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

titalindaslibrary's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

5.0