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greta_reads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Murder, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Child death, Classism, Death, Medical content, Vomit, Child abuse, Dementia, Violence, War, Blood, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Excrement, Genocide, Infertility, and Kidnapping
kewps's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
gabmc's review against another edition
4.0
A beautiful written fictional story of a chilling time in modern history - Cambodia during the 1970s. Seven year old Raani and her family are descended from Cambodian royalty and the book tells her story from when the Khmer Rouge forced them from their ancestral home in Phnom Phen. I don't know enough about the Cambodian genocide and this book has inspired me to find out more - about how this atrocity happened.
pox10's review against another edition
4.0
“Words, you see,” he said, looking at me again, “allow us to make permanent what is essentially transient. Turn a world filled with injustice and hurt into a place that is beautiful and lyrical. Even if only on paper."
ovenbird_reads's review against another edition
4.0
Around the World: Cambodia
Fiction, but based strongly on the author's own experiences as a child during the rule of the Khmer Rouge. This novel brought the brutality to the surface, forcing a very intense and emotional reading experience. I frequently had a hard time continuing as the atrocities piled up. But Vaddey Ratner keeps her story from plunging irrevocably into despair by showing the reader moments with wings, poetry that soars, love that keeps victims from laying down in the mud and giving up. If you knew very little about the Khmer Rouge, as I did, this is an eye opening story that you are unlikely to forget any time soon.
I wasn't sure how to rate this. It was an extraordinary book, but so painful that I had a hard time actually enjoying the read. I kept on because I felt it was important to bear witness to events that seem to have been largely forgotten. Everyone grows up knowing about the Nazis and the Holocaust. Why don't we all know about this?
Fiction, but based strongly on the author's own experiences as a child during the rule of the Khmer Rouge. This novel brought the brutality to the surface, forcing a very intense and emotional reading experience. I frequently had a hard time continuing as the atrocities piled up. But Vaddey Ratner keeps her story from plunging irrevocably into despair by showing the reader moments with wings, poetry that soars, love that keeps victims from laying down in the mud and giving up. If you knew very little about the Khmer Rouge, as I did, this is an eye opening story that you are unlikely to forget any time soon.
I wasn't sure how to rate this. It was an extraordinary book, but so painful that I had a hard time actually enjoying the read. I kept on because I felt it was important to bear witness to events that seem to have been largely forgotten. Everyone grows up knowing about the Nazis and the Holocaust. Why don't we all know about this?
annieca's review against another edition
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
uhambe_nami's review against another edition
4.0
Phnom Penh, 1975. Seven-year-old Raami was a little princess, a distant member of the large Cambodian royal family leading a privileged life. But when the Khmer Rouge took over, she and her family were driven from Phnom Penh to the countryside just like all those thousands of other Cambodians, to work in the rice fields and dig irrigation canals. Many of her fellow Cambodians wouldn't make it, but Raami somehow held on to the ancient stories that her father had told her, giving her hope and the strength to survive.
As the author was only five when she went through more or less what Raami is telling us, In the Shadow of the Banyan is a fictionalised autobiography that combines her own vague memories with what she now knows must have happened during those years. At times, Raami's observations seem too wise for a seven-year-old and this renders the story a bit unrealistic. However, this is a compelling narrative tackling one of history's worst tragedies, and the writing is not bad at all for a debut novel on such a difficult topic.
Please keep writing, Vaddey Ratner. You're doing just fine.
As the author was only five when she went through more or less what Raami is telling us, In the Shadow of the Banyan is a fictionalised autobiography that combines her own vague memories with what she now knows must have happened during those years. At times, Raami's observations seem too wise for a seven-year-old and this renders the story a bit unrealistic. However, this is a compelling narrative tackling one of history's worst tragedies, and the writing is not bad at all for a debut novel on such a difficult topic.
Please keep writing, Vaddey Ratner. You're doing just fine.
gck's review against another edition
5.0
"The problem with being seven... is that you're aware of so much, and yet you understand so little. So you imagine the worst."
I'm not sure a child's imagination would come up with things that were worse than what happened in Cambodia, but this combination of awareness and innocence made the narrative voice really special. I loved her worldview and poetic language. Because the story is told through the eyes of a child without full understanding, we aren't presented with a constant stream of graphic atrocities. There is beauty and wonder to contrast with the fear and anticipation, and in a way, the tragedies hit me even harder because they felt personal. I really liked seeing the progression of Raami's relationships with her family, especially with her father and mother.
Then my heart broke even more when I got to the end and saw that Raami's story was based on the author's real life. Everything felt so authentic because it was based on actual experience.
I enjoyed this book even more because I read most of it as I was traveling around Vietnam and Cambodia, and the timing of some passages in the book would magically correlate with my travel experience. For example, I had met an old woman in Vietnam with black teeth right before I read about Raami's grandmother's teeth and the reason for them.
I'm not sure a child's imagination would come up with things that were worse than what happened in Cambodia, but this combination of awareness and innocence made the narrative voice really special. I loved her worldview and poetic language. Because the story is told through the eyes of a child without full understanding, we aren't presented with a constant stream of graphic atrocities. There is beauty and wonder to contrast with the fear and anticipation, and in a way, the tragedies hit me even harder because they felt personal. I really liked seeing the progression of Raami's relationships with her family, especially with her father and mother.
Then my heart broke even more when I got to the end and saw that Raami's story was based on the author's real life. Everything felt so authentic because it was based on actual experience.
I enjoyed this book even more because I read most of it as I was traveling around Vietnam and Cambodia, and the timing of some passages in the book would magically correlate with my travel experience. For example, I had met an old woman in Vietnam with black teeth right before I read about Raami's grandmother's teeth and the reason for them.