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koreanlinda's review against another edition
4.25
I learned a lot about what Vietnamese and Vietnamese Americans went through in the last few generations. I recommend coupling this book with Year of the Rabbit by Tian Veasna, which talks about a painful part of Cambodian history around a similar time as this book.
Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in Feb 2024
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
Graphic: Violence, Miscarriage, Colonisation, and War
Moderate: Genocide, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse
aleighc's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Child death, Genocide, Miscarriage, Death, and War
readwithev's review against another edition
4.5
Bui talks about how challenging it was to get to know her parents, but she uncovers their origins and begins separating her expectations of them. It felt very healing and vulnerable. Bui delves into her childhood and the things she’s still healing from and beginning to see in differently now that she’s a parent.
Moderate: Blood, Genocide, Miscarriage, War, and Violence
Minor: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Infidelity, and Colonisation
alysereadsbooks's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: War, Violence, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Death, Genocide, Miscarriage, Child death, Medical trauma, and Gore
booksandboba's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Grief, Child death, War, Pregnancy, Death, Genocide, and Mental illness
Moderate: Blood, Colonisation, Classism, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Racial slurs, Racism, and Physical abuse
Minor: Alcohol
carmentxx's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Colonisation, Genocide, Miscarriage, War, Violence, and Grief
Moderate: Classism and Death
Minor: Domestic abuse and Infidelity
kathis_wonderland's review against another edition
4.0
This is my first graphic novel. It is quite a different reading experience than reading a book without illustrations, but I enjoyed it. I learnt a lot about Vietnam's history, which was really interesting. The mixture of personal story and history was awesome. I keep thinking about using this memoir in my history classes at some point in the future. It just gives a different point of view on the events than there is in the history books. The memoir also illustrates perfectly how your parents' trauma can affect your own life. I discovered that there is a teacher's guide, discussion questions and a pronunciation guide available on Thi Bui's website. Reading through some of the questions helped me to understand the book more and reflect on the story.
I find it difficult to write a review about a memoir that tells a personal story about someone's life. However, I really liked this book and learnt a lot while reading it. It educates the reader about historic events and at the same time, shows multi-generational struggles. To be honest, this book is quite a masterpiece that can be used in education.
Moderate: Miscarriage, Bullying, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Murder, Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, Grief, Racism, Violence, and War
brookey8888's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Grief, Violence, Colonisation, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racial slurs, War, Child death, Racism, Sexism, Abandonment, Classism, Death, Emotional abuse, and Genocide