Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui

49 reviews

thejazziestbean's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.5

this book was very informative and it gave a huge insight into how an immigrant child’s life is affected by the government of their nations.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Racism, Police brutality, War, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Genocide, Murder, Xenophobia, Violence, Hate crime, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Colonisation, Gore, Vomit, Physical abuse, Death, Death of parent, Abortion, Mass/school shootings, Infidelity, Child death, and Classism

rieviolet's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

3.5

I'll preface this review by saying that it's only recently that I've started reading graphic novels, so I'm still getting used to this particular mode of narration. The book deals with very heavy and interesting themes (the impact of war on a national and personal level, displacement, intergenerational trauma etc.) but I feel like the brevity inherent to the graphic novel mode did them a disservice and there wasn't enough narrative space to develop them. I also admit that I know just the bare minimum about the war in Vietnam and its aftermath, and that a deeper knowledge on my part would have helped me to follow better and to integrate the author's storytelling.

I have to be honest and say that I wasn't really into the graphic and colouring style, and it took me some time to get used to it. I found it perfectly funtional when it came to telling the story, but I wasn't blown away. 

This graphic novel is still a solid work, it just didn't fully meet the high  

expectations I had built for myself after hearing all the reviews of praise.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Pregnancy, Police brutality, Medical content, War, and Classism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Colonisation, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, Child death, Child abuse, Grief, Racism, and Death

Minor: Mental illness, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Medical trauma, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Abortion, Miscarriage, Infidelity, and Fire/Fire injury

swimmingwolf59's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

I think this is a really good book on the challenges of family and motherhood, and a really interesting look at a family escaping Vietnam during the war. The art is beautiful and haunting. But I definitely should've read the content warnings on this one lol. While I appreciate that pregnancy and childbirth and motherhood isn't like glorified in this, I also could've done without the 30 pages of graphic pregnancy at the beginning.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy and Infidelity

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Miscarriage

wanderlust_romance's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

What an amazing and moving memoir. Everything from the artwork to the deeply personal storytelling was engaging, thoughtful, and emotional. The art is a layering of ink and woodcut style drawings with undercurrents of brown and orange watercolors. It is a stark but not monochromatic depiction of scenes that aligns very well with the story being told. At its heart, The Best We Could Do is a story of parental and family relationships. The narrative’s opening scene depicting the authors traumatic birthing experience sets the tone for the rest of the book: this is not going to be a comfortable read. And indeed it is challenging. The birth scene brings the narrative full circle at the end, with deeply personal and resonating reflections by Bui on being a parent. The midsection of the memoir goes into depth on Bui’s parent’s experiences growing up in French colonial Vietnam and the ensuing geopolitical conflicts that ensued. Relaying the challenges experienced by their parents adds insight into their approach to parenting in the midst of the conflict and afterwards in their life as immigrants in the US. Through the gathering of this insight, it made me pause to consider how much one really knows their parents. Do I know who my parents are as people, in a vein outside of their relationship to me as a caretaker? Is it possible to separate what I know of them as parents to understand who they are in an independent context? While not explicitly noted in the text, these are also questions that Bui considers with depth in gathering their parents deeply personal and fraught histories. With this renewed insight into the Bui family’s history, Thi Bui reflects on their own journey as a parent. And at the end of such a deeply moving story, reminds readers of the refrain that many parents recognize in the challenges to raise humans. I did the best I could do.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Medical content, Xenophobia, Abandonment, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Violence

Minor: Child death, Physical abuse, and Infidelity

drraytay's review against another edition

informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Infidelity, Death, Child death, Rape, Abandonment, War, Colonisation, and Miscarriage

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

njh_books's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

Artwork is great.

The events flip back and forth between different time periods and adds to the story as Bui learns more about her parents’ and her own past while also trying to determine what it means for her present. 

Heartbreaking but also hopeful. The last scene with the son is truly thought provoking and beautiful.

My knowledge of Vietnam improved with this story as often events were discussed that I then looked into on my own.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Colonisation, Child death, Chronic illness, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Medical content, Death, Xenophobia, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Miscarriage

koreanlinda's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced

4.25

I felt lots of pain by reading this book. The book is ridden with violence that Thi's family experienced in Vietnam. Thi's mother is the one who gets lots of focus for her pain from repeated miscarriages as well as pregnancies and deliveries during the war. Although the story and graphics are compelling, I could not shed so many "whys" while reading it. Why did Thi's mother keep getting pregnant in environments where it's dangerous for the mother and baby? Why did Thi's father not take care of his children in the absence of Thi's mother? It is hard to blame anyone in the story because they are all victims of extremely traumatic experiences; however, I couldn't help but feel resentful for adults with responsibilities.

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Miscarriage, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Genocide, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse

caoxtina's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Moderate: Rape, Child death, and Miscarriage

kirkspockreads's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Gun violence, War, Violence, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Racial slurs, Murder, Infidelity, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Abandonment, Abortion, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Grief, Racism, and Pregnancy

cecilie_who_reads's review against another edition

dark informative reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

A story of survival, endurance and plans thwarted by the casual arrogance of several warring parties, told without self pity and in neutral tones. This graphic chronicle follows tells and shows the stories of Thi Bui's parents. As for the emotions, it tells about Thi Bui's reactions to this, but does not beg the reader to feel the same way.
But her parents as children and young people are so well conveyed that you feel it could be you. The lack of safety, the repeated chock of having all plans overturned, sneaks in on you in your armchair. It invites the reader (and, as Thi Bui says, her own self too) to renewed respect for the survivors, even those that spend their days in a dark room, grumpy and unapproachable for apparently no reason.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Domestic abuse, Death, War, Miscarriage, and Abandonment

Minor: Mental illness, Mass/school shootings, Drug use, Vomit, Xenophobia, and Racial slurs

Starvation, persecution, and hiding alone in the darkness in small spaces are also part of the story. Read it, but hold someone's hand.