Reviews with content warning for Death - We Are Not Free

Reviews tagging 'Death'

We Are Not Free by Traci Chee

33 reviews

leesbookss's review against another edition

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emotional funny slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

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allygator's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative 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

This book is nearly perfect. It's a heart-rending depiction of life in World War II-era Japanese internment camps told from the eyes of 14 different Japanese-American teenagers.
The amount of research Traci Chee put into making this as accurate as possible is insane, and it is evident in the quality of the story she tells. You know how close she is to the story and the characters and how important it is to her that their story gets told.
The only criticism that I have is that, because there are so many different perspectives, sometimes it was hard to connect with every character at the same level. The chapters didn't fall into the most common of multi-perspective pitfalls though -- every voice was really distinct and fun to read.
This is a must-read for anyone looking to learn more about what Japanese-Americans went through during World War II, especially slightly younger audiences and anyone who is less interested in nonfiction.

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dani_reviews's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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mnm43's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional informative tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.5

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kaitlinlovesbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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ullr's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional informative reflective sad fast-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

5.0

This is HANDS DOWN the best book I've read all year. Traci Chee does a spectacular job depicting what it was like for a wide variety of Japanese-American teens during the mass incarceration commonly referred to as Japanese internment. Chee achieves this by devoting each chapter to a different character's point of view, fourteen in all. This may be off-putting to some readers, but I think it was the best way to show the wide variety of experiences, and Chee successfully gives each character a separate and individualized voice. That's really hard to do! Teenagers are often hard to capture, but Chee is able to make these 14 characters believable as they grapple with incredibly difficult situations in the way only teenagers can. Through the 14 characters, Chee forces her readers to confront and reexamine American consumerism, police brutality, sexual identity, fear, grief, patriotism, family issues and abuse, and, perhaps most importantly, how to feel about a country that does not want you (and so much more). Through intensive research and interviews (including ones with her own relatives), Chee presents so much more than the usual narrative of 'internment.' AND there are excellent illustrations corresponding to one character's love of drawing. Guaranteed tears.

Now all I want is a sequel! Please! I need to know how all the characters adjusted to post-war life.

Some quotes to further convince you to read this book:
"Gaman. The ability to hold your pain and bitterness inside you and not let them destroy you. To make something beautiful through your anger, to with your anger, and neither erase it nor let it define you. To suffer. And to rage. And to persevere."
"How can we sleep? ...Whistling on my way to some ivy-laden lecture hall, far from the fences, while Dad brags up and down the fire break where Mr. Uyeda was shot for playing fetch with his dog? How can we do it? How can we do anything, after this?"
"They said it was an 'evacuation' and a 'migration,' not an incarceration .... They said they weren't violating our rights."
"We don't all believe the same things in here, especially about whether we're Japanese or American, whether we want to stay in this country or go, but we all know that our treatment in this place is unjust, and that makes it easier to act as one."
"Dear Dad, if I die out there, they'll give Ma an American flag just like yours. My very own triangle of stars. But I don't know if I'm going to want that, when the time comes."

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