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sarahbryson's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
tx2its's review against another edition
4.0
Reading 2021
Book 124: The Dragons, the Giant, the Women by Wayétu Moore
This was an audio book selection. Book 29 of #30booksin30days
This is a memoir of Moore's early childhood escaping from Liberia after war breaks out. Her mother was in the United States going to school, so the family was separated when the war broke out.
The last third of the book was very good and I was riveted to the story. I was sad that the author did not narrate her own story, I find I enjoy it more when the author puts their voice to the memoir. My rating I think is about a 3.5-3.75, but going to round to 4⭐.
Book 124: The Dragons, the Giant, the Women by Wayétu Moore
This was an audio book selection. Book 29 of #30booksin30days
This is a memoir of Moore's early childhood escaping from Liberia after war breaks out. Her mother was in the United States going to school, so the family was separated when the war broke out.
The last third of the book was very good and I was riveted to the story. I was sad that the author did not narrate her own story, I find I enjoy it more when the author puts their voice to the memoir. My rating I think is about a 3.5-3.75, but going to round to 4⭐.
peripatetic_library's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
hgranger's review against another edition
4.0
The horrors of war seen through the eyes of a child, shielded by a giant of a parent. I was a little hesitant to read it because I read “Left to Tell” about the Rwandan genocide and it was so horrifying that I wasn’t sure I was up for another round of the atrocities humans commit towards one another. But because the story is told partially through a five year old’s point of view and partially in retrospect with a distance to the experience, it felt like a different experience. The horrors are still there, still sobering, and dreadful, and unbelievable. But the story is just so powerful and leaves a feeling of hope and goodness among all the evil of the world.
There were a couple of perspective shifts that made me have to reread a paragraph or two to find out who and when, but all in all what an incredibly beautiful book, showing trauma, agony, strength, and survival.
There were a couple of perspective shifts that made me have to reread a paragraph or two to find out who and when, but all in all what an incredibly beautiful book, showing trauma, agony, strength, and survival.
sadiereadsagain's review against another edition
4.0
This is Wayetu's memoir of living in and escaping from Liberia during its first civil war, in the late 80's/early 90's. After fleeing, she and her family emigrated to America to join Wayetu's mother, who was studying over there, so the memoir also examines Waytu's experience of coming of age in the US as well.
What I thought was really interesting about this one is that the narrative pivots on one particular point, that point being a rebel militia individual. We see the experience from Wayetu's memory of fleeing as quite a young child - I think she's eight - and then it pivots and we see it from her mother's experience of being over in America, across the globe, watching the situation from the outside without knowing what was going on with her family. I thought that was really fabulous, and made this in to quite a page turner. We also see Wayetu as a young woman, with discussions on facing racism in her adopted country as she grew up and battling with feelings of being untethered, neither of one place or another, and and trying to find her home.
The book is a thorough portrayal of living through conflict, and how the displacement of people due to such a conflict can inflict further trauma to a person's identity, even long after that conflict is over. I think that's really pertinent as we're watching the Syrian refugees and other displaced people.
This memoir is pretty lyrical. It captures the child's view of the experience incredibly well, and that lyricism lends itself well to Wayetu's feelings of turmoil as a young woman. But Moore seems to know when to let that style flow and when to reign it in, which means that there is a clear path through her memoir which allows you as the reader to take in the facts of the conflict and what her family were doing to stay safe . It's a pretty seamless blend, and one which I really enjoyed reading.
What I thought was really interesting about this one is that the narrative pivots on one particular point, that point being a rebel militia individual. We see the experience from Wayetu's memory of fleeing as quite a young child - I think she's eight - and then it pivots and we see it from her mother's experience of being over in America, across the globe, watching the situation from the outside without knowing what was going on with her family. I thought that was really fabulous, and made this in to quite a page turner. We also see Wayetu as a young woman, with discussions on facing racism in her adopted country as she grew up and battling with feelings of being untethered, neither of one place or another, and and trying to find her home.
The book is a thorough portrayal of living through conflict, and how the displacement of people due to such a conflict can inflict further trauma to a person's identity, even long after that conflict is over. I think that's really pertinent as we're watching the Syrian refugees and other displaced people.
This memoir is pretty lyrical. It captures the child's view of the experience incredibly well, and that lyricism lends itself well to Wayetu's feelings of turmoil as a young woman. But Moore seems to know when to let that style flow and when to reign it in, which means that there is a clear path through her memoir which allows you as the reader to take in the facts of the conflict and what her family were doing to stay safe . It's a pretty seamless blend, and one which I really enjoyed reading.
emlbish's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
5.0