Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexiévich

10 reviews

littleredwinter's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

5.0

In the US, soldiers from WWII are lauded as heroes. We tend to view the western front of WWII as being the only front and forget about the men and especially women who fought for the Soviet Union on the eastern front. Further, WWII is seen by Americans even those who condemn other wars as uniquely moral and justified because we were fighting Nazis. What is not discussed is how even a war waged to end a genocide is bloody and brutal. Svetlana Alexievich does not censor the women she interviewed and they do not hold back. The horror of war rears its ugly head in plain view as these women describe in visceral detail exactly what they went through, how they felt about it then, and how they feel about it decades later now that they have been forced to live with it. This book is a thoughtful intersectional feminist view of war from the perspective of women who lived through that and relive it to this day. An especially important read with how few of them are left. I cannot recommend this enough. It will make you stop and carefully consider everything you learned in school and everything you believed about WWII. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Grief, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Gun violence, Violence, Medical trauma, Vomit, War, Blood, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Rape

seph5040's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child death, Death, Torture, Murder, and War

thebowandthebook's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

Vivid, stark and gruesome, this book spared little detail but provided a remarkable look into the sides of WW2 not often seen. Truly illuminated the difference between the woman's views on war and the men's. Excellent read, so many stories... so many lives.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Rape, Death, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Child death, Animal death, Antisemitism, Gore, Torture, Sexual assault, War, Misogyny, and Murder

Moderate: Cursing, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy

Minor: Infidelity, Excrement, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Abortion, and Medical content

rcsreads's review

dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Torture, Blood, Death, Grief, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, War, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Rape

cword's review against another edition

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Torture, War, Misogyny, Body horror, Genocide, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Medical trauma, Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Child abuse, Death, and Domestic abuse

dnl83ldn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, War, Murder, Child death, Animal death, and Death

feyha's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Could I give this book more than 5 stars? Where do I even start? 

This book has touched me like no other. It touched my soul. It has stories of survival, perseverance, even happiness, where there is nothing but utter despair. It demonstrates the perseverance of a human being, of a woman. 

It's not an easy read at all. But the collection of transcripts makes it easy to get through. As morbid as it may seem, I really really enjoyed reading this book. 

There's just so much about human emotion that we may think we know, but I'm absolutely sure we don't. 

How terrible war is, how people still survive and sometimes manage to thrive, this book talks about it. It's so much more than the glorification of war. It's the real deal. The day to day. 

It talks about what it meant to be a woman, where everything about war, every resource to fight the war, was made having men in mind.

It talks about how men could be so protective of the women in their divisions, so helpful to them, while at the same time go and rape the enemies' women in unspeakable ways. 

It talks about how women were slut-shamed for participating, how their stories were ignored, how the same men who'd give their lives protecting these women during the war, were the ones who humiliated them so after. 

This is a tear-jerker. I wish more would read this book. I wish to read the rest of this author's books sometime in the future- not now, because there's only so much emotional turmoil one can go through. But it was absolutely worth it, every second of it. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Rape, and Murder

runnermax's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad fast-paced

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Murder, and Gore

mina_m's review against another edition

challenging informative sad medium-paced

5.0

I’ve read a lot about WWII but this was different. More real. More raw.

Also, reading this while serving in the military was a quite the experience. While I haven’t experienced war, it’s strange how many of the typical military things I recognized.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Violence, Sexism, Rape, Murder, Gun violence, Gore, and Blood

catrina's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative fast-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Grief, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence