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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
tense
medium-paced
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War
For content - 5 stars as it covers and informs me more than I could imagine.
For its stopping place - 3 stars because I needed to see the end. To see it thru to where he ended up.
For its stopping place - 3 stars because I needed to see the end. To see it thru to where he ended up.
Perhaps I am too emotionally attached to really give this book an objective review. Perhaps the story is exaggerated, as some say. But it is a story that touches on the reality of many in countries across the continent, and I cannot help but think about the children that I have come to know and love in relatively safe Tanzania. I cannot help but think that the author was only a few years older than I at the time. I cannot help but feel great sadness at the suffering of others and man's inhumanity to man. This is a story worth reading and thinking about, and perhaps, worth placing yourself in the shoes of another.
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
This is seriously an amazing book. So heartbreaking and real. Another one of my favorites.
Remember when you were twelve years old? Those carefree, pre-teen years, right? Maybe your biggest worry was getting that English homework done on time. Ishmael Beah’s top priority at that age? Simply surviving. He was only a child when his whole country was thrown into war, and he was just one of many caught in the fray.
This book isn’t your typical memoir. I thought it’d be a predictable tale with some sort of struggle and a cliche revelation the author has at the (happy) ending. But no. The memoir took me for whirlwind of a ride with one terrifying event after the next. It explores places people don’t want to admit even exist.
For one, the book was very vulnerable and raw. It exposed me to a life I had never even imagined could be out there. Beah’s journey as a boy and a refugee and a soldier and a patient delved deep into the psychological consequences of war. The way this topic was presented was a harsh blow to the face to me, because while I knew that war would scar people, I didn’t know how much effort it took to regain hope in life. In a way, this book is a lot like Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins because of the emphasis on the aftermath of war. At the end of each respective book, both Katniss and Beah, though supposedly living a peaceful life, still deal with the devastating effects of war daily. They have PTSD and suffer hallucinations long after the war is over. The problems don’t vanish with the closing of the book. I admired the way the memoir doesn’t sugarcoat Beah’s process of rehabilitation and does not make him out as an innocent. What has happened has surrounded him, like amber trapping a fly, a layer he will never fully be able to remove. Beah doesn’t believe that he can ever be truly content, saying, “ I was still hesitant to let myself let go, because I still believed in the fragility of happiness” (173). His desire to be the joyful child he once was is overshadowed by the fear of becoming too open, too weak. He feels as if he needs to be tough at all times, always preparing for the worst.
Another thing that makes this book stand out is the way war is portrayed. War is seen in today’s world as the epitome of courage, honor, loyalty, bravery. Where the valiant good guy will trump the evil villains, using super cool weapons in the process. Where great warriors are rewarded for their feats. But Beah shows that war isn’t all black and white, and it isn’t a glorious battle like one may see in Hollywood. He describes how his town was taken over in this way: “Some people didn’t notice they were wounded until they stopped and people pointed to their wounds… I felt nauseated, and my head was spinning” (13). This certainly isn’t a game. Sometimes these takeovers are seen as just another battle, a small victory, but for the victims it is a horror beyond compare. Wherever there is fighting, death is there, fingers outstretched, waiting for the smoke to clear. The towns end up abandoned as people run for their lives. It is a vision of terror. I felt it was very impactful that the memoir show this intriguing perspective, and also later shows the perspective of the soldiers when Beah joins the army.
With an emphasis on war and and its effects, this book is a powerful reminder of what all of those seemingly far-off conflicts the world really mean. It is a story of a young boy in the wrong place at the wrong time, and what he did to survive. The way Beah describes war and his journey through these times makes it a story worth reading. This book changed the way I think about all the people affected by any sort of conflict. And it makes me grateful that I was able to have my sweet, innocent, twelve year old existence.
This book isn’t your typical memoir. I thought it’d be a predictable tale with some sort of struggle and a cliche revelation the author has at the (happy) ending. But no. The memoir took me for whirlwind of a ride with one terrifying event after the next. It explores places people don’t want to admit even exist.
For one, the book was very vulnerable and raw. It exposed me to a life I had never even imagined could be out there. Beah’s journey as a boy and a refugee and a soldier and a patient delved deep into the psychological consequences of war. The way this topic was presented was a harsh blow to the face to me, because while I knew that war would scar people, I didn’t know how much effort it took to regain hope in life. In a way, this book is a lot like Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins because of the emphasis on the aftermath of war. At the end of each respective book, both Katniss and Beah, though supposedly living a peaceful life, still deal with the devastating effects of war daily. They have PTSD and suffer hallucinations long after the war is over. The problems don’t vanish with the closing of the book. I admired the way the memoir doesn’t sugarcoat Beah’s process of rehabilitation and does not make him out as an innocent. What has happened has surrounded him, like amber trapping a fly, a layer he will never fully be able to remove. Beah doesn’t believe that he can ever be truly content, saying, “ I was still hesitant to let myself let go, because I still believed in the fragility of happiness” (173). His desire to be the joyful child he once was is overshadowed by the fear of becoming too open, too weak. He feels as if he needs to be tough at all times, always preparing for the worst.
Another thing that makes this book stand out is the way war is portrayed. War is seen in today’s world as the epitome of courage, honor, loyalty, bravery. Where the valiant good guy will trump the evil villains, using super cool weapons in the process. Where great warriors are rewarded for their feats. But Beah shows that war isn’t all black and white, and it isn’t a glorious battle like one may see in Hollywood. He describes how his town was taken over in this way: “Some people didn’t notice they were wounded until they stopped and people pointed to their wounds… I felt nauseated, and my head was spinning” (13). This certainly isn’t a game. Sometimes these takeovers are seen as just another battle, a small victory, but for the victims it is a horror beyond compare. Wherever there is fighting, death is there, fingers outstretched, waiting for the smoke to clear. The towns end up abandoned as people run for their lives. It is a vision of terror. I felt it was very impactful that the memoir show this intriguing perspective, and also later shows the perspective of the soldiers when Beah joins the army.
With an emphasis on war and and its effects, this book is a powerful reminder of what all of those seemingly far-off conflicts the world really mean. It is a story of a young boy in the wrong place at the wrong time, and what he did to survive. The way Beah describes war and his journey through these times makes it a story worth reading. This book changed the way I think about all the people affected by any sort of conflict. And it makes me grateful that I was able to have my sweet, innocent, twelve year old existence.
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced