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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
I wasn’t sure how it was going to end, but having finished it I wish that I could hear more about his journey to New York and finding his new family, did he have contact anymore with the family he left behind. I feel like I’m still missing a crucial part of the story. The only reason I know he survived is because he wrote the book.
Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gun violence
Moderate: Gore, Rape, Violence, War
This book is very hard to rate. Btw, how do you even rate a very honest account of one’s cruel, gruesome life? A thousand stars, maybe. Well maybe not a thousand but all the star there is to give. A Long Way Gone is that one memoir that will stay with you for sometime for sure. The author is very graphic in his descriptions of war and the human depravity it led to, to ensure survival. As a boy growing up in Sierra Leone, Ismael Beah was thrown into war and lost his family. He had to walk alone through forests to escape war just to end up as a boy soldier. I like the tone of the story; the author tells it in such a way that you feel like you were there with the boy and listening to the boy talking. The violence, the desperation, the brutality, the poisoned mind of a child that thinks what he is doing is normal, you can really feel it all. The author is such an amazing and brave human for being brutally honest like that.
The reason I’m giving this 4.5 stars for rating’s sake is because I wish there is more in the epilogue. And I feel like there is some stories missing from his bonding with the outside world during/after the rehabilitation. I’d also love to know more about his current works. And maybe more about his friend Mohamed as well. Overall, it is a great memoir about children who lived through war and was part of it. A very informative and educative read.
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War
Moderate: Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Vomit, Trafficking, Death of parent
Minor: Animal death