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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gun violence
Moderate: Gore, Rape, Violence, War
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Wow. What a life you live Mr. Ishmael Beah!
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.
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.
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Content Warnings
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
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
I made a good choice to listen to the audio narrated by the author himself.
sad
dark
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-paced