A review by allisonw92
The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After by Elizabeth Weil, Clemantine Wamariya

3.0

First of all, I want to make it clear that this is not a rating or a review of Clemantine’s life story. That is something that cannot be rated or reviewed. This is a review of the book. I can’t say I “enjoyed” this book, because how can one really enjoy a book about war, genocide, and a child’s struggle through that? However, I CAN say that I was intrigued by this book and the horrors that we experience as readers through Clemantine’s eyes. I was worried it might be more graphic than it was; while I know she experienced graphic violence at way too young an age, she did a nice job explaining it in a less vulgar way. After having just read Small Country, also, I feel much more educated on this tragedy that I quite ignorantly knew nothing about before reading these two books. This book is eye-opening and enlightening.