jessie_pea90's review
5.0
Septembers Buddy Read was something very different for a lot of us in our little group.
Not much of a non-fiction reader and knowing nothing about the kidnapping previously, I went into this read with a completely open mind. Now I think everyone needs to read this!
Obviously this book might be triggering for some readers as it’s about a woman who was kidnapped and held to ransom in Somalia… we can all put two and two together to figure out how she was treated right? And to be fair that anticipation is actually what makes the start of this book unbearable. Amanda is treated quite well at the start and you as the reader is just waiting for everything to go south… and it does, horrifically.
At times I just had to put this down, and it was really upsetting. We started reading this just as the UK was evacuating citizens from Afghanistan, so then reading about how these extremists have distorted their religion to serve their own purposes and their views on women in particular really hit. You could really see why so many people were fleeing!
This was a hard read emotionally but an easy read prose wise. The text flowed and everything ‘foreign’ was explained clearly.
Having finished, I wanted to know her fellow captives experience (he was male) and read more non-fiction about the country and wars which have driven people to these extremes. So I would say a pretty successful read.
Not much of a non-fiction reader and knowing nothing about the kidnapping previously, I went into this read with a completely open mind. Now I think everyone needs to read this!
Obviously this book might be triggering for some readers as it’s about a woman who was kidnapped and held to ransom in Somalia… we can all put two and two together to figure out how she was treated right? And to be fair that anticipation is actually what makes the start of this book unbearable. Amanda is treated quite well at the start and you as the reader is just waiting for everything to go south… and it does, horrifically.
At times I just had to put this down, and it was really upsetting. We started reading this just as the UK was evacuating citizens from Afghanistan, so then reading about how these extremists have distorted their religion to serve their own purposes and their views on women in particular really hit. You could really see why so many people were fleeing!
This was a hard read emotionally but an easy read prose wise. The text flowed and everything ‘foreign’ was explained clearly.
Having finished, I wanted to know her fellow captives experience (he was male) and read more non-fiction about the country and wars which have driven people to these extremes. So I would say a pretty successful read.
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