emilybriano's review against another edition
5.0
Heartbreaking, moving and hopeful. This one will win awards and deservedly so. A must read for anyone wanting to know more about Cambodia's history and people under the Khmer Rouge regime.
kricketa's review against another edition
4.0
full disclosure: i didn't think i'd like this. the cambodian genocide is scary as hell, and the book written in broken english which annoyed me at first. (mccormick says she didn't intend to do this, but found that the story only came alive when she wrote it down the way arn chorn pond told it to her.) but i pushed on a couple of chapters and became emotionally invested. this is really well done and deeply important- a piece of history that got left out from all of my history classes.
elisegmusic's review against another edition
dark
emotional
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Death
Moderate: Animal death
25_sage_reads_25's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
chyreads29's review against another edition
5.0
There are a few books that I encounter that take hold of me, refusing to let me go, altering the very way that I look at life. Never Fall Down is one of those books. Arn Chorn-Pond's story is disturbing, heartbreaking, inspiring, and something no child should ever have to go through. The language itself is simple. Patricia McCormick writes in the voice of Arn as a young boy. The sentences are fragmented and incomplete, mirroring Arn's true voice, as English is not his first language. This makes the story seem all the more real and believable. Although the sentence structure and vocabulary are accessible, the content makes the story very difficult to get through. While reading, I took many breaks, usually sitting in silence and processing what I had just read. There are pretty horrific, graphic, and traumatic moments in this story that are really hard to digest and work through. However, just like Arn's adoptive father told him, he was chosen to use his voice to bring light to what happened to the people of Cambodia and help the world see them after years of being forgotten. I believe this novel is powerful enough to do just that.
melbsreads's review against another edition
challenging
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Trigger warnings: war, death, death of a parent, death of a sibling, death of a friend, murder, genocide, cannibalism, racism, violence, rape, body horror, blood, child abuse, animal death
Holy hell. This was brutal from start to finish. The subject matter makes for extremely difficult reading, but the revelation at the end that it's inspired by someone's actual story made the whole thing worse. That being said, I REALLY didn't enjoy the writing style. I suspect McCormick wrote it based on her conversations with Arn Chorn-Pond and that his speaking style flowed through into her writing?? But yeah, the way the story was written pulled me out of the story time and time again, and it just...wasn't for me.
Ultimately, I was left wishing I'd read a nonfiction book about this prior to picking this up to give me some more context around the story. But it still manages to pack a solid emotional punch for so short a book.
Holy hell. This was brutal from start to finish. The subject matter makes for extremely difficult reading, but the revelation at the end that it's inspired by someone's actual story made the whole thing worse. That being said, I REALLY didn't enjoy the writing style. I suspect McCormick wrote it based on her conversations with Arn Chorn-Pond and that his speaking style flowed through into her writing?? But yeah, the way the story was written pulled me out of the story time and time again, and it just...wasn't for me.
Ultimately, I was left wishing I'd read a nonfiction book about this prior to picking this up to give me some more context around the story. But it still manages to pack a solid emotional punch for so short a book.
doughnuts1's review against another edition
2.0
This book was very enlightening, I learned a lot about the Cambodian Genocide which I previously didn't know about. But to be honest, I thought this book was a little discriminating to asians. Throughout the whole story Arn speaks without articles and speaks in the wrong tense. Maybe I just took it personally because I'm asian, but i thought this book could have been delivered better. I know many stories like to be in the actual character's point of view at that age, but Arn just comes out like he's trying too hard to sound like an illiterate asian. Maybe Arn speaks the way he does because this book is supposed to be for middle schoolers, but it's on Maryland's Black-Eyed Susan awards nominee in the High School category, so therefore I'm going to assume that it's actually for High Schoolers.
amgee017's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.0
albon's review against another edition
5.0
This book broke me. And to think that all of this is a true story and actually happened... I have no words.
jodibooks's review against another edition
5.0
A very powerful difficult read, but written so well. There are only a handful of books in this genre that are this good.