Reviews with content warning for Death - You Will Not Have My Hate

Reviews tagging 'Death'

You Will Not Have My Hate by Antoine Leiris

15 reviews

bashsbooks's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

You Will Not Have My Hate is a poetic reflection on a violent, sudden, and tragic loss. Leiris invites the reader in to his world (and his son's) after losing beloved wife and mother Hélène to the November 2013 terrorist attacks. Leiris has such a fine and visceral way of describing grief, of showing how he felt it so acutely. I was most taken by the part where he asks if he will have the right to be a complex and nuanced person after this tragedy and the subsequent popularity of his Facebook post addressed to the culprits.

If I had one criticism, it would be that at times, Leiris seems to refer to his wife as if she were a lost possession of his and Melvil, or to suggest that his grief was somehow greater than that of her other close loved ones, like her mother. I don't know if that's a translation thing or what. But it struck me as awkward, and it happened more than once.

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dexlud's review against another edition

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fast-paced

4.75

This is a beautiful, provocative, powerful memoir of Antoine Leiris and how he won’t let what happened to his wife at the hands of terrorism affect his son. It depicts how he won’t give them hate, as that’s what they want. My eyes were watering during most of this book, and it is a very quick read.

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akacasper24's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced

5.0

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winterdelight's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

“I want him to hear, his ear to my chest, my voice telling him my sorrow. I want him to feel my muscles tensed by the gravity of this moment. I want the beating of my heart to reassure him: life will go on.”

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sarahemhavens's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense

4.0

A beautiful, powerful book for a devastating and important story. He has incredible voice and is able to express his emotions with his words so well. At a loss for how to even get my own thoughts across, so I’m just going to pull some of the quotes that moved me most.
“With a burst of machine gun fire, they shattered our puzzle. And after we have put it back together, piece by piece, it will no longer be the same.”
“I have the impression they want to steal from me. To take my misery and apply a balm of formulaic phrases that will leave me insipid, watered down, without poetry, without beauty.”
“A cloud scatters and sunlight pours down on the cemetery like honey flowing from the sky. Only yesterday, it was blood that fell from the clouds.”

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