halirose's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Trafficking, Genocide, War, and Death
alexisgarcia's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
this was absolutely devastating but a story that needed to be told. Beah’s “recovery” and healing were so nice to see. be careful with content warnings!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Death of parent, Death, Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Murder, Addiction, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Violence, War, and Rape
act_10's review against another edition
4.0
Read my review here!
http://areadersrapture.blogspot.ca/2015/06/a-long-way-gone.html
http://areadersrapture.blogspot.ca/2015/06/a-long-way-gone.html
evertbooks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.5
Truly heartbreaking, heavy and moving. Impossible to review, but should be read by everyone.
nglofile's review against another edition
3.0
3 1/2 stars. A compelling story, and a haunting one. The writing is disjointed, though, and the tone is often flat. Even so, I would recommend it to others.
dorothy_gale's review against another edition
4.0
4★: I CAN’T EVEN IMAGINE! I listened to this memoir (narrated by the author) to be able to help my nephew with one of his final high school writing assignments. That a child could endure so much is just incomprehensible. I’m curious about where Ishmael is now and how he is doing (personally not professionally). I would have appreciated an update in the epilogue more than a chronology of historical events. It appears that he has written more books, but all fiction. This was published when Ishmael was 26 and primarily covers his traumatic experiences as a child soldier in Sierra Leone from ages 12 to 18. Storytelling is a strong theme, and what my nephew is expected to write about, but the book ends somewhat abruptly. Ishmael struggles with talking about his experiences and opening up to people, so I suppose we can assume that his book writing was either how he overcame it OR a way to not have to repeatedly tell his story. It would have been nice to hear more about his growth and motives. And how he remembered it all given what happened to him!
Seeing how others have shelved this book, it appears to be assigned reading in many schools. At the time I finished, it had an average 4.14-star rating by 178,818 readers.
Seeing how others have shelved this book, it appears to be assigned reading in many schools. At the time I finished, it had an average 4.14-star rating by 178,818 readers.
robdabear's review against another edition
5.0
I first want to point out that this was the second time I have read A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, however this time it was for my school summer reading.
Secondly, with regards to this book, I must agree with the quote by Carolyn See of the Washington Post, written on the front cover: "Everyone in the world should read this book...we should read it to learn about the world and about what it means to be human." Again, I couldn't agree more with that.
A long way gone is the memoir of a now grown young man named Ishmael Beah, who currently lives in New York, as he writes about his previous "life" in the war-torn country of Sierra Leone as a child soldier. There is really no other way to get the perspective of what it is like to lose family members, survive as a child, run from war, and eventually participate in war as a child, than getting the perspective of someone who actually experienced it. It is so honest and filled with the thoughts and feelings experienced by someone in the middle of real world events so gruesome and terrifying that we all recieve a whole new perception of our world and the people in it. A definite must-read, five stars!
-Robbie
Secondly, with regards to this book, I must agree with the quote by Carolyn See of the Washington Post, written on the front cover: "Everyone in the world should read this book...we should read it to learn about the world and about what it means to be human." Again, I couldn't agree more with that.
A long way gone is the memoir of a now grown young man named Ishmael Beah, who currently lives in New York, as he writes about his previous "life" in the war-torn country of Sierra Leone as a child soldier. There is really no other way to get the perspective of what it is like to lose family members, survive as a child, run from war, and eventually participate in war as a child, than getting the perspective of someone who actually experienced it. It is so honest and filled with the thoughts and feelings experienced by someone in the middle of real world events so gruesome and terrifying that we all recieve a whole new perception of our world and the people in it. A definite must-read, five stars!
-Robbie
lhall294's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0