gum1311by's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
misspalah's review against another edition
4.0
I am fearing because I am seeing that the only way not to be fighting is to die. I am not wanting to die.
- Uzodinma Iweala, Beasts of No Nation
.
.
Second book that ive read this year about child soldier. The only difference with this book is i have watched the movie back then before i bought the book. That doesnt make this book less riveting instead its amplifying it given the subject matter. I get that the story was narrated in the Agu’s perspective, a literal child, who’ve lost his parents. So i am
not going to be bothered by the way it was written in a broken english like how some reviewers whined about it. The last time i checked English is not the only language that exist. So yes Pidgin english exist and yes, it was modified to sync with the local dialect so give the book a break for those who complaining about the writing. I believe the intention was to understand the child soldier’s perspective and the author deliver it without holding any punches. The details is horrific and unimaginable. The way Azu described all the crimes he has committed while being a child soldier is vivid. He almost enjoy doing it but at the same time still contemplating whether he is on the good or bad side of the war. You can almost felt that his innocence is slipping away from him given all those atrocious crimes he has done. When he and other child soldier finally decided to kill their commandant and free themselves from his order, he didnt feel the freedom. He left their hideout with bitterness, wishing the war didn’t happen, that all of the bad things he done can be reversed. Overall, a highly recommended reading even if you have watched the movie on netflix.
.
- Uzodinma Iweala, Beasts of No Nation
.
.
Second book that ive read this year about child soldier. The only difference with this book is i have watched the movie back then before i bought the book. That doesnt make this book less riveting instead its amplifying it given the subject matter. I get that the story was narrated in the Agu’s perspective, a literal child, who’ve lost his parents. So i am
not going to be bothered by the way it was written in a broken english like how some reviewers whined about it. The last time i checked English is not the only language that exist. So yes Pidgin english exist and yes, it was modified to sync with the local dialect so give the book a break for those who complaining about the writing. I believe the intention was to understand the child soldier’s perspective and the author deliver it without holding any punches. The details is horrific and unimaginable. The way Azu described all the crimes he has committed while being a child soldier is vivid. He almost enjoy doing it but at the same time still contemplating whether he is on the good or bad side of the war. You can almost felt that his innocence is slipping away from him given all those atrocious crimes he has done. When he and other child soldier finally decided to kill their commandant and free themselves from his order, he didnt feel the freedom. He left their hideout with bitterness, wishing the war didn’t happen, that all of the bad things he done can be reversed. Overall, a highly recommended reading even if you have watched the movie on netflix.
.
600bars's review against another edition
3.0
Tough to rate. On one hand it was harrowing and super fucked up but still very smooth to read. The entire thing was written in the present progressive tense. Every verb was "i am ___ing", even adjectives were verbified like "I am hungrying i am happying i am sadding" etc. I did not have a problem with it being present tense because I figured it was to crate a sense of immediacy and maybe show how trapped in time the narrator feels. I wondered if it was supposed to be based on a language/dialect/pidgin he had in mind (he never specifies what country this takes place in nor anything about ethnic groups which i'll discuss later) that uses verb tenses in this way. Or if it was just to make him seem more childlike. Maybe it was just a stylistic choice idk.
It seemed to check off every box on child soldier narratives-- how he had an idyllic blissful life in his village that got suddenly upended and then showing how an innocent kind child can be made to rape, kill, torture. The child soldiers are given drugs but that is only mentioned once, which I thought was odd because addiction and withdrawal would really change a person. I was thinking of Guts/Gambino for the relationship between the narrator and the Commandant. I was also listening to the podcast "it could happen here" while I was reading this, and it's always important to keep in mind that the apocalypse has already come a million times for millions of people just not us (yet).
Though I thought Iweala did a good job with the often tricky "telling a super fucked up story thru the eyes of a child", I did feel like that was almost an excuse to not contextualize anything. For the reader we just see his idyllic life and then suddenly it's upended. We have no understanding of the larger causes of the conflict. He has no idea who or what he is fighting for. While that makes sense for him as a kid, I am a little surprised that there are no indications about whats going on given to the reader at all about this conflict. This could have been set anywhere because the author very explicitly chose to not have many cultural signifiers. That's not necessarily a good or bad thing just an observation.
I don't think you have to have gone through every specific situation in order to write about it, but I do wonder what people like Ishmael Beah who wrote A Long Way Gone or Loung Ung who wrote First They Killed My Father would say about this book. I just wonder why he so explicitly chose to make it not a specific country/conflict, was it to avoid any appropriation/accuracy discussion or to not have to research? Or to just show us that war is horrific no matter what? Or just that to a child none of that matters and it's pure chaos to them and we all want the same things which is comfort food family and normalcy?
Maybe a more accurate discourse comparison is discussions surrounding the book American Dirt, where the author has a verrrry tenuous connection to the subject matter. Ieala is of Nigerian descent but he was born and raised in Bethesda as the child of a doctor and he went to Harvard. I just can't see myself writing a trauma narrative about like Mexican cartels because I am of mexican descent that has no relevance to my (hate this term but alas) lived experience, while keeping it vague enough to be like "well this is not acutally about Mexico, it is an unspecified latin country". This is a tough convo because I know this is a limited line of thinking and do believe imagination and research should be allowed or else we would never have any stories beyond regular boring life. Not saying he should not have written this because of who he is (and this is all me going based off his author bio I haven't even googled him) just something to think about.
I still thought it was an effective narrative and liked the style, but it seemed to hit the mark too exactly sometimes. A fine line because when you have the setting as child soldiers in a conflict there is no way to not have the child killing and raping and also being raped by his commander and children being drugged to get them to kill, bc all of that happens in real life, but then it almost feels like a checklist being checked off if that makes sense. But at the same time you can't not include it. The ending at an NGO with a white american therapist crying about his plight also rubbed me the wrong way because it made me be like hm so what's the audience for this book? To raise awareness? To make us be thankful for our situation? It was just a bit too tidy of an ending and we will not find out if he ever finds his family again or the ways in which the trauma he endured impacts the rest of his life.
So yea Idk this is like a 3.5 for me, I think fiction can be used to explore situations that one has not personally endured and I don't think every war narrative needs to be a memoir and thought this was well written but there is only so much you can go into in only 142 pages.
It seemed to check off every box on child soldier narratives-- how he had an idyllic blissful life in his village that got suddenly upended and then showing how an innocent kind child can be made to rape, kill, torture. The child soldiers are given drugs but that is only mentioned once, which I thought was odd because addiction and withdrawal would really change a person. I was thinking of Guts/Gambino for the relationship between the narrator and the Commandant. I was also listening to the podcast "it could happen here" while I was reading this, and it's always important to keep in mind that the apocalypse has already come a million times for millions of people just not us (yet).
Though I thought Iweala did a good job with the often tricky "telling a super fucked up story thru the eyes of a child", I did feel like that was almost an excuse to not contextualize anything. For the reader we just see his idyllic life and then suddenly it's upended. We have no understanding of the larger causes of the conflict. He has no idea who or what he is fighting for. While that makes sense for him as a kid, I am a little surprised that there are no indications about whats going on given to the reader at all about this conflict. This could have been set anywhere because the author very explicitly chose to not have many cultural signifiers. That's not necessarily a good or bad thing just an observation.
I don't think you have to have gone through every specific situation in order to write about it, but I do wonder what people like Ishmael Beah who wrote A Long Way Gone or Loung Ung who wrote First They Killed My Father would say about this book. I just wonder why he so explicitly chose to make it not a specific country/conflict, was it to avoid any appropriation/accuracy discussion or to not have to research? Or to just show us that war is horrific no matter what? Or just that to a child none of that matters and it's pure chaos to them and we all want the same things which is comfort food family and normalcy?
Maybe a more accurate discourse comparison is discussions surrounding the book American Dirt, where the author has a verrrry tenuous connection to the subject matter. Ieala is of Nigerian descent but he was born and raised in Bethesda as the child of a doctor and he went to Harvard. I just can't see myself writing a trauma narrative about like Mexican cartels because I am of mexican descent that has no relevance to my (hate this term but alas) lived experience, while keeping it vague enough to be like "well this is not acutally about Mexico, it is an unspecified latin country". This is a tough convo because I know this is a limited line of thinking and do believe imagination and research should be allowed or else we would never have any stories beyond regular boring life. Not saying he should not have written this because of who he is (and this is all me going based off his author bio I haven't even googled him) just something to think about.
I still thought it was an effective narrative and liked the style, but it seemed to hit the mark too exactly sometimes. A fine line because when you have the setting as child soldiers in a conflict there is no way to not have the child killing and raping and also being raped by his commander and children being drugged to get them to kill, bc all of that happens in real life, but then it almost feels like a checklist being checked off if that makes sense. But at the same time you can't not include it. The ending at an NGO with a white american therapist crying about his plight also rubbed me the wrong way because it made me be like hm so what's the audience for this book? To raise awareness? To make us be thankful for our situation? It was just a bit too tidy of an ending and we will not find out if he ever finds his family again or the ways in which the trauma he endured impacts the rest of his life.
So yea Idk this is like a 3.5 for me, I think fiction can be used to explore situations that one has not personally endured and I don't think every war narrative needs to be a memoir and thought this was well written but there is only so much you can go into in only 142 pages.
madeleine_jo's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
tlm1964's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
mistercrow's review against another edition
4.0
Disturbing and sad story. Very good but I wish this story had an actual place, I feel like without a country listed then it's sorta like a clichéd "all of Africa" war/child soldier story.
rocky_road_7's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
_meraki_'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? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
kghc's review against another edition
4.0
The author's writing style is almost lyrical and very unique. At first it was difficult to understand, but within a few pages you feel like you are living through Agu's eyes in real time. The content is difficult and heavy; even though it is very short it took me two weeks to read because I had to set the book down after only a few pages. Overall very good.. it would have been interesting to see more of what Agu went through at the end, however.