A review by elisegmusic
First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

First They Killed My Father is a memoir about the Cambodian Genocide written by a woman who was five years old when the Khmer Rouge forced her out of her city. 
 
I had read a memoir about the Cambodian Genocide last year, and these tales were achingly similar - the starvation, the disappearances, the brutal killings. This whole memoir is a big trigger warning. 
 
What is so poignant about this memoir is that all of this is happening around a girl who is so young. How does it affect a girl when you have to keep secrets your entire life? When your mother tells you she doesn’t want you around in order to save your life? When you watch a girl’s head be blown off when she was sitting right next to you? When you steal a ball of rice from an old woman to save your own life, even thought you might have killed her? 
 
This was heartbreaking and beautifully written.
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