Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Small Country by Gaël Faye

6 reviews

paperquilt's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Gun violence, Colonisation, Death, Racism, Physical abuse, War, Genocide, Murder, Blood, Grief, Violence, Child death, and Injury/Injury detail

crazytourists_books's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

The story of the book is set in Burundi (that shares borders and ethnic groups with Rwanda) in 1994, just before, during, and after the Tutsi and Twa genoside in Rwanda (by the Hutu, for those of you that are too young to remember). The protagonist is 10 or eleven years old, the age that I was that year. 
Only I was safe in Athens, Greece, getting fragments of the news (no internet back then), and the protagonist of the book was there, in the middle of the "storm". 
It is a simply written yet interesting book. The perspective of a young child, of the war and the genocide, might be more naive than that of an adult, but it can be equally heartbreaking. 
My daughter is now ten, and I can't even imagine her reading about events like that, forget living them. I think I'll give her this book in a couple of years...
(If you are interested in the Rwandan civil war and genocide, I would strongly recommend the memoir of a survivor, "The girl who smiled beads".)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Animal cruelty, Death, Genocide, Bullying, Physical abuse, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Violence, and War

limiwh's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Violence, War, Alcohol, Death, Genocide, Gore, Blood, Death of parent, Grief, and Abandonment

holono's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, War, and Grief

Moderate: Child death, Alcoholism, and Death of parent

clarisseep's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

just finished this book and I have a gigantic knot in my stomach,
this book was well written, though really slow at the beginning and took time to really get in the story
I’ve opened it and closed it a lot before the election, because it felt that slow, but after it I went on reading and finished it 
I think that people should read this book, because of its history and weight on the then- and now-society

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Child death, Death of parent, Murder, Genocide, War, Violence, Hate crime, and Grief

eglantinegt's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Ce livre m’a beaucoup touché. Et je le recommanderais pas à tout le monde du fait de sa violence particulièrement. De tout les livres que j’ai lu c’est lui qui m’a le plus boulversé surtout sachant que les événements passés sont très récents, cela paraît irréel. On suit l’histoire d’un jeune garçon, Gabriel vivant au Burundi, avec son père français et sa mère Rwandaise, on voit alors le genocide rwandais des Tusti se deroulé. Je ne comprends honnêtement pas qu’on en parle pas plus, ne serait-ce qu’à l’école?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Genocide, Grief, Hate crime, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence