Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai

31 reviews

zydecovivo's review against another edition

adventurous informative tense slow-paced

4.5

Malala and I are very close in age, so I assume that is why I didn’t know who she was until after she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize (no, I didn’t even know why she had been nominated at the time). Learning about her campaign for girl’s education around the world intrigued me and I have wanted to read her autobiography ever since. It is somewhat unfortunate that I did not find the time until recently. 

The book itself is structured in the form of a flashback. It begins just as Malala is shot on her school bus om the way home after exams. It then goes all the way back to when Malala’s father was a child and his struggle for his own education before going through the events that shaped not just Malala, but her family as a whole, and finishes during the family’s exile in Birmingham. There are some minor flashbacks within the initial one, but they are generally small and short memories. 

As an American, the most important things this story brings is perspective. American history and news is generally never critical of the United States. But I Am Malala shows how the US government can be like making a deal with the devil and why Pakistan, as well as many other countries in the Middle East and surrounding area, distrust it. This does not excuse the Taliban for the violence they cause or the Pakistani government for their inability to protect Malala (and many others). But the best way to empathize with people and understand where they are coming from is to learn their history and see things from their perspective. I also got to know Malala much better than any third-person summary of an interview that I’ve read previously. It’s interesting to see our similarities and differences and think of what I was doing at the same age, just in a different country. 

There are only two critiques I want to mention. First, there are sections that drag a bit because they are essentially lists. They vary from lists of accomplishments to people to hardships. As an audiobook listener, I was able to tune these out and never really lose the narrative. I also found the narration of the book to be a bit flat. While the narrator’s pitch and intonation fluctuate, they seem to move in the same cadence with every few sentences, making for a long and somewhat repetitive 10 hours. 

Overall, I still enjoy the book and would recommend it to anyone looking for other viewpoints on the Taliban and conflicts in the middle east that are not 100% biased towards the United States. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Moderate: Misogyny, Body horror, Confinement, Grief, Violence, War, Colonisation, Mass/school shootings, Blood, Islamophobia, Death, and Deportation

Minor: Animal death and Sexual harassment

shaynasiakimotu's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Murder, Violence, War, Child death, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, and Child abuse

meghan1111's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Misogyny, Sexism, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Classism, Death, Grief, Racial slurs, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Blood, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Animal death

rhiannon814r's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Misogyny, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Hate crime, Murder, Grief, Death, Religious bigotry, Medical content, Sexism, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Incest

angeldevoursliterature's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

I want to clarify that my rating is solely for the book and not for Malala as a person.
The book covers Malala's life story in great detail, from her childhood to the time when her family stayed in Birmingham. However, I did face some issues with the writing, particularly with the way the political and historical accounts were intertwined with its personal reflections. Nevertheless, it was still worth reading, and her story is truly enlightening and inspiring. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for an eye-opening read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Animal death, Gaslighting, Gore, Violence, Death, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Death of parent, Mass/school shootings, Blood, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Sexism, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Stalking, and War

eve81's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Animal death, Child death, Colonisation, Confinement, and Religious bigotry

mikebond's review

emotional hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

4.5

I can split this book into two parts: the first part deals with Pakistan's history and politics, the second with Malala as a girl.
I found the first part interesting but slow and sometimes boring. On the other hand, the last 30-40% of the book touched me deeply, and I read the last few chapters at a much faster pace.
Definitely a must-read book for the role model Malala is for lots of people all around the world.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings and Gun violence

Moderate: Police brutality and Religious bigotry

alisonfaith426's review against another edition

informative inspiring medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Violence, Animal cruelty, Classism, Medical content, Murder, Sexism, Animal death, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, and War

Moderate: Grief and Gore

eib_21's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Gun violence, War, Child death, and Religious bigotry

bashsbooks's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

3.25

This book was fascinating, and I am in awe of Malala's spirit, faith, and drive. My major issue with it, however, is that I can see - very clearly - that Christina Lamb collaborated on this. It reads, at many times, like a history of Pakistan (specifically a history of Pakistani relations with the West). It feels as though information about Malala, her family, and her experience are tossed in here and there, rather than the other way around. I realize that some of that is so Western readers have context, but I think it went into a distracting amount of detail. I would love to read something Malala has written on her own, without a hovering need to make Westerners understand every bit of it via overexplanation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Religious bigotry, Medical content, Misogyny, Violence, War, Death, Gun violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Xenophobia, Murder, and Suicide

Minor: Torture and Animal death

-Colorism (many asides about skin lightening) -Suicide in the context of suicide bombing -Political assassinations (both attempted and succeeded) -Terrorism