Reviews

We Are Not Free by Traci Chee

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kishma_'s review against another edition

5.0

Heartbreaking, powerful and beautifully written. My emotions are all over the place after this and I have not shed this many tears because of a book in a very long time.

Please, please read this.

thepetitepunk's review against another edition

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So I knew this was going to be sad but no one could have prepared me for HOW sad it was

melodys_library's review against another edition

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5.0

Family history + fictional narrative = Incredible novel

Don’t be deterred by the fact that there are 14 main characters. The author does an amazing job linking them from chapter to chapter. I never lost track of who was who.

Also, stick around for the author’s note.

dstricker98's review against another edition

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3.0

3.7 - I don't think I I don't think I have much to say on this, but I thought the writing was interesting, new, and expansive. I can't tell if I liked having so many POVs because that's what it provided, so many perspectives, or if it made the book too confusing. I think I should have gone into the book thinking of it as a short story collection?

brontejansen's review against another edition

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medium-paced

3.75

yourlocal_nychotdog's review against another edition

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medium-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

4.0

14 Characters are way too many to keep up for me but the way the author flushes the world out and its characters feels very real. I love how every character has a story to tell and they all connect to one another. The last time we see a chapter with Twitchy being the main character of said chapter broke me. At first I was quite annoyed with how long it was but at the end I was close to sobbing in front of my friends. I would recommend this book to my friends when I can.

lingfish7's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

🎧This book should be required reading. For such a huge piece of history, there are still many Americans who don’t know about the Japanese concentration camps our country setup during world war 2. I think I learned about this in high school, but I know many have not learned about this until after college.

This book is so well done. The author’s own grandparents were teenagers when they went to the camps. In this YA historical fictional novel, the author takes 14 different teenagers who all initially went to the same camp (Camp Topaz) from 1942-1945 and rotates the POV between each kid.

I didn’t realize that the U.S. government gave the families a survey to “test their loyalty.” The ones who answered “no” to two questions that essentially asked “would you be willing go to war for this country?” were sent to separate, segregated camps for the “disloyal japs.” The obsession our government had with this project is insane. Not only did they forcibly incarcerate more than 120,000 people, but the hatred against Japanese spread everywhere in America. Japanese were denied services, rent, etc. even after they left the camps when world 2 ended.

Another thing I didn’t realize is they tried to recruit soldiers from the camps to “prove their loyalty.” Imagine being 17 and forcibly removed from your high school and community to go to a concentration camp, only to risk your life to fight for the same country that incarcerated you.

Eleanor Roosevelt even visited some of the camps (not the disloyal ones which were arguably more like prisons and inhospitable) and explained why they needed to be incarcerated. She said the Japanese weren’t as “integrated” with the rest of American society as the Germans or the Italians. Whose fault is that if Japanese weren’t allowed to rent anywhere but Japanese neighborhoods? I’m still amazed that FDR and Eleanor did this. It was motivated by nothing less than racism.

This book made me tear up, it’s both informational and heartbreaking. 💔I love how this author brought this historical event to light through such a gorgeous novel.

“In tulle lake you are guilty even though you have committed no crime… you are too yellow, too slow… you are arrested anyway, beaten anyway.”