Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Maus II. Die Geschichte eines Überlebenden. Und hier begann mein Unglück by Art Spiegelman

25 reviews

hayleyholliday's review against another edition

5.0

Incredible. Even more heartbreaking than the first book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Antisemitism, War, Violence, and Suicide

marinapetal's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.5

sometimes you read a story that you’ll remember for the rest of your life. you’re overwhelmed with emotions and sit in silence not knowing what to do or say. i truly cannot fathom all the treacherous things that were told, but it’s important that we know and never forget that they happened. therefore this story must continue to live on and blow its future readers’ minds.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Confinement, Genocide, Death, Violence, Torture, Racism, and Racial slurs

ktdakotareads's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Genocide, Violence, Death, Murder, and War

Moderate: Hate crime, Torture, and Grief

Minor: Racial slurs and Racism

ehmannky's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Death, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Racism, Torture, Child death, Animal death, War, Genocide, and Grief

Moderate: Suicide

courtneyivaska's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Maus 1-2 should absolutely be required reading for everyone.  This biographical story of how Spiegelman's parents survived the atrocities of WWII and the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau and sheds lights on the depravity of man and the horrifying choices that people are forced to make during war.  Readers may need to pace themselves (I had to take breaks) but should know that it is worth reading.  In addition to telling the survival story of his father, the book also grapples with the aftermath of war and what happens to people after they have experienced such trauma.  He does not paint his father in a perfect light, instead gives an honest portrayal of someone whose experience is reflected in his treatment of others after the war (i.e. some domestic neglect, racist attitudes toward others, hoarding).   

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Gore, Torture, Suicide, Excrement, War, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Gun violence, Hate crime, Genocide, Gaslighting, and Racism

nikexistiertnik's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, War, Torture, Gun violence, Antisemitism, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, and Grief

carolibrary's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Antisemitism, Genocide, and Torture

Minor: Suicide

steveatwaywords's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

For as much as Spiegelman struggled with the most difficult of topics, his follow-up on the original work perhaps excels it, not just in the horror of the closing chapters of his father's memories of the death camps, but in the struggles and real failings in addressing his own anxieties around his relationship with his father and that history. Do we find resolution to every thread Spiegelman has pulled? Of course not, but a tidy tying up is nothing history delivers us, and the story--as becomes clear--does not end. We none of us are heroes, and none particularly admirable under such circumstances. Some survive; and that may be all which can be said of them with skeptical confidence. That even these survivors are not so few still with us makes Spiegelman's recording of this oral history all the more significant. I'm grateful for the window into this chapter of the author's life with his father. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Genocide, Racism, and Gun violence

Minor: Child death

onamoonbeam's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.25

that's a narrative!! that's a real story. god

an excellent continuation of the original. i really liked the chapter where you zoom out to see spiegelman sitting on top of a pile of mouse bodies and being questioned by interviewers. the rest of the chapters... seeing one man survive by his skills intelligence and luck and then cutting to how he dies is...sobering? somewhat inspiring? tragic? it definitely feels different to other holocaust narratives i've seen. stories must be told even if there is no just ending

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, War, Hate crime, Medical content, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Antisemitism, Child death, and Genocide

Moderate: Racism

kengiedamali's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death of parent, Genocide, Hate crime, Racism, Child death, Excrement, War, Antisemitism, Death, Murder, Racial slurs, Suicide, Torture, and Violence