Picked up for just a couple of dollars at a book sale, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier turned out to be an excellent read. Author Ishmael Beah shares the harrowing story of his life starting at age 12, when he was separated from his parents during a brutal rebel attack on his village. Along with his brother and two friends, he spent months moving through the countryside, desperately trying to avoid the clashes between rebels and government soldiers while searching for a safe haven and ...

“Every time people came to us determined to kill us, I would close my eyes and wait for death. Even though I am still alive, every time I surrender to death, I feel as if a part of me dies. Soon, I will be completely dead, and all that will remain is my empty body walking among you.”“We waited until silence settled into our bones.”“I am no longer a soldier; I am just a child. We are all brothers and sisters. What I learned from my experience is that revenge is not useful. I joined the army to av...

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power." This true story is yet another testament to the chilling truth of Orwell’s words. So many crimes are committed in the name of the 'homeland' and 'freedom.' During the civil war, murder was branded as patriotism and rape as liberation. There was no room for logic, objectivity, or civility. You were either with the army or the rebels, and on both sides, you were expected to kill, burn, and...

4.5 StarsTW: Violence/gore, rape, drug abuseThis book reminded me of Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys, not because their subject matter is anything alike, but because I had the same reaction to both books. Throughout the duration of the book it was very impactful and heavy, and I may have shed a tear or two, but as soon as I closed the book the weight of it just fell upon me and it made me start crying in full. Wow. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah is truly unlike ...

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier is a deeply significant book, though it is certainly not an easy read. I feel that Ishmael Beah’s writing style leaves a lot to be desired, and it feels particularly weak whenever he attempts to be philosophical. However, he more than makes up for these shortcomings with his harrowing descriptions of war and the depths of depravity to which human beings can sink. The fact that he recounts these experiences with a child’s candor—almost unemotionally—makes...

I’m sorry, I’m so very sorry for what I’m about to do. It feels incredibly curmudgeonly to judge this book harshly given the gravity of its subject matter. However, I can’t let the deep empathy I feel for this former Sierra Leonean child soldier cloud my critical assessment of his memoir. I give Ishmael Beah five stars—more, even—for his courage, his honesty, and the remarkable work he is doing to shed light on the lives of child soldiers in Sierra Leone and beyond; to raise awareness and motiva...

I first read A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier back in 2007 when it was originally released. That was the same year local high school students in our area were assigned the book for class. Later that year, Ishmael Beah came to speak at our local state university to a packed room of over 1,000 people. It was such a powerful night! Ishmael Beah was only 26 years old when this memoir hit the shelves. He recounts his harrowing journey of becoming a child soldier in Sierra Leone and his eve...

Dear Ms. Naomi Campbell,I have always been an ardent admirer of your work; from your heyday sashaying down YSL runways alongside Linda Evangelista to crooning in George Michael’s 'Freedom' video. Your numerous romantic entanglements with celebrated oligarchs and other questionable characters were always fascinating, if not exactly marvelous. But lately, you seem to have traded your notorious tantrums for a case of transient global amnesia. Is it down to those numerous chalky lines running throug...

Reviewing A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah is a toss-up between one and five stars. It is an amazing story of how a twelve-year-old boy survived the armed conflicts in Sierra Leone in the 1990s. It's well-written, provides vivid imagery, and evokes the true horrors of war.The one-star rating comes down to that very vivid imagery. Let's be perfectly clear: people die in this book. Blood spatters everywhere—usually blood that should have stayed inside the bodies of the nar...

I will never. Never. Complain about my childhood again.Okay, that's not true. I will. But when I let out a sad sigh of remorse that I didn't figure out exactly why I really wanted to be friends with that one guy in band in high school until it was way too late to do anything about it, I will at least think, "At least I wasn't killing people and snorting gunpowder."Like most of you reading this, I knew absolutely nothing about what was happening in Sierra Leone in the 1990s. I didn't know there w...