I don't think I'm going to give this book a star rating, and here's why. I appreciate the importance of this story and stories like it. The massacre in Rwanda back in 1994 was horrific and I think it's something that wasn't given enough attention at the time that it was happening.

But there is a difference between a story being important and being well-executed.

As kind of an example of what I'm talking about, I would point to a passage from the book itself. On page 256, Clemantine is growing more and more frustrated with her mother. She planned a European trip for the two of them, supposedly because she wanted to have quality one-on-one time with her mother because their years apart had created a huge divide in their relationship. Her mother, instead of showing Clemantine gratitude for creating the itinerary for the trip, instead thanks God for all of the trip. Clemantine says:

"I wanted my mother to know all the places I'd been, all the horrible things I'd seen, all the scrubbing I'd done in miserable camps, the unthinkable variety of suffering I'd witnessed just to fight my way here, to be in this apartment, to bring her that new white nightgown and white bathrobe. But I did want to tell her about my experience."

And that's kind of the way I felt about this book. It was like Clemantine wanted us to know her story without actually having to tell us. It's not that there aren't details in this story, but it all feels very detached, as if I was reading a news article about a person rather than that person's story in their own words.

Also, I'm not sure exactly what Elizabeth Weil's purpose was in the writing of this book, but if it was to create a coherent narrative, I would have to say it didn't work for me. Like many memoirs I've read, this story does jump around in the timeline of Clemantine's life, but unlike other memoirs I read, I found the effect in this book to be confusing and jarring. Perhaps if there had been two timelines--one during and immediately following the massacre and one after she gets to the US--that would've been fine, but she jumps all around within each of those timelines, which just doesn't give the reader an opportunity to become invested.

Also, there were things that needed more explaining. One example is when her brother-in-law sends her and her pregnant sister back to Rwanda while she is pregnant. It is never explained why he would do this. There are other moments as well that just don't make any sense because they weren't properly explained.

Possibly my biggest issue with the book is that I felt far more connected to Claire than I did to Clemantine throughout the course of this story. I thought her ability to provide for her sister and children was really admirable. And even though she is thanked in the acknowledgements, I have to say it felt like there was a lot of resentment in that relationship that went largely unresolved on-page. I would've liked to hear anything that suggested that she appreciated all of the things her sister went through to keep them all safe. I'm not saying she doesn't, but it wasn't obvious in the narrative.

One last thing I want to mention is the audiobook. I have the physical copy of this book, but I often prefer listening to non-fiction on audiobook. Memoirs specifically are preferable to me in this format as they are often narrated by the author. This one wasn't, which is fine. However, the voice actor narrating this book was awful. I'm not sure what other books she's narrated, but I will not listen to another book read by her. Her reading was jerky and there were weird pauses in between words that didn't belong. It was almost like William Shatner was narrating the audiobook. The inflections used also didn't make sense. I ended up picking up the physical copy and reading that after about 40 pages of the audiobook because I just couldn't stand the reading.

I wish I liked this book more than I do, because I think that it chronicles a very important series of events. Unfortunately, I didn't feel like it did much more than scratch the surface.