Uzodinma Iweala

I'd encourage you to avoid reading this book and instead watch the film. The premise could be executed in a few ways, but the prose of the novel doesn't do justice to the poetry of the movie.

To start with, it is way too mawkish and exploitative in its approach. The idea of child rebel soldiers already provides a great deal of empathy. But the childlike writing (with broken English and simplistic analogies) made me want to shy away--like it was patting me on the back in a patronizing approach. It's also a difficult sit, with the explanations of warfare and other graphic details.

The film, however, is much better at approaching something that should be the emotional core of the story: how this young man starts as a normal boy, is corrupted, and whether or not he'll be able to return.

The book doesn't do that (it starts with him already in war). And with that loss of an arc, you're really just reading Oliver Twist in The Red Badge of Courage (Africa edition). It's admirable, but just falls short. And I worry that some of it has to do with the fact that the author didn't live these experiences and is such trying to tell the story in an inauthentic way. And that's rather unfortunate as this is a topic that should be addressed in a remarkable way. But this book isn't it.… (meer)