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Many people often read books about war and tyranny and stuff of the like, most of it being fiction.

Struggling to eat, is not something I grew up with but know due to being at the wrong time and place. It is one thing to see adults in it, another to witness children conscripted and brainwashed into appreciating it.

Anxious to participate in a nearby talent show, Beah and his rap group are away from home when war descends on their village. The civil war that's gripping Sierra Leone still seems a like a suggestion until it isn't. At the talent show they escape the butchery that took their families.

Fleeing as refugees from village to village often "so hungry it hurts to drink water," they are separated during a rebel attack. Now alone, Ishmael wanders for weeks until meeting boys he knew from school. Joining forces, the boys look for somewhere, anywhere, they can feel safe. They think they've found it in a town controlled by government troops... only for them to get dosed with drugs and turned into child soldiers.

This was excellent. The deprogramming I've seen with former child soldiers and cult members is accurate to a T. It's harrowing, painfully honest, and horrific story of a boy whose teen years became a killing field is ultimately a story of hope that things can turn out.