It’s got everything I need in a good story! Well written characters, a good plot, twists and turns, the lot! In researching Goldy Moldavsky to scope out her other books, I came across one titled “The Mary Shelley Club”. Wulfhorst, Ellen (November 7, 2017). "Yazidi survivor recounts harrowing captivity, daring escape in new book". Reuters . Retrieved November 11, 2018. This author knows a lot about prepping for the Last Days. She did a lot of research. We are given the benefit of all of this research in great detail. So much so that several of the action sequences in the story lost a lot of momentum. This book needed serious editing, or it needed to be chopped up into two stories, told from different points of view? TMI, but quite literally so. I started to skim here and there because I didn't need every little scene or facial expression or thought dissected.

The love interest who seems to be everything Rachel needs. A kind soul who was always on her side and made her feel welcome. A good looking guy with boyish charm that just knows the right thing to say. It is also a story of hope and determination. It also shows us the strength of the human spirit and drive to persevere in the face of great oppression. Another character I found myself quite fond of. Thayer is a bit of a class clown, with an upbeat personality who has a real passion for life it seems. Even the people whom ISIS hadn’t managed to kill had lost their lives — an entire generation of lost Yazidis like my brothers and me, walking around in the world with nothing in our hearts but the memory of our family and nothing in our heads but bringing ISIS to justice.

Nadia would be held captive by several militants and repeatedly raped and beaten. Finally, she managed a narrow escape through the streets of Mosul, finding shelter in the home of a Sunni Muslim family whose eldest son risked his life to smuggle her to safety. I still think that being forced to leave your home out of fear is one of the worst injustices a human being can face. Everything you love is stolen, and you risk your life to live in a place that means nothing to you and where, because you come from a country now known for war and terrorism, you are not really wanted.” This is an incredibly difficult read even for me who for a number of years worked intensely with a small group of individuals who were victims of torture in a number of totalitarian regimes throughout the world. Powerful, poignant, guaranteed to bring tears to your eyes no matter how tough you think you are, and surprisingly well-written. The Last Girl is an extraordinary first-hand account of a brutal genocide of a small religious minority who had no one to protect them from the barbaric horrors of the Islamic State which grew in power and territory for several long years while moral leadership was absent in this world and this cancer grew unabated. Nadia Murad describes in the first part of the book what it means to be Yazidi. She describes the social structure, normative rules, the deep faith and living in harmony with the land and each other. Although a very patriarchal system, the women are treated with respect and love although holding much less power than the men. Nadia loves make-up, hair, her mother, her brothers. She is simple and caring but also fiery and protective. She is intensely likable and you want to teach her how to jump rope and laugh at her silly jokes.

I cannot imagine enduring all the things she has endured and continuing the fight, or even surviving. There’s also really good descriptions throughout the book that transport you into their world. I could clearly imagine myself being there which I love when getting lost in a story.A teen who went through a traumatic event before moving to a new school in NYC, we follow along as Rachel comes to terms with what happened in her past and navigates the dynamics of a “rich kid” environment. I found myself getting attached to characters and getting lost in the thrill of it all. A truly wonderful read that I wasn’t expecting. Balkissoon, Denise (November 13, 2017). "She escaped Islamic State captivity. Now, Nadia Murad is giving a voice to persecuted Yazidis". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved November 11, 2018. The photographs in this one are 5 star- so brave for the survivors to expose themselves in such a manner. Not all will do that. Tal vez para nosotros tan alejados, cultural y espacialmente, todo esto nos resulte increíble, mas una ficción que la realidad, sin embargo y lamentablemente para muchas personas esta es su terrible realidad. Es indignante, es indescriptible y genera tanta violencia mientra lo estas leyendo, que se hace necesario que nos paremos a pensar para no terminar siendo (aunque sea con el pensamiento) parecido a eso que nos esta causando tanto asco y horror. Todo lo que se cuenta en este libro es terrible.

The ending was a major disappointment to me. Don't get me wrong, you have a wonderful HEA, but it was kind of rushed, and it was kind of a major twist. Now HERE was a point where you wouldn't have minded the author running on for a few more chapters. The WHAAAAAAT?!?! moments and twists and turns toward the end left me feeling totally dissatisfied. You’ve said that hundreds of thousands of Yazidis have been displaced by ISIS . Where are they living now, and what is life like for them, and you, today? That was the hardest moment of Dimal’s homecoming — waking up that morning on mattresses next to each other and hearing her ask, her voice hoarse from crying, “Nadia, where is the rest of the family?” Every second with ISIS was part of a slow, painful death—of the body and the soul—and that moment ... was the moment I started dying. (c)Nadia Murad was born and raised in Kocho, a small village of farmers and shepherds in northern Iraq. A member of the Yazidi community, she and her brothers and sisters lived a quiet life. Nadia had dreams of becoming a history teacher or opening her own beauty salon.

It’s heartbreaking to see Nadia face down an endless stream of trauma and sorrow no 21-year-old girl should ever face. She was forced to leave her village and home under fear of death. She was given hope, had that hope taken away from her and was abandoned by people by trusted to face ISIS alone. She had to watch her loved ones be murdered in cold blood in front of her eyes Nadia and other girls were captured as sabaya; sexual slaves passed around from ISIS militant to ISIS militant. They raped and beaten her countless times. Nadia was leading a peaceful life with her family in her village. She was forced out of her house and was separated from her family. She says that this is one of the worst injustices you can do to a human being. The town was protected by Iraqi Kurdish fighters called Peshmerga before the arrival of the Islamic State. However, on the 3rd of August 2014 when ISIS entered Kocho, the Peshmerga gave up on the people and left the town without any resistance. You stop thinking about escaping or seeing your family again. Your past life becomes a distant memory, like a dream. Your body doesn’t belong to you, and there’s no energy to talk or to fight or to think about the world outside. There is only rape and the numbness that comes with accepting that this is now your life. This is a most powerful narrative of a young Yazidi woman in Iraq whose family was forced out of their home by ISIS. Her brothers were murdered in a ditch. The younger women were forced into sexual slavery – older women, like her mother, were killed.

Author Q&A

Regular people first of all need to listen to Yazidis who want to talk about what happened to them and respect Yazidis who do not want to, or cannot, share their stories. They need to be open to hearing about all aspects of the genocide, not just the sexual enslavement of women, and recognize that the tragedy extended into every corner of our community. Whenever they can, they need to tell politicians, the United Nations, journalists, and anyone capable of helping that thousands of Yazidis still live paralyzed lives in refugee camps, that over a thousand women and children remain in captivity, and that our homes remain threatened. The world has a moral obligation to evacuate Yazidis from Iraq or provide them with a safe environment to continue to live. Horror fic writers have nothing on our contemporaries. This is a story to illustrate it: a story of a girl who went through true horrors and miraculously lived to tell us about it. This book helped me see a more in-depth and deeply personal picture than I would ever have been able to know any other way. Thank you and God bless you Nadia for opening yourself up about something which has cost you so much. Eternal rest to your family and may you find peace along with the justice you seek.