I don't think I can rate this.

This book is the feeling of scrolling down your twitter feed, seeing all the little stories that the big headlines cannot tell.
This book is the experience of seeing numbers tick up, up, up, but numbers aren't just numbers, they are people's lives. People's deaths.
This book is righteous anger bursting to life within you, only to simmer down to a low, deep, burning hatred, and ultimately, a weakly glowing ember of bone-deep exhaustion.

I will never be able to fully graps what the people of Ukraine have been going through (and, of course, by extension, the people of Palestine, of the Kongo, of Syria, of so many more countries.) I was born after a war. Our house has a bomb shelter, but I only ever hide down there when the fireworks on New Year's Eve get too loud. I live in a country that has experienced war, but to me, war has always just been a news headline. I will never truly understand this book. But that doesn't mean that reading it and making myself stomach every. single. line. and. every. single. death. wasn't worth it.

All those fragments, all those questions and no answers, all those people. I cannot help. But I can watch. I can stay aware. I can remember.

It's nothing, of course. And words are not enough. And I am so, so sorry.

absolutely everyone should read this book. all Ukrainians, so that they never forget all the horrors that the terrorist state russia commits on our territory every day. and foreigners to learn at least a small part of the things that we have been living through here every day for 2.5 years of a full-scale invasion. while reading the chronicles of the war (specific news for specific dates), I simply could not hold back tears. it's too horrible and too painful. none of us deserved any of this, but it is what it is, not our choice.

the only con in the English translation is that many Ukrainian names/words are incorrectly transliterated, unfortunately, an outdated transliteration is used.

some quotes:

russia must be silenced.

russian intellectuals and writers are all trying to convince the world that above all else, this is putin's war, not theirs. But putin wasn't the one who did this. He does not rape, kill and destroy.

It's scary not because I'm afraid to die, but because I am full of regret. It's a shame how far we could have progressed in technology, in the development of society, literature, education, culture, how much we could have done, but instead we have to deal with russia.

The whole country is a daily bloody proof: russia is a terrorist state that annihilates the people of Ukraine because of who we are.

I recognize that I really don't want that much from life. Just their deaths. And to feel nothing.

I want to forget it all. I want to never forget.

The Language of War is a vital and heartbreaking account of the invasion of Ukraine. Intertwining news reports and stories from across the country, including those of friends and family, Mykhed paints a stark picture of life in a warzone. It's a brutal onslaught of atrocities, trauma and grief, but it's also an homage to the people trying to maintain some semblance of normality while they fight to survive. Mykhed's raw emotion and honesty is immensely powerful: a real must-read.

This was so difficult to read, but for good reason. Mykhed does not mix words and makes it very clear what crimes Russia has committed. The details are excruciating and painful and uncomfortable to read, and I felt personally ill reading this. Discussing things like war and genocide is the only way to bring light to these atrocities, and this was a vital read.