War Flower: My Life after Iraq

by Brooke King

Brooke King has been asked over and over what it’s like to be a woman in combat, but she knows her answer is not what the public wants to hear. The answers people seek lie in the graphic details of war—the sex, death, violence, and reality of it all as she experienced it. In her riveting memoir War Flower , King breaks her silence and reveals the truth about her experience as a soldier in Iraq. Find out what happens when the sex turns into secret affairs, the violence is turned up to eleven, and how King’s feelings for a country she knew nothing about as a nineteen-year-old become more disturbing to her as a thirty-year-old mother writing it all down before her memories fade into oblivion.

The story of a girl who went to war and returned home a woman, War Flower gathers the enduring remembrances of a soldier coming to grips with post-traumatic stress disorder. As King recalls her time in Iraq, she reflects on what violence does to a woman and how the psychic wounds of combat are unwittingly passed down from mother to children. War Flower is ultimately a profound meditation on what it means to have been a woman in a war zone and an unsettling exposé on war and its lingering aftershocks. For veterans such as King, the toughest lesson of service is that in the mind, some wars never end—even after you come home.
 

Genres: Nonfiction

255 pages, Hardcover

Published March 1, 2019

Reviews

[Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

The war in Iraq seems to be something that the general population has shoved into a tightly closed box in their memories, something that happened “a few years ago that we would rather not talk about”. I don’t think people had any idea, have any idea, what it was like out there. I don’t really myself, only the images I have seen over the years on TV, and the words that came out of my friend’s mouth when he stayed with me for three days before going back to his family for his two weeks leave. NYC and my party lifestyle were the buffer between what he saw every day in Iraq and the life with his wife and kids he had to go back to for a while. I listened, but still had no real idea. I was intrigued when I read that Brooke King had written her own memoir about life as a female soldier in Iraq, and life after deployment. It’s rare to read about modern war and combat from the perspective of a woman soldier.

There is a moment in the book that struck me to the core, and I think it is extremely telling: on her return Brooke makes the move to go to the VA and seek help for her nightmares and general anxiety (and so much more than that). She mentions that she has been in combat and instead of listening to her they take her down to an area where all the severely injured vets are and tell her to stop lying. Women don’t see combat. Right? How removed from reality does the population of this country need to be to not even to begin to understand the wars that their country is fighting, the people who are fighting for them?

War Flower is written as a collection of essays, some of them more poem than prose. The timeline kind of jumps around all over the place which has its good sides and it’s not so good sides. I like how it vividly portrays the confusion, the darkness and the surrealism of war, specifically the war in Iraq. I did find it a little annoying at times because nothing flows, the chopped up approach works for the most part but can be a little frustrating. I had to put it down for a day but found it too compelling to leave for longer... That said you can read each chapter as a stand-alone story, which has its benefits.

This is in no shape or form an easy read, but it is in my opinion a must read. Brooke is a brilliant writer, a poet, and she doesn’t beat around the bush. You read what she saw, she doesn’t whitewash war for the reader, which I’m glad about, even though there are passages that will make you want to vomit. You are not going to read about what you imagine you are going to read about. But you are going to read some hard truths: death, violence, PTSD, the war machine and the erasure of humanity in each other, the erasure of self, and more death and violence. You leave as a 19 year old and come back as a 21 year old carrying the baggage of war, violence, and death, and are expected to tuck it away and make it into something palatable for us to digest.

It’s easy for us to sit at home and judge based on what we see on our screens. It’s easy for us to think that we can ask soldiers questions we would never think to ask anyone else (I mean who asks a soldier how many people they have killed? What kind of effed up question is that?!), and it’s easy for us to forget about wars when they aren’t on our home ground and don’t technically affect “us”. War Flower provides a different, but necessary perspective on modern war, and on war as a female soldier.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy! A harrowing, stark read that will give you a new perspective.

[Jonathan Tennis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy ready Veteran writers and I enjoyed this story of what it’s like to be a woman in the military (most Vet authors are men) and so this is a rare chance to hear a woman’s perspective from a woman. King doesn’t pull any punches and there’s plenty in here that a person would understand if she had. I enjoyed it and would recommend it to others.

“I had done it. I married Rob. It wasn’t the best decision to make right before a deployment, but when you’re young and dumb and facing war, anything looks like a good idea. I wanted someone to love me, someone to look out for me over there. For all his faults and misgivings, Rob loved me; he cared, and for my nineteen-year-old self, it was the only reassurance I needed, but that feeling didn’t last long.” – p. 15

[Neil McGee · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all I have to thank & apologize to Brooke should she ever read this or any review of her book, anything I or anyone else writes can in in way come from a context of that in which she has experienced.

Thank you and we are all grateful and sorry that all have been placed in the situation.

And for all off that are not in that position we can never ever understand what it is like to literally not know if we will ever see our family and loved ones again.

I once was boarding a airplane in the us and a young lady in uniform was in the cue with me as we both had seats in economy, when we boarded a gentleman from first class got up and surrendered his seat and sat in economy with me.

At the time I thought that was nice of him, after reading this book, I feel not only was it nice of him, it should be a legal requirement, and all us service members should by treated as the VIP's that they are.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[Rachel]

Beautiful writing; I both liked and disliked the fragmented nature of the stories. On the one hand, it speaks to the mind of someone with PTSD - memories or thoughts come unbidden and out of order. On the other hand, it was hard sometimes to get a sense of what was happening when.
In addition...I didn't care so much for the explicit descriptions of sex in this. The book starts with the court martial and I would have liked to understand more about how both people took on those risks and what the people around them said to them.

I appreciate that there's not a ton of effort to hide the author's bad decisions. There's no shine to make the reader think the author is an unflawed person.

Overall, I liked the honesty and clear picture of what happens before, during, and after someone, especially a woman, goes to war.

[Mutated Reviewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

"War Flower" isn't a book i would typically pick up, and that's exactly why I chose it. A book about war, mental health, and learning to live again when everything has gone wrong, it's exactly what I needed to change my reading direction, and it was everything I wanted it to be more. If you want to read a really human book, about a lot of struggles and some wins, about becoming the person you want to be, and about learning to deal with a severe trauma due to a war, than you need to pick this book up.

Check out my full review here!

https://radioactivebookreviews.wordpr...

[Karen K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

An astonishing debut memoir about the author's military service in Iraq and how she builds her life back together after leaving the service. All is not fair in love nor war, and Brooke King helps us excavate all the nuances of how, and why. The language is often poetic, the chapters artfully crafted, the descriptions riveting, horrifying, and sometimes redemptive. What a gift that Brooke survived to tell her story. There is tragedy pulsing through every page, every minute. There is also love, healing, and hope. Thanks to NetGalley and the University of Nebraska Press for providing an ARC.

[Shannon Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unfortunately, there’s not much written from the female point of view, and
that’s why I think Brooke King’s novel, War Flower: My Life After Iraq, is important. It
is much more than a brutally honest account about her deployment to Iraq; it’s a story
about being strong enough to survive being a woman at war, but also about how war is
destructive in ways the average person can’t possibly understand.
I talked so much about this book that my husband snatched it away from me as soon as I told him I was finished. He read it in two days.

We can't wait for her next one.

[Maureen Sepulveda · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very powerful, blunt, raw memoir by a female soldier who served in military in Iraq. She suffered from terrible PTSD after coming back from war. The book is really emotional because she doesn’t sugarcoat war at all. She describes some of the horrors she saw in war and how difficult it was to reintegrate once she got back. This is a candid and initiative portrait of one female soldier’s fight and determination to overcome trauma. It’s definitely the most revealing account of a war that I have ever read by someone who lived it, fought in it and sacrificed.

[Aida Alberto · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and all opinions are my own. Excellent. Just excellent. I always wondered about women in the military and how they handle being in battle and this well written book by Brooke King gives a glimpse into her world. Absolutely pick up this winner. I am glad that I read this eye opening story. Happy reading! #WarFlower #NetGalley

[Ava · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great commentary on PTSD, but I felt the messages she was trying to convey were buried in exaggerated dialogue/interactions that seemed straight out of a movie like Avatar. While the dialogue was most likely realistic to how she speaks in real life, it was far too colorful to be tasteful and respectable. I was surprised to read a page with no f-bombs.

[Debra Frey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was not what I initially expected - but I’m so glad I read it. Definitely eye opening to the realities of war, combat and PTSD.

[MamaJerome · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the honest, albeit ugly truth shared with us in the writing of this book. I don't think we as a nation do enough to honor, thank, and protect those who have up so much to protect us.

Reading how difficult it was to live a normal family like after being to war was so eye-opening for me.

From one mother to another, thank you, thank you, thank you!

[Bettina · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, this book was very exciting, depressing, and difficult to read. It involves a lot of blood and war gore and guns and almost-suicides. King describes everything about the Iraq war that I didn’t experience but had wanted to at some point. This was the exact same year and timeframe that my husband went to Iraq for a year—they were probably on the same base for a while there—while I stayed behind at Fort Hood and got medically discharged from the Army.

This book brought back so many memories that I needed some time to digest it all. The author came from a very dysfunctional family background, so her experience was surely different from what mine might have been, had I deployed, but what was difficult about reading her story is that it confirmed for me what I knew at the time: I would not have survived a deployment to Iraq in 2007. My choice to push for discharge instead of staying in with limitations has haunted me ever since but I know it was for the best.

This was book is part of history and describes a period of American and Iraqi history from a much-needed female perspective.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a book that people that haven't served in the military, or in combat need to read. The author did an amazing job of putting in writing her experiences, in which I am sure this is not all of them. It gives the reader an understanding of what military members are going through and how it has affected their whole lives. The changes and challenges faced. For those that have served in the military and in combat they will see pieces of themselves in the pages of this book. This was a well written and really insightful book.

[Kade Gulluscio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to netgalley and the published/author for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Riveting, beautiful read.
There isn’t much else needed to say. Check the book out.