History Literature / SomeoneElsesWar

* AdultFear: Your child is kidnapped and trained to be a [[HumanShield human shield]] for the local rabble-rousing [[ChurchMilitant church militants]]. Even if he doesn't die, he's changed for life--childhood gone, innocence shattered, his body a haunted shell, his peace of mind violated by the things he's seen and done against his will. [[SexSlave And you thank God your child isn't a girl.]]

[[KnightInSourArmor Matteo Ta'anari]], a fourteen-year-old [[UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} Muslim]] boy living in the heart of Uganda, is swept up in the throes of civil war when his little brother, nine-year-old Kalid, is kidnapped by the [[TruthInTelevision Lord's Resistance Army]] to fight as a [[ChildSoldiers soldier]]. Terrified but determined, Matteo hatches a plan to join the army as a willing combatant, find his missing little brother, and bring him home safe. But Matteo's inner nature is [[ReluctantWarrior peaceful]], and as he is forced to murder fellow Muslims, Matteo's heart and conscience both suffer for it.

A [[YoungAdultLiterature Young Adult]] novel by Rose Christo.

* [[spoiler: EarnYourHappyEnding]]
** [[spoiler: DownerEnding: Matteo saves not even half of the amount of children he had hoped to save, and his little brother has been dead all along. But Matteo himself sees it as a happy ending because he saved ''someone''.]]

* *Jeremiah and Lucy both have gray colored eyes. [[spoiler: This is how Matteo realizes that Lucy is Jeremiah's mother.]]

* NoNameGiven: Ruth is known as "[[ShrinkingViolet The girl with the downcast eyes]]" for a significant portion of the novel because Matteo can't work up the nerve to ask her name. Many, ''many'' other characters--the majority, in fact--are known only by first name. Some characters are known only by a nickname: "Panga," for example, means "machete" and indicates that the eponymous character is lethal in battle, while the boy everyone calls "Lazy" has a problem falling asleep in the middle of duty. Some characters, like the children in the Amal regiment, discard their real names and take up nicknames to distance themselves from the lives they can never go back to. Lieutenant Luo and Mrs. Alowo are known only by their last names [[spoiler: but Luo's first name is revealed to be David by Lucy, who grew up with him]]. Marunde outright refuses to offer his surname. And it's not until the very end that Auley and Ruth get last names: Zuma and Mallory.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: The LRA more or less has one of these, [[RealLifeWritesThePlot as in real life]], unless you are an [[ChurchMilitant overly zealous Christian]] who thinks no one in Africa should be allowed to practice a religion other than Christianity. However, they're still winning the war [[spoiler: initially]] by a combination of guerrilla warfare and their enemies being [[WouldntHurtAChild unwilling to murder the child soldiers they send out on the frontlines]].

* FiveManBand
** TheHero: [[NaiveNewcomer Matteo]]
** TheLancer: [[DeadpanSnarker Asher]]
** TheBigGuy: [[{{Tykebomb}} Jeremiah]]
** TheSmartGuy: [[ShrinkingViolet Ruth]]
** TheChick: [[WiseBeyondTheirYears Otto]]
** SixthRanger: [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Eliza]]
** TeamDad: [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass Lieutenant Panga]]

* FreudianTrio: [[TheId Matteo]], [[TheEgo Ruth]], and [[TheSuperego Asher]]

* GrayEyes: Jeremiah and Lucy. [[spoiler: This is how Matteo realizes that Lucy is Jeremiah's mother.]]

* MeaningfulAppearance: Both Matteo and Kalid have green eyes. They're visual proof that the boys have North African blood in them, as it's not entirely uncommon for Arabs in that region to have green eyes.

----

* ActualPacifist: Matteo.

* AdultsAreUseless: Played straight, inverted, averted, and subverted at every possible chance.

* AnyoneCanDie

* ChildSoldiers

* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Lieutenant Luo]]

* KidAnova: Otto has the makings of one.
* LaResistance

* NoPeriodsPeriod: Averted.
* OrphansOrdeal
* PuppyLove: Matteo and Ruth.

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: [[spoiler: Otto]]

* TruthInTelevision

* WarIsHell

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: The LRA more or less has one of these, [[RealLifeWritesThePlot as in real life]], unless you are an [[ChurchMilitant overly zealous Christian]] who thinks no one in Africa should be allowed to practice a religion other than Christianity. However, they're still winning the war [[spoiler: initially]] by a combination of guerrilla warfare and their enemies being [[WouldntHurtAChild unwilling to murder the child soldiers they send out on the frontlines]].

* GreenEyes: Both Matteo and Kalid have them. They're visual proof that the boys have North African blood in them, as it's not entirely uncommon for Arabs in that region to have green eyes.

[[KnightInSourArmor Matteo Ta'anari]], a fourteen-year-old [[{{Islam}} Muslim]] boy living in the heart of Uganda, is swept up in the throes of civil war when his little brother, nine-year-old Kalid, is kidnapped by the [[TruthInTelevision Lord's Resistance Army]] to fight as a [[ChildSoldiers soldier]]. Terrified but determined, Matteo hatches a plan to join the army as a willing combatant, find his missing little brother, and bring him home safe. But Matteo's inner nature is [[ReluctantWarrior peaceful]], and as he is forced to murder fellow Muslims, Matteo's heart and conscience both suffer for it.

* AllegoryAdventure: Has some notable parallels with the East African fable of Shing'weng'we.[[hottip:*: Shing'weng'we is a monster from East African folklore who swallowed everyone in the world until the one person he missed, a brave young boy, slit open his belly and freed them all.]]

** There are many, many more within the narration itself. Indigenous words like "zeer," "umbuyu," and "Shing'weng'we" are left untranslated, and it's up to the reader to figure them out by context.[[hottip:*: A zeer is a sort of miniature refrigerator that doesn't require electricity. Umbuyu is a sweet-and-sour candy made by coating baobab fruit with sugar. For Shing'weng'we, see above.]]

* MismatchedEyes: Sarai has one brown eye, one blue.

* DeadLittleSister: Asher has a dead ''older'' sister, who was killed when they tried to escape the LRA together six years ago. Her death has crippled him with fear and prevented him from making another escape attempt.
** Also [[spoiler: at the end of the book, Luo reveals that Kalid has been dead since day one.]]
** Otto probably applies, too. He has two brothers and a sister, but [[spoiler: he is only ever reunited with the eldest brother, Thomas, while a friend of Thomas' remarks, "I thought your whole family was dead."]]

* NauseaFuel: When Matteo finds out what happens to children who try to run from the LRA...''after'' they've been killed. [[spoiler: Their remains are cut up and mixed in with the rest of the child soldiers' dinner.]]

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids

* NauseaFuel: When Matteo finds out what happens to children who try to run from the LRA...''after'' they've been killed.

Yet as Matteo witnesses monstrosity after monstrosity, his desire for peace grows ever stronger. Matteo comes to care deeply for the boys and girls in his regiment, and once he realizes that his fellow child soldiers hate fighting as much as he does, but have become desensitized to the violence, Matteo burdens himself with the unlikely task of uniting all thirty thousand of them in a [[LaResistance rebellion]], coming up with creative ways to free his newfound friends [[ActualPacifist without bloodshed]].

** There are many, many more within the narration itself. Indigenous words like "zeer," "umbuyu," and "Shing'weng'we" are left untranslated, and it's up to the reader to figure them out by context.[[hottip:*: A zeer is a sort of miniature refrigerator that doesn't require electricity. Umbuyu is a sweet-and-sour candy made by coating baobab fruit with sugar. Shing'weng'we is a monster from East African folklore who swallowed everyone in the world until the one person he missed, a brave young boy, slit open his belly and freed them all. Arguably, Someone Else's War is a less allegorical interpretation of the same folk tale.]]

** There are many, many more within the narration itself. Indigenous words like "zeer," "umbuyu," and "Shing'weng'we" are left untranslated, and it's up to the reader to figure them out by context.[[hottip:*: A zeer is a sort of miniature refrigerator that doesn't require electricity. Umbuyu is a sweet-and-sour candy made by coating baobab fruit with sugar. Shing'weng'we is a monster from East African folklore who swallowed everyone in the world until the one person he missed, a brave young boy, slit open his belly and freed them all. Arguably, Someone Else's War is a less allegorical telling of the same folk tale.]]

* HumanShield: Why the LRA relies on child soldiers to do the bulk of their fighting. Specifically, the people they're looking to kill are good people, and good people will hesitate to gun down a scared seven-year-old boy.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids

* STDImmunity: Averted; STDs are mentioned as a recurring hazard, Marunde even wishing that Joseph Kony would contract one. At one point Matteo considers pretending that Nyumba has HIV to get an adult soldier to leave her alone. He goes with the "She's really a boy" angle instead ([[AmbiguousGender which might actually be true]]).