So far I have only read very positive reviews on this book, but I have to contradict.
I came across it because it was highly recommended by a lecturer of mine in conflict research, saying something like: "If you want to know about child soldiers, it's all in this book".
This is only partially true. The author mentions implicitly quite some facts that political scientists know about the 'average child soldier' (far away from giving a complete depiction). But much more than getting a clearer view on this topic, the actual accomplishment of the book is that the reader is able to look inside the main character, torn between his basic childhood moral and the pressure of his new lifestyle. Unfortunately this is not the main aspect; it is centered on the description of the everyday life of a child soldier.
It sure is shocking to read about the horrors of war in a very simple language, but on the whole I didn't like the style of the novel. The first-person narrator is talking like a European caricature of an 'African jungle kid', and he has a strange set of knowledge, I couldn't explain with his age or cultural background (unfortunately I cannot recall an example, but I was wondering from time to time about the things he knows and doesn`t know about the world). To me these flaws undermined the authenticity of the whole story. While reading, I always had the impression to share the thoughts of a western intellectual, instead of experiencing a story that actually could have happened.
I know I'm contradicting the world elite of book critics, but to me this was just a mediocre book on an interesting topic.