Reviews tagging 'Murder'

I Love Russia by Elena Kostyuchenko

3 reviews

littleredwinter's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

This book was an insightful and thought provoking glimpse into the real lives of people in Russia fighting for the betterment of their home. I think this book will resonate with many progressive southerners as it has a message many of us can relate to: a place is defined by its people not its government. Kostyuchenko begs readers to look with empathy at the problems Russians are facing today and realize that many of Russia’s people are victims of their own government. The criticisms brought to light by the author feel especially important coming from a Russian. She stands to lose everything from telling the reader the truth of what she has witnessed but she finds it important enough that she is willing to risk her life to make this known. Kostyuchenko is rising to the bar set by journalists such as Alexievich through vignettes from Russia that show the country as it really is and humanize the most vulnerable of her people. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Abortion, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

daralexandria's review against another edition

dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Police brutality, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Suicide, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Classism

lorraine19's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.5

The stories in this book were very interesting. Topics from prostitution to disabilities to environment to war are covered. The stories are all very personal and there's a wide variety of people interviewed. 

However, I feel like the formatting was completely distracting and inconsistent. There were also points it was difficult to follow the stories or it seemed like transitions were missing. It's hard to say how much of this was the writer vs the translators though. (Leaning towards it being translation as there are 2 distinct styles and I have previously read articles by this author.) 

Overall, I felt like having the book formatted as short stories or a collection of interviews/articles rather than a novel would have made it much easier to follow. But it does not take away from the importance of topics discussed and the very real, yet dystopian, stories of people living in Russia. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Murder, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, War, and Classism

Moderate: Cursing, Hate crime, Trafficking, Abortion, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail