Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

11 reviews

fiannah's review

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Violence, Toxic friendship, Terminal illness, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Mental illness, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, and War

maggies's review

challenging emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

5.0

Since reading Empire of Pain and Rogues, PRK has topped my list of nonfiction writers. His attention to detail and ability to weave a history that reads like a novel is second to none. The story of Jean McConville and her children, the nationalist movement, the origins of the Troubles, and its fragile peace and enduring legacy is told not necessarily chronologically, but thematically. PRK leaves a trail of breadcrumbs throughout as he builds to his final conclusion, with shocking twists and reveals along the way. Among the most shocking was the constant reminder of how recent this history is—while many active participants have passed away, many others are still alive, and memory is long.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Gun violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Violence, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, War, Torture, Suicide, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Confinement, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Murder, and Addiction

Moderate: Religious bigotry and Police brutality

timesnewroman12point's review

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, War, Eating disorder, Grief, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Suicide, Mental illness, Rape, Death of parent, Drug use, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, and Torture

taytastic's review against another edition

dark informative medium-paced

4.5

Totally enthralling and truly captivating. It was a slow start but once I got past the first 60 pages, I could not stop reading it. The book is a nonfiction book about a war zone in modern history, engage accordingly.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, War, Confinement, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Suicide

library_bee's review against another edition

dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Gore, Gun violence, and Police brutality

Moderate: Colonisation, Death, Eating disorder, and Murder

Minor: Suicide, Drug abuse, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

kaynan1314's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Murder, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Alcohol, Drug use, Excrement, Violence, War, Gun violence, Police brutality, and Physical abuse

hannahquin's review

adventurous emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, Mass/school shootings, War, Sexual violence, Violence, Hate crime, Blood, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Child death, Child abuse, Mental illness, Alcoholism, and Drug abuse

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, and Pedophilia

sjanke2's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Suicide, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Abandonment, Addiction, Violence, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Rape, Police brutality, Mental illness, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Kidnapping, Eating disorder, Confinement, Cursing, War, Gun violence, Gore, Pedophilia, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Forced institutionalization, Torture, and Grief

laurenfro22's review

challenging dark informative medium-paced

4.5

Solid text about the memories of folks in the Troubles and the surrounding political, social, and economic landscapes. Made more interesting from my personal history in Belfast and current work at Boston College. The writing is clippy, keeping you moving back and forth in time from perspective to perspective so it doesn’t feel dense and slogging like some other books about this era. Certainly puts events and decisions into perspective laying out the information for readers to explore and understand better. 

“The bogs of Ireland are a landscape that remembers everything that has happened in and to it.” (265) 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Gun violence, Murder, Police brutality, Sexual violence, Suicide, and War

laurenparham's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

2.75

I think this book was just not for me—it’s informative about some key events but does little to contextualize the IRA’s actions in response to the state violence that drove The Troubles. If the goal is to explore how people become radicalized to commit political violence, I think it’s important to present that trajectory with more than a few cursory mentions of the oppression that led to it. I understand that would be a massive undertaking but anything less feels irresponsible, especially given how uneducated most Americans are about The Troubles and how, for many, a book like this would be their first introduction. There is no justification for what happened to Jean McConville, and I don’t think there has to be any whataboutism regarding that—it was tragic and violent and caused lifelong suffering and devastation for her family. But I do think that the British government and the loyalists earn some portion of the blame as an oppressive and exploitative force that perpetuated violence and radicalization. I do wonder why many people are so squeamish at the idea of interpersonal or paramilitary violence but sanction the same actions carried out by people acting on behalf of the state as somehow more valid and justified and less violent.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Colonisation, Death, Eating disorder, Drug abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, and War