Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

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

4 reviews

bigheadcam's review

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

An absolutely incredible, fascinating, and perfectly paced narrative nonfiction on the Troubles. Radden Keefe is very careful to specify that this book is not "historical" nonfiction because a lot of the information in this book is derived from oral accounts. He did his best to reconcile these accounts by corroborating them with more official records and reports, but the Troubles are not well documented and were a truly chaotic time.

Radden Keefe's writing is objective and informative while also remaining gripping and maintaining an excellent storytelling tone. I was consistently impressed with how well he kept every subject covered interesting, and how he manages to switch contexts without losing the reader or making it jarring.

Thanks to John Oliver for recommending this on Hot Ones. I'd happily do the same for anyone with an interest in history, radical ideologies, revolution, and modern struggles for independence as well as the cost of said struggles.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Cancer, Bullying, Murder, War, Blood, Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Terminal illness, Confinement, Classism, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Gun violence, Police brutality, Alcoholism, Body horror, Excrement, Physical abuse, Violence, Child death, Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Self harm, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Forced institutionalization, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

cassimiranda's review against another edition

dark informative tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Rape, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Trafficking, War, Bullying, Child abuse, Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Gaslighting

atsundarsingh's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Exemplary writing. The Troubles are such a hard thing to write about, precisely because the story of the violence is still such a live issue. Still, this is a tightly coiled and deftly rendered dig into some of that hard history. Since it's such recent history, it was also really cool to be able to look up some of the obits and editorials that he discusses online, and know they were only a quick search away. Finally, and this is historian brain speaking, the absolutely essential nature of oral history projects especially to peace and reconciliation efforts is on full display here, and so is history's present-day relevance. A very well-deserved award winner, and likely to send me on another full anti-empire rabbit hole of books. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Grief, Medical trauma, Addiction, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Police brutality, Confinement, Toxic friendship, Blood, Colonisation, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Religious bigotry, Violence, War, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Torture, and Toxic relationship

exmareadastra's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma

Moderate: Murder, Violence, Torture, Self harm, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Death, Confinement, Religious bigotry, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Incest, and Vomit