Reviews tagging 'Blood'

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

15 reviews

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

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

kgroods9's review

informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

you can tell the author writes for the new yorker because this should have been a quite dense and taxing read, but instead it reads more like a novel. the author manages to discuss a macro event, but tell it through the lens of individual players involved. a great read if you’re interested in history, but often put off by the density of historical writing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and War

Moderate: Addiction, Violence, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Police brutality, Murder, Blood, Alcoholism, and Adult/minor relationship

malloryfitz's review

dark informative sad

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Murder, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Grief, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Eating disorder, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Suicide, and Child abuse

Minor: Cancer, Excrement, and Animal death

jbellomy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mass/school shootings, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Gore, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture