Reviews

There was a lot I really liked about this book. The scary look into far-right infiltrative journalism really put me on edge. Lavin is incredibly brave and principled. However, much of this book read like a collection of well-written journal articles. The overall story lacked cohesiveness. I enjoyed each section independently ("We Keep Us Safe" was a standout), but don't go into this expecting a deep dive into the path of online radicalism. It's good as a more intro-level text of vignettes. Lavin's writing is strong, personal, and emotional, though I found it repetitive (and I spent a fair amount of time looking up words). 3.5 stars.

"To those who find themselves uncomfortable with the operation of antifascists outside the comfortable bounds of institutions and, at times, the law, I remind you that the French partisans of World War II were acting illegally, while the Einsatzgruppen had the full support of German law. We tend to like our noble lawbreakers to be comfortably in the past, where time and death have sanitized them into heroes, and to suffer those who struggle against injustice in the present only grudgingly, if at all."

Content Warnings

jeansbookbag's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

This would be a hard book to say I “enjoyed,” really, as the topic is not enjoyable. However, I think it was a readable and well written book about white supremacy and the dark web. I was able to get through it relatively fast, and would recommend it, even though it isn’t a light-hearted read.

adubbs11's review against another edition

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dark informative fast-paced

3.75

catnapping's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

2.75

This book seems like it didn't quite know what it wanted to be. I wish it had included more of the author's personal experience infiltrating white nationalist spaces. Instead, it came across more as a disjointed series of lectures on the history & current state of white nationalism.

While the history and background provided was important, it lacked cohesiveness and was in need of better editing. After one incident when the same phrase was defined three times in the span of 5 minutes the lack of both storytelling finesse and editing became pointedly unbearable.

Given the heaviness of the subject, these issues made an already hard read harder.

Content Warnings

yesthattom's review against another edition

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dark funny informative tense fast-paced

5.0

tobestik's review against another edition

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slow-paced

1.0

DNF'd at 160 pages because this book was just non-stop humble bragging about the author's online reach, followed by counterproductive name calling, followed by "journalism" that was, by the author's own admission, just taking pictures of people and live tweeting.

I won't deny or argue that the topic of this book and the author's perspective are incredibly important. She has a perspective and a story that absolutely should be told.

However, no part of this read like an actual deep dive or research into a topic as was promised.

I also agree with other reviewers that the book is more of an amalgamation of articles haphazardly thrown into a book than an actual planned book. Ideas jump around and end abruptly.

There's only about 20 pages actually about the author interacting with white supremacist groups, the rest is disjointed flavor text of events that happened. A few to the author, sure, but mostly just things that did happen throughout history or recently.

If you've followed the news even slightly in the last 5 years, you know about every event discussed. I use discussed loosely as really they're just presented with a tone of: "This happened. Wild huh?" And then the book moves on.

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