Reviews tagging 'Antisemitism'

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe

37 reviews

laurenkimoto's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Antisemitism

horizonous's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicide, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

Minor: Animal cruelty, Sexism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, and Sexual harassment

◦ Mental illness = addiction, descriptions of asylums in the early 20th century and treatments like electroshock therapy and lobotomy

mscalls's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective tense fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Antisemitism, Medical content, and Grief

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

5.0

 - Pretty sure no one needs my endorsement to pick up EMPIRE OF PAIN at this point, but here it is. I don't read a ton of heavily reported nonfiction, but this is one you can't miss.
- Keefe is so good at discussing complicated people and topics in a conversational, easy to follow way.
- Even if you already know the basics of this story from news reports or other books like DOPESICK, I'm willing to bet there are still anecdotes in this book about the callousness of the people involved that will shock you. You think you know how greedy people can be, and yet.
- Also, this is a sort of irrelevant side note, but if this was fiction I would have dinged the author for seemingly transparently lifting Richard Sackler's personality from the characters in THE SECRET HISTORY, haha. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

kasey_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Suicide and Antisemitism

sarahasyouwish's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

4.5

Incredibly well-researched and thoroughly told. This book lays bare all the ways the Sackler family’s relentless drive for money and their company Purdue Pharma’s aggressive pushing of OxyContin contributed to the opioid epidemic and the subsequent surge in heroin. It was so frustrating to learn about the utter disregard this family had for those people whose lives were harmed by their product and how their money and influence reached out far enough to tip the hands of politicians and even the FDA in their favor. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Antisemitism

exmareadastra's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Medical content, and Grief

Minor: Child death and Antisemitism