Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country by Patricia Evangelista

4 reviews

wendywoo1's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, Child death, Child abuse, Abandonment, Gun violence, Death, Violence, Police brutality, Murder, Sexual violence, Body horror, Torture, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Rape, Racial slurs, Pedophilia, and Injury/Injury detail

cheruphim's review

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

 Beautifully written, and chilling. This book details the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte in the Phillipines, from 2016 to 2022, and the casualties that resulted from his 'War on Drugs'. As someone from the United States, this book was highly informative and sobering. It reminds its readers of the real human cost that incurs when a presidency declares how they're dedicated to 'cleaning up the streets'. It's reminiscent of Nixon's war on drugs, on former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani's war on drugs, on George H.W. Bush's war on drugs, and is probably where Duterte got his inspiration.

I wish nothing but the best for the writer, and hope she is doing well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Car accident, Sexual assault, Child death, Police brutality, Gun violence, Stalking, Drug use, Grief, Confinement, Child abuse, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Gore, Excrement, Rape, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Addiction and Abandonment

Minor: Religious bigotry, Colonisation, and Sexual harassment

melted_books's review

dark informative tense medium-paced

5.0

More people need to be talking about this book! I can absolutely see why it was named by so many review publications as a "best of 2023"  nonfiction pick (Time, New Yorker, NYT, to name a few).
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Patricia Evangelista, a Filipina journalist, has worked as a field correspondent for an independent news agency based in Manila, Philippines. This book is the product of her research, interviews, and anecdotes surrounding former president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte's crooked campaign against the country's war on drugs and the extrajudicial killings that happened under his presidency from 2016 to 2022.
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I listened to the audiobook (narrator: Corey Wilson), and it was very well done. This is an incredibly well researched, harrowing account of Evangelista's experience as a journalist fighting to expose the horrific violence of those extrajudicial killings. With this memoir, Evangelista restores the humanity that was stolen from those who died from these acts of senseless violence. She also poses a critical reminder that language is one of the most powerful tools, if not the most powerful, that we have when it comes to shaping our humanity, our views of the world, and how we treat each other.
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Content warning for (gun) violence, brutality, bodily harm, and harm to children.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Violence, Death, and Police brutality

Moderate: Child death, Rape, and Child abuse

sumsi's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.5

"Some People Need Killing" examines how a society fails to uphold its moral compass. It shows how populism and nationalism lead to a fascist society in which the weakest member of society become the targets of an ever-increasing hate campaign needed to justify the position of those in power. It's a powerful book, and a needed one, as it themes are globally relevant.

Evangelista manages to effortlessly weave in a flurry of topics, including autobiographical details, as well as historic struggles and insights into the contemporary culture of the Philippines. 

We learn about the conditions that lead to  Rodrigo Duterte's rise to power, the impact of his "war against drugs" and the aftermath of a country that reels against the violence it inflicted upon itself. We are presented with the people who voted for him, the people that executed his ideas, and the victims whose lives have been extinguished or otherwise irreversibly impacted for the worse. 

Trying to edit all of this trauma, personal and cultural, down into a report could not have been a harder task. As such I did find myself willfully rereading dense passages, doing extra research, and enduring the  —  at times  —  long-winded reflections and repetitions. It's a fantastic book that I highly recommend. Still I'll have to be honest in that it wasn't quite my cup of tea, and that trying to devour it mostly lead to stomach aches. It's a clunky book  — as in my experience are most that have something of substance to say!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Violence, Addiction, Colonisation, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Child death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, Classism, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Racism, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Murder, Police brutality, and Sexism