readingwithcoffee's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

It was not always linear and at times was difficult to follow 

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wendywoo1's review

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challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

4.5


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kyras's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0


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booksbyquinn's review

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challenging dark informative medium-paced

4.5

Very informative and well-written memoir. I found it very interesting when she discussed Duterte’s language and rhetoric. 

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cheruphim's review

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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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melted_books's review

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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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