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Reviews tagging 'Violence'
Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country by Patricia Evangelista
15 reviews
isthisbooktaken's review
4.25
Graphic: Violence, Grief, Murder, Death, Police brutality, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail
drraytay's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Police brutality, Addiction, Murder, Drug use, Gun violence, Violence, Drug abuse, and Death
melted_books's review
5.0
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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.
Graphic: Physical abuse, Violence, Death, and Police brutality
Moderate: Child death, Rape, and Child abuse
sumsi's review
3.5
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!
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
lisztaffe's review
4.5
Graphic: Murder, Police brutality, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, Addiction, Physical abuse, Hate crime, Classism, Death of parent, Drug use, and Gun violence
Minor: Torture