Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

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

9 reviews

zoinkie's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Police brutality, Confinement, Drug use, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, War, Drug abuse, Addiction, Body horror, Colonisation, Death of parent, Death, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Blood, Pandemic/Epidemic, Alcoholism, Classism, Cursing, Gore, and Violence

ange_astylecollector's review

emotional

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Mass/school shootings, Police brutality, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Blood, Gun violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Body horror, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Torture, and Violence

hesticht's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, and Murder

omgsynecdoche's review against another edition

dark informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

This is a thought-provoking piece about the state of not only the Philippines but also its people. In the midst of a “war on drugs” declared by a former president, there is a need to examine the casualties, and whether they were indeed enemies or simply collateral damage. 

Evangelista’s writing remains to be sharp yet poetic at the same time. I found especially interesting the way she paralleled the (re)birth of Philippine democracy 30+ years ago and the death of literally thousands of Filipinos. A must-read  if you’re Filipino, by blood, by law, or just at heart. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Violence, Death of parent, and Gun violence

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

owmyleg's review

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, Child death, Death, Murder, Police brutality, Death of parent, and Violence

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

lisztaffe's review

challenging dark emotional informative tense fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

pomeranian_poltergeist's review

challenging dark informative sad tense medium-paced

4.0

I am giving this book 4 stars in respect for Patricia Evangelista's journalistic integrity and courage. I absolutely respect the incredible effort, dedication, and fearlessness it took to research and compile this book - and of course to publish it, which doubtlessly antagonized Duterte supporters in the Philippines and abroad.
And yet: this book could have benefited from a little extra editing. In its clunkiness I suspect pressure to publish on time, before political machinations change the tide of public opinion, but I wish it'd gone another round or two against a professional eye, if only to trim redundancy and instances of slightly clunky prose.  ("They were all x and y", as in, "she was all brown eyes and long legs", is one turn of phrase that showed up at least three or four times - petty, sure, but come on.) It could have taken this book from a fairly decent on-the-ground record of extreme extrajudicial violence to a timeless and necessary must-read expose.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Child death, and Death of parent