222abbi's review against another edition

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4.75

This book is incredible, it’s a non fiction history book but reads like fiction. It is amazing how it is weaved together key characters from the troubles into a story. It sympathetically told a complicated history in a understanding, entertaining and enlightening way. It is genuinely such an interesting and engaging look at history and present. 

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travisppe's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

Very interesting narrative, almost reads like a novel. 

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rcsreads's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

Say Nothing is advertised as though it's a true crime but the case of Jean McConville's disappearance is just a loose binding to what is essentially a history of The Troubles. From other reviews I've read a lot of people go into this expecting a true crime novel and are disappointed. But if you go into it as a narrative nonfiction history then it's incredibly readable and well written. Patrick Radden Keefe has clearly done his research and, mainly, stays impartial. You will kind of hate Gerry Adams by the end though!
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 I think this would be a good introduction to The Troubles for people who weren't around for this particular part of history, or just as a more detailed look if most of your knowledge came from Newsround in the 90's.
 

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cassimiranda's review against another edition

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dark informative tense medium-paced

4.0


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marywahlmeierbracciano's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative mysterious slow-paced

5.0

Say Nothing is a chilling chronicle of The Troubles of Northern Ireland and its aftermath, with special focus on the orchestrated disappearance of civilian mother of ten Jean McConville.  Per the author, Patrick Radden Keefe, the book is not a comprehensive history, but as someone who knew virtually nothing about The Troubles going in, I found Say Nothing to be a great place to start.  I found the account of the Price sisters to be particularly fascinating.  This is a compelling story about people standing up for what they believe in, filled with betrayal and deadly consequences.  Matthew Blaney’s narration is exquisite.

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foxonabook's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75


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kaynan1314's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0


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bexdubyah's review against another edition

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dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

4.5

The first half was rather dense, but the second half picked up as I became familiar with all of the names and how it all tied together. If you enjoy journalistic nonfiction and history, this is for you!

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sjanke2's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.5


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atsundarsingh's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Exemplary writing. The Troubles are such a hard thing to write about, precisely because the story of the violence is still such a live issue. Still, this is a tightly coiled and deftly rendered dig into some of that hard history. Since it's such recent history, it was also really cool to be able to look up some of the obits and editorials that he discusses online, and know they were only a quick search away. Finally, and this is historian brain speaking, the absolutely essential nature of oral history projects especially to peace and reconciliation efforts is on full display here, and so is history's present-day relevance. A very well-deserved award winner, and likely to send me on another full anti-empire rabbit hole of books. 

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