Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

27 reviews

plumpatio's review against another edition

informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.5

 A compelling narrative about historical events which I know very little about, I was grateful for the audiobook (read by an Irish narrator, which drew me in). I would recommend the book to anyone who enjoys narrative nonfiction with multi-faceted storytelling, but caution that the book is long. I'm not sure I would have finished it so quickly without the audiobook, the only downside of which is the lack of footnotes and images 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Torture, Kidnapping, and War

Moderate: Alcohol, Stalking, Eating disorder, Addiction, Suicide, Police brutality, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Murder, Death, and Alcoholism

A significant portion of the book centers around what are now considered war crimes including

force feeding and "disappearing" people (i.e., murdering people and hiding their bodies)

. There are also discriptions of counterintelligence methods utilized during the conflict.

marywahlmeierbracciano's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Kidnapping, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Colonisation, Death, Excrement, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Suicide, War, Confinement, Religious bigotry, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Dementia, Pedophilia, and Child death

dorakathryn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

4.75

The last couple of chapters made me feel a little weird, otherwise this would've been 5 stars. Something about talking about the incredibly precarious situation these tapes put the unknown third individual in and then naming them and not really referencing any permission that was received to do so was uncomfortable to me after such conversations were referenced about other individuals. However, I did listen to the audiobook which did not contain the endnotes present in the physical one, so maybe (I hope) something is said there.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Addiction, Eating disorder, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Torture, War, Death of parent, Sexism, and Violence

winnifred's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Murder, Gun violence, Child abuse, Religious bigotry, Adult/minor relationship, Hate crime, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Eating disorder, Addiction, and Child death

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Sexual assault, Medical content, and Confinement

kaynan1314's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Murder, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Alcohol, Drug use, Excrement, Violence, War, Gun violence, Police brutality, and Physical abuse

bexdubyah's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Addiction, Child abuse, Eating disorder, War, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Murder, and Kidnapping

sjanke2's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Suicide, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Abandonment, Addiction, Violence, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Rape, Police brutality, Mental illness, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Kidnapping, Eating disorder, Confinement, Cursing, War, Gun violence, Gore, Pedophilia, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Forced institutionalization, Torture, and Grief

atsundarsingh's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Grief, Medical trauma, Addiction, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Police brutality, Confinement, Toxic friendship, Blood, Colonisation, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Religious bigotry, Violence, War, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Torture, and Toxic relationship

laurenfro22's review against another edition

challenging dark informative medium-paced

4.5

Solid text about the memories of folks in the Troubles and the surrounding political, social, and economic landscapes. Made more interesting from my personal history in Belfast and current work at Boston College. The writing is clippy, keeping you moving back and forth in time from perspective to perspective so it doesn’t feel dense and slogging like some other books about this era. Certainly puts events and decisions into perspective laying out the information for readers to explore and understand better. 

“The bogs of Ireland are a landscape that remembers everything that has happened in and to it.” (265) 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Gun violence, Murder, Police brutality, Sexual violence, Suicide, and War

paigeno's review against another edition

dark informative tense

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, War, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Religious bigotry, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Eating disorder, Suicide, Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt