Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Still Life with Bones by Alexa Hagerty

10 reviews

lizzzardbean's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Kidnapping, and Violence

Moderate: Torture

vbarsi's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

This is one of my favorite books of the year so far (I’ve read over 15 books as of May 2024). It combines history, forensic science, politics and religion, and cultural beliefs surrounding death with the anthropologists own personal stories and experiences of her life and her time doing forensic anthropology in Argentina and Guatemala. I think this is an incredible read, though it is gut-wrenching and challenging to read about the violence. It also shows how the United States is complicit in overthrowing democratically elected governments in favor of violent dictatorships, because it suits their financial interests. I will always think of Guatemala when someone tries to mention the United States as the moral compass of the world. Additionally Alexa highlights the corruption of the catholic church in Argentina

and their ability to overlook or help the dictatorship with disappearing people.

Overall, it was beautifully written, with amazing metaphors. The one quote that really hit me: “the work of mourning involves killing the dead or dying with them”. As someone who lost their dad at 10 years old this hit me in my feeeels. Will be recommending this to every person I know!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Genocide, Gore, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Gun violence, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Death, Torture, Violence, Grief, Kidnapping, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders

errie's review against another edition

challenging informative

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, Racism, Child death, Genocide, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Confinement, Violence, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Police brutality, Trafficking, and War

betsythegremlin's review

challenging dark informative sad medium-paced

5.0

Heartbreaking read but very important. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, Violence, Hate crime, Death, Mass/school shootings, War, Torture, Child death, Police brutality, Murder, Gore, Xenophobia, and Kidnapping

hgustlin's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Murder, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Child death, and Violence

bookbrig's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

I learned so much from this book, and it made me want to go back to reread The Bone Woman by Clea Koff. I only knew the very vaguest details about the history this book recounts, so I'm also hoping to read some of the books mentioned in the text for more context and info. This is a moving mixture of memoir and history and testimony and witness to atrocities that feels particularly timely, though I suppose it is unfortunately timely at any given moment. It's not a light read, but it is a really well written one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Grief, Death, Child death, Medical trauma, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Torture, Confinement, Violence, and Panic attacks/disorders

mslaureeslibrary's review

dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Kidnapping, Murder, Hate crime, Gun violence, Grief, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Child death, Child abuse, Racism, Genocide, Sexual assault, Torture, Slavery, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Forced institutionalization, Death, Confinement, Classism, and Antisemitism

siria's review

challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

A powerful and difficult look at the work involved in, and the meaning underpinning, the recovery of the remains of the Disappeared. Alexa Hegarty here recounts her work as a forensic anthropologist in Guatemala and Argentina, two countries marked by horrific dictatorial violence in the twentieth century. Individuals and sometimes whole communities were tortured and massacred, their remains dumped in mass graves or tossed down wells or dumped out at sea. When it's even possible to recover these remains—the sea tends to keep its secrets; some wells plumb too deep to be excavated safely—restoring their names to them is another very difficult task. Still Life with Bones is an absorbing and elegiac account of the terror that the state can inflict, and the choices that people make in the face of it; Hagerty's commitment to a grassroots, community-focused recovery process is admirable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Torture, Child death, Murder, Police brutality, Genocide, Grief, and Kidnapping

moonytoast's review against another edition

challenging emotional medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, War, Murder, Violence, Police brutality, Genocide, Gun violence, Grief, and Death

Moderate: Child death, Torture, and Sexual violence

laurenkimoto's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Gore, Classism, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Miscarriage, Murder, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Violence, Physical abuse, War, Blood, Child death, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Confinement, Death, and Torture