Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe

4 reviews

abigail_lo's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad medium-paced

5.0

the only reason it took me so long to read this book is how goddamn infuriating it is. multiple times, i had to close the book before i became overpowered by sheer rage at the fucking nerve of the sacklers + everyone else they bought off. in terms of my takeaways: immense wealth and nepotism will be the literal death of our society. when corporations are allowed to buy their way through all the regulations in place in what amounts to a caricature of free-market capitalism, real people will always suffer. like he says in the afterword: while pain management is a very complex question and opioids are helpful to many people, my heart aches for those who lost their lives due to big pharma's (and specifically purdue's) lust for money. fuck capitalism -- eat the rich <3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Drug abuse, Addiction, and Drug use

Moderate: Forced institutionalization and Mental illness

Minor: Cancer, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Chronic illness

nassuada's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Addiction, Drug abuse, Medical trauma, Chronic illness, Drug use, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Suicide, Terminal illness, Trafficking, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Forced institutionalization

kristin_h_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Suicide, Chronic illness, Addiction, and Drug use

Moderate: Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Antisemitism, and Drug use

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

5.0

 - Pretty sure no one needs my endorsement to pick up EMPIRE OF PAIN at this point, but here it is. I don't read a ton of heavily reported nonfiction, but this is one you can't miss.
- Keefe is so good at discussing complicated people and topics in a conversational, easy to follow way.
- Even if you already know the basics of this story from news reports or other books like DOPESICK, I'm willing to bet there are still anecdotes in this book about the callousness of the people involved that will shock you. You think you know how greedy people can be, and yet.
- Also, this is a sort of irrelevant side note, but if this was fiction I would have dinged the author for seemingly transparently lifting Richard Sackler's personality from the characters in THE SECRET HISTORY, haha. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Antisemitism, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Infidelity, Medical content, Suicide, and Suicide attempt