Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks by Patrick Radden Keefe

4 reviews

maggies's review against another edition

adventurous informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

Keefe is such a compelling writer about all topics that capture his imagination, and this selection of essays is no different. Plus, read by the author—and what a narrator he is. Very enjoyable

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Drug abuse, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Self harm, Domestic abuse, and Suicide

issyd23's review against another edition

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

3.0

My fav chapters were the first and the last: Bill Koch gets scammed by fake wine and a profile on Anthony Bourdain 3🏴‍☠️

NB I love survivor but fuck Mark Burnett.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cancer, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Cursing, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Police brutality, Racism, Torture, Violence, War, Animal cruelty, Blood, Bullying, Murder, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Cultural appropriation, Death, and Domestic abuse

ashwaar's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

4.0

I have greatly enjoyed Keefe's previous books, Say Nothing and Empire of Pain, but I was also intimidated at times. Both are grand, shocking and eventful books covering crucial and compelling topics. However, Rogues felt just a little bit more accessible in comparison.

So to start with, this book is so easy to read compared to the others. You can take your time getting through it without forgetting what has happened in the previous pages. It also gives you so many interesting stories and anecdotes to tell other people. I relayed every chapter to my boyfriend after I read it because of how weird and interesting the stories were. My favourites were The Hunt for El Chapo, Winning, and The Worst of the Worst (in case you were wondering).

However, so many of these stories didn't have much of an ending. I felt a bit unsatisfied when I finished one of them, as although the crux of the story is interesting and compelling, these people and their stories and repercussions are never-ending. The story of the Jefferson wines, although fascinating, didn't end with anything more than a warning that the majority of highly collectable wines may be fakes, and the chapter on Falciani, who stole data from the Swiss banks, was open-ended. We don't really get any answers to the questions that crop up when we start each chapter.

But I understand these stories can rarely be tied up with a neat little bow. Crime is often confusing and complex, with different actors saying different things about their roles in the scheme. The lack of a finale doesn't take away from the stories in any way, it leaves the reader to contemplate the messiness of our modern world and the different ways we tell our stories.

Read more on Wordpress at Bookmarked by Ash: https://book990337086.wordpress.com/

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Gun violence, Drug use, Child death, Drug abuse, Death, and Mass/school shootings

sydapel's review against another edition

informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.75

I like Keefe's writing style, even though sometimes while listening I wonder whether I'm entertaining myself or storing away information to entertain my father with later. This is a well constructed collection, even if I didn't really pay attention to a few of the stories. Keefe's talent lies in uncovering the heart of each person he's writing about, what might have driven them to act out enough to warrant the profile, while still allowing for a bit of mystery to remain. However, there's a distinct male focus to his work, with only one of these essays examining a woman (and even then, she's one of the only female mass shooters and written as somewhere between crazy and a psychopath) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Drug use, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Murder, Death, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts