Reviews tagging 'Mass/school shootings'

Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness by Kristen Radtke

18 reviews

cheye13's review against another edition

reflective sad fast-paced

3.0

I really appreciated the narrative here, particularly with the research, but it felt like so much dimension was missing. We cover the generic American male and female, but never branch out into other spheres of loneliness – lgbtq, bipoc, children, prisoners. Arguably, that was not what the book was attempting to do, given the structure of the project, but it is what the synopsis implied. Ultimately, this book simply whet my appetite for a more comprehensive, traditionally written study of the topic.

All that being said, this is a very effective and evocative project. It's exceptionally well-researched and structured well. While there is no offered solution past the examination and acceptance of the phenomenon of American loneliness, it does reach out a hand to hold. This book ultimately validates a lot of emotions stemming from isolation and offers: we are not alone in our loneliness. It's not much, but we've gotta start somewhere.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty

Moderate: Mass/school shootings

Minor: Death and Grief

no graphic imagery is shown, but there are brief but graphic descriptions of animal abuse in a research context.

kyriannaj's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

2.75

This book felt like the beginning part of a journey, not the whole journey. There's little hope or encouraging parts to hold on to in all the lonely darkness this book deals with. It's clearly an incredibly well researched piece, but with how heavy and dark the content can become, I wish more research was done to show us how to reconnect among this loneliness. Many times I felt it was building to something, or there was the start of a beautiful concept, only to be abruptly cut off and the topic changed leaving the book feeling disjointed. While this isn't the fault of the author's, due to it being written pre-COVID there is no mention of it other than the beginning author's note. Which left the whole book feeling very 'small scale' compared to what the world had just experienced.
The last 100 pages or so were incredibly difficult to read, especially with imagery. It's about Harry Harlow's monkey experiments, which I struggle to understand why they were necessary to include in the first place, at such a graphic level.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Child abuse

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, and Medical content

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Cancer, Chronic illness, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, and Abortion

the non-graphic summary of the study is that Harry Harlow was researching isolation, what it does to those isolated, how those isolated react upon joining a group, and how that group reacts. However as it went on he became more and more sadistic and abusive towards the monkeys. And around 100 pages are spent on this, in detail, with an attempt to humanize and explain what he did

moonbrained's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Grief, Sexual violence, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Abandonment, Animal death, and Chronic illness

Minor: Child death, Alcoholism, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Alcohol, Abandonment, Addiction, Cancer, Car accident, Medical content, and Pandemic/Epidemic

lilybear3's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

The writing is incredible and I wrote a bunch of them down so I could remember them.  It was really insightful, though I wished some things were more in-depth.  I don't know if that could've been achieved with a graphic novel format, but that's something I would've liked.  However, I did learn a lot about Dr. Harry Harlow and his monkey experiments, which a lot of people have heard of, but maybe just the most famous one (cloth monkey & wire monkey).  He did a lot more experiments with monkeys so check those Content Warnings.

Overall, I don't have a whole lot of thoughts other than I liked it and I'd be interested in learning more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Mass/school shootings, and Animal death

jessrock's review against another edition

dark informative reflective slow-paced

2.75

This book is a mix of memoir and nonfiction, illustrated in the manner of a graphic novel. It meanders a lot, and spends more time dispensing factoids than it does really wrestling with what it means to be lonely, and overall never really gripped me with anything it was saying. The second half of the book talks extensively about Harry Harlow and his monkey experiments; I'd read a book about Harlow before (Love at Goon Park) so this information wasn't new to me, but it's a heavy and distressing topic that may take readers by surprise to get halfway into a book about loneliness and suddenly be hit with ongoing discussions of cruelty to animals.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Mass/school shootings

greywolfheir's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Rape

stefhany's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty

Moderate: Gun violence and Mass/school shootings

lowbrowhighart's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Big trigger warning for animal cruelty/torture! Part of the book details Harry Harlow's experiments with Rhesus monkeys. Wish I would've known that before reading!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Torture, and Mental illness

Moderate: Death, Rape, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Grief, Alcoholism, Mass/school shootings, Sexual assault, and Violence

Minor: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Misogyny, Sexism, Hate crime, Death, and Cancer

tiffanylorraine's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Car accident, Mass/school shootings, and Animal cruelty

ce_read's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Grief, Torture, Animal cruelty, and Mental illness

Moderate: Abandonment, Rape, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Mass/school shootings, and Suicide

Minor: Bullying