Reviews

They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib

therealcubcake's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad tense slow-paced

4.25

woodedbooks's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

andotherworlds's review

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5.0

5 // how the hell did this silly looking livre surpass all imaginable expectations and present some of the most impactful writing i have yet to come across

hanif abdurraqib YOU ARE A WRITERRRRRR

kayymwil's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

rebeccadiv's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad

4.5

sandpiiper's review

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5.0

my absolute favorite book of all time!!!! abdurraqib explains the Beauty of music so well and every essay in this book is a masterpiece. i’ve read this book at least 4 times and my copy is covered with so many sticky notes, annotations, rips, tears, water stains, bends, and whatever else and i adore it so much. who knew i would want to listen to carly rae jepsen after reading this

dijoncreamy's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

emily_mad's review

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dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

4.25

sabsey's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

 4.5 stars.

This was longggg with a lotttt of essays - more than I expected. Deeply existential and grief-laden in the first half, with more interrogation around America and the multitude of the author's identities (and what they mean in modern America) in the second half, with music as the great centrepiece through them all.

I came to this collection because of the author's writings in another essay compilation I read earlier this year (Critical Hits), and because someone once told me that in this set was an essay about Fall Out Boy - and it was the best essay they'd ever read. Glad I saw it through and actually picked this up. Adburraqib has a beautiful poetic voice bleeding through this, and now I'm excited to get my hands on some of his poetry some time in the future.

Standouts were:

A Night in Bruce Springsteen's America
ScHoolboy Q Wants White People to Say the Word
Under Half-Lit Fluorescents: The Wonder Years and the Great Suburban Narrative
Brief Notes on Staying // No One Is Making Their Best Work When They Want To Die
Years of the Black Parade
Fall Out Boy Forever
Ric Flair, Best Rapper Alive
There Is the Picture of Michael Jackson Kissing Whitney Houston on the Cheek
Rumours and the Currency of Heartbreak
In the Summer of 1997, Everyone Took to the Streets in Shiny Suits
Nina Simone Was Very Black
Blood Summer, In Three Parts
Fear in Two Winters
On Paris
My First Police Stop
Serena Williams and the Policing of Imagined Arrogance
They Will Speak Loudest of You After You've Gone
Johnny Cash Never Shot A Man in Reno. Or, The Migos: Nice Kids from the Suburbs
The White Rapper Joke 

orion93's review against another edition

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emotional funny informative reflective

5.0