kendal_reads's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative medium-paced

4.75


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haleybird's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

This book was incredibly thought provoking and informative, it’s just really dense and was personally hard for me to get through, but I’m glad I did! It’s difficult for me to keep up with so many acronyms, company names, so much data and stats, etc. 

Regardless of that, however, I do believe this is a book that anyone who uses rechargeable electronics or electric vehicles should read. The more people know about the atrocities that continue to be committed in the Congo for the sole purpose of exploiting their resources, the better. 

I will surely be much more conscious about my consumption of products that use rechargeable batteries moving forward, as I can’t in good conscience keep blindly consuming while children, women, and men in the Congo continue to die indiscriminately. We all need to do better!  

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meat_muffin's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative slow-paced

4.0


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melnao1's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative medium-paced

4.25

eye opening and daunting. It's crazy the parallels that this life offers. While we scroll on our endless timelines, there are children and adults working in their graves making less than $2 dollars a day to power those screens. The conditions of cobalt mining go way beyond inhumane/exploitation, it was pretty hard to read about. 

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ainsley's review against another edition

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4.75

Absolutely brutal; functionally a sequel to King Leopold's Ghost. Yet another tale of horror that may have been avoided had the CIA not involved itself.

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salemander's review against another edition

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5.0

devastating and so informative. free the congo. 

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ecn's review against another edition

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5.0

Mandatory reading!

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scmiller's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

3.75


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lowkeymarie's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

5.0


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caseycdelima's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

4.5

I would give this book a 4.5, but mostly because I listened to it as an audiobook and so it was sometimes hard to follow some of the acronyms and names mentioned. Despite this, I believe this is such an important telling of a story that is not well known among the Western world but something we all are complicit in. The people of the Congo are still wrapped in brutal slavery that speeds forward due to green energy and technological advances hailed in wealthy countries. Kara does an excellent job balancing historical facts, statistics, and personal stories of the Congolese artisan miners and I was horrified by this account and am even more interested in learning more about how we can demand change and freedom for the Congolese.

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