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readingthief's review against another edition
informative
fast-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality, Murder, Rape, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, War, and Alcohol
rdesanto's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
This was a difficult read because of the challenging topics presented. However, it was most insightful and tactfully presented in line with all his other books. I will definitely be reflecting on the information presented for a long time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia and Sexual assault
Moderate: Sexual assault, Murder, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Police brutality
zydecovivo's review against another edition
informative
reflective
tense
slow-paced
3.0
I learned about Malcolm Gladwell through his podcast, Revisionist History. Because of that, I prefer to listen to his books. This one in particular includes interviews, music, and recreated court scenes that I find helpful for keeping my attention. If you are coming into this blind, Gladwell has a way of writing and speaking that is very matter-of-fact and blunt. He intertwines history with personal interviews and studies to illustrate his points, which are usually out of the box or defy convention. He writes as if his answer is the correct, obvious, and logical conclusion. So if you disagree with his assessment of a situation, I can understand why it would be upsetting. This particular book covers some darker topics, such as police brutality, sexual assault, and suicide, and Gladwell’s characteristic tone doesn’t quite bring the empathy I think is needed to approach them. However, he does raise interesting points and provides new ways of thinking about how we communicate, how we trust or distrust, and how we think about others. The overall ideas are interesting and worth talking about, but if you are not in the right headspace to face some graphic descriptions of assault, put this off for a little while.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Police brutality, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Racism, Child abuse, Death, Medical trauma, Hate crime, Mental illness, and Drug use
claire2024's review against another edition
fast-paced
3.5
i think some of the passages surrounding the second chapter could have been done more carefully as they felt somewhat victim-blamy
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Suicide, Rape, Police brutality, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, and Hate crime
morwenna's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Rape, Gun violence, and Police brutality
laurennicolpies's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
fast-paced
3.0
very interesting and a fast read for me but i can’t help but feel uncomfortable with some of the victim blaming sentiments i got from certain passages, specifically in the brock turner r*pe case and the penn state p*do and molestation chapters. i liked the overall sentiment of not assuming things about other people and really enjoyed the discussion about coupling in regards to s*icides, but some conclusions he drew made me uncomfortable and frankly a little angry.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia, Murder, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual harassment, Racism, Torture, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, and Gun violence
rystonlentil43's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
Good interesting book—I like how much information was fit in without losing track of the core framework. I don't think every idea was carried out to a satisfying conclusion, though technically nothing was promised that wasn't followed through on.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Torture, Pedophilia, and Suicide
Moderate: Alcohol, Police brutality, Rape, Death, and Gun violence
flickflickcity's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
4.0
Minor-ish spoilers?
I will note I did skip the Chanel Miller chapter because I didn’t think I could handle it spoken about at length - so I’ll have to defer to other experiences RE: that chapter but please note I didn’t read that chapter in full when reading the following.
I’ve read a lot of reviews that have been highly critical for Gladwell’s “reductive” and/or “victim blaming” approach around heinous crimes. From the parts I read, I feel like that summary could be perhaps be in bad faith. Understandable because this book contains a lot of heavy themes and even for me with the Chanel chapter… I knew I’d not be able to take anything in in a measured way because I feel so emotional about the case. In other chapters I was brought to tears over simple case facts being recalled - so it certainly took a lot of effort to look past my impulse to be enraged we were seeking to ‘understand’ varying parties with varying guilt (from perpetrators to bystanders), but I did my best and here are some initial thoughts. Certainly this book’s theory reduces social/cultural phenomena in a sense - but does so necessarily to try and find a productive way of explaining the roots of our misunderstandings, and in that provides a useful prompt for us moving forward. I felt that rather than achieving breadth, it achieved an actionable impetus for me moving forward. No, my gut response is not to let parents that disbelieve children about abuse off the hook, but I also thought about a similar responses to other reported social infractions of lesser degrees and note that most people are guilty of not wanting to believe the difficult thing especially at first. (AKA “I heard your new friend is not very nice and betrays people’s trust” “ok thanks but I’ll figure that out for myself”) The point I take is that this is a human thing, but also something we can overcome personally (e.g. understand our impulse is to disbelieve deceit and malice and try to push against it where possible in order to learn the truth), and understand broadly (e.g. people may be resistant to things because it takes longer to process that someone is deceptive/awful). Do I think that it’s all good and dandy? No. But I don’t think Gladwell does either, he just wants us to notice it. As for the reductionist arguments regarding culture impacts, I keep thinking about the AI vs the judge example. He is just taking us through one theory, not expecting us to abandon other beliefs. But when ruminating on other considerations, the prompt seems to be for us to be critical about our own statistical inability to be fully accurate with our appraisals. Not that we are all wrong, but that people are more complex - more complex than even a steady understanding of cultural nuance can understand. Considering those factors is not invalid or a waste of time perhaps, it’s just not perfect or foolproof like we may feel it is. Of course, using stats about reoffending etc is an interesting data point given the cultural contexts that *cause* those stats… but again I think if anything this text has allowed me to think and articulate these contributing factors clearer and with more confidence because I am inherently going up against the argument that these complexities make me less accurate not more, and in that sense the book has encouraged me to interrogate and feel more certain in some patterns I see and debunk others.
Anyway, even if I/you don’t agree with all of these theories about coupling, transparency etc. - it’s certainly good for thought.
I will note I did skip the Chanel Miller chapter because I didn’t think I could handle it spoken about at length - so I’ll have to defer to other experiences RE: that chapter but please note I didn’t read that chapter in full when reading the following.
I’ve read a lot of reviews that have been highly critical for Gladwell’s “reductive” and/or “victim blaming” approach around heinous crimes. From the parts I read, I feel like that summary could be perhaps be in bad faith. Understandable because this book contains a lot of heavy themes and even for me with the Chanel chapter… I knew I’d not be able to take anything in in a measured way because I feel so emotional about the case. In other chapters I was brought to tears over simple case facts being recalled - so it certainly took a lot of effort to look past my impulse to be enraged we were seeking to ‘understand’ varying parties with varying guilt (from perpetrators to bystanders), but I did my best and here are some initial thoughts. Certainly this book’s theory reduces social/cultural phenomena in a sense - but does so necessarily to try and find a productive way of explaining the roots of our misunderstandings, and in that provides a useful prompt for us moving forward. I felt that rather than achieving breadth, it achieved an actionable impetus for me moving forward. No, my gut response is not to let parents that disbelieve children about abuse off the hook, but I also thought about a similar responses to other reported social infractions of lesser degrees and note that most people are guilty of not wanting to believe the difficult thing especially at first. (AKA “I heard your new friend is not very nice and betrays people’s trust” “ok thanks but I’ll figure that out for myself”) The point I take is that this is a human thing, but also something we can overcome personally (e.g. understand our impulse is to disbelieve deceit and malice and try to push against it where possible in order to learn the truth), and understand broadly (e.g. people may be resistant to things because it takes longer to process that someone is deceptive/awful). Do I think that it’s all good and dandy? No. But I don’t think Gladwell does either, he just wants us to notice it. As for the reductionist arguments regarding culture impacts, I keep thinking about the AI vs the judge example. He is just taking us through one theory, not expecting us to abandon other beliefs. But when ruminating on other considerations, the prompt seems to be for us to be critical about our own statistical inability to be fully accurate with our appraisals. Not that we are all wrong, but that people are more complex - more complex than even a steady understanding of cultural nuance can understand. Considering those factors is not invalid or a waste of time perhaps, it’s just not perfect or foolproof like we may feel it is. Of course, using stats about reoffending etc is an interesting data point given the cultural contexts that *cause* those stats… but again I think if anything this text has allowed me to think and articulate these contributing factors clearer and with more confidence because I am inherently going up against the argument that these complexities make me less accurate not more, and in that sense the book has encouraged me to interrogate and feel more certain in some patterns I see and debunk others.
Anyway, even if I/you don’t agree with all of these theories about coupling, transparency etc. - it’s certainly good for thought.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Physical abuse, War, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Sexual assault
bratreadsalot's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
5.0
instant favorite. i love this book for a couple of reasons. the main one being the diversity of perspective it brought to a overarching theme. another one being the attention brought to such important topics experienced by too many like racism, date rape, and suicide.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Racism, and Police brutality
k_ro's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Excellent! A fascinating read, well documented and with a mound of information and great analysis of cognitive biases in humans. A must-read!
Content Warnings
Minor: Police brutality, Suicide, Sexual assault, Violence, and Adult/minor relationship