Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

16 reviews

skoot's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad fast-paced

3.0

Genocide

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Colonisation

sierrah_2101's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.25

 

"Virtually every element of society was complicit in the murderous system." -David Grann

I read Grann's novel in tandem with watching Scorsese's film, which only intensified both works' emotional impact on me. Grann's novel, which he spent over a decade researching, focused on Tom White's investigation into the 20-year terrorization of the Osage Nation. White recognized 24 murders associated with this reign, but Grann offers a significantly higher total: 60+. Throughout the novel, Grann offers many options for motives to these murders, but he offers you the above quote: money, power, greed, stolen through a government, a culture that was not only blind to it but complicit to it.

Although passionately researched by Grann over many years, my main gripe with the novel matched the opinion of DiCaprio: Upon reading the screenplay directly adapted from Grann's novel, DiCaprio realized how focused on White, and the true crime/procedural aspects of the novel. Thus, for the film, he offered that the story focuses more on the Osage themselves, specifically on Mollie Burkhart. This, emotionally, is where Grann stumbles the most. While packed with true crime intrigue, the novel focuses the vast majority of the pages on White, his history, and his contributions to the growth and development of the FBI.

This isn't to say that it was poorly written or didn't have a clear emphasis on empathy and self-awareness (of ourselves and the privileges we receive from our culture and system of government). Grann leads us through the mystery in such an intriguing way I could not put the book down for two days straight. His writing style, while simple, was straightforward in all the ways it needed to be. There was no beating around the bush on how horrible these people were. Not to mention, Grann pressed on to meet and interview many Osage families and connect tens more murders to the original "outbreak". It felt cathartic as a reader, and I hope it was even more so for the families that had been waiting a century for closure.

"Killers of the Flower Moon", the film and the novel, are heavy, heart-wrenching works that every American should be exposed to. The sheer nakedness of greed is still occurring today, with the same amount of deeply ingrained racism. Grann's novel taps into these ideas with beauty and tact, and both his and Scorsese's work. I only wish one day these stories will be told by American Indians themselves. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Racism, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Police brutality, and Medical trauma

Minor: Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

siriface's review

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Racism, Police brutality, and Murder

hi_itsnatty's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

A fantastic story that is one of many on Turtle Island that needs to be consistently investigated all over. Overall, a good book to reflect and think about the stories still needing to be revisited and solved for families affected by MMIW cold cases.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

miggyfool's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

blaketisdebest's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

Truly one of the best books I’ve ever read. Chronicles the grotesque history of abuse and extortion of the indigenous in the americas as a legacy that continues today. The author approaches the nonfiction tale as a narrative beyond reality by how shocking and inane the story of the Osage truly is.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

vixenreader's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.25

A non-fiction book that moves with the urgency of a murder-mystery, this account of a forgotten injustice will boil your blood, especially since the crimes were saturated with racism against the Osage First Nations. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Infidelity, Medical content, Stalking, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Police brutality, and Pregnancy

Be warned that there is a graphic bombing episode, medical content involving diabetes, covering up crime scenes, frequent poisoning, financial abuse, policies preventing First Nations from accessing their accounts, court scenes, and mention of “burning human flesh” from an electric chair.

thoseoldcrows23's review

dark informative sad tense medium-paced

5.0

This case is completely insane and so so heartbreaking. I think non fiction like this is always at risk of being super dry and boring, but Grann tells the story beautifully. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Medical content, and Death of parent

Minor: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Police brutality, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy

hellbender's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

rosemaryandrue's review

dark emotional informative medium-paced

4.0

In the 1920s, a spree of mysterious deaths began to plague the Osage Indians, whose oil wealth had made others resentful of them. But the conspiracy of the murders was darker and deeper than anyone could have suspected.

I’ve been wanting to read this book for a while, but finally took the plunge in light of the upcoming movie. This is a fascinating, depressing story about how a people were systematically subjected to great violence for their great wealth, and how the control that the US government exerted over them only made them more vulnerable to exploitation. I found myself shocked by the various twists and turns in the case – the last section of the book, “The Journalist,” especially boggled the mind.

However, my attention did lag at times during the second part of the book, and in a strange was felt emotionally distant from the various personages that populated the story, even though we get plenty of time to get to know them and understand what they went through. I wonder if this is some particular disconnect between Grann’s style of writing and my brain – I’ve noticed this in his other books I’ve read, and most other readers don’t seem to have this issue.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Murder

Moderate: Police brutality