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A review by taylorthiel
Who Gets Believed?: When the Truth Isn't Enough by Dina Nayeri
3.0
I have so much to say about this book. TLDR: this book SHOULD have been great with a focus on why asylum seekers aren’t believed and how false accusations/confessions under duress occur, but it got bogged down by personal narrative, a lack of cohesiveness, and the author’s weird refusal to believe in someone with mental illness.
What’s good:
The examination of asylum seekers, falsely accused prisoners, and even what causes people to believe or not believe in faiths. There was some harrowing and powerful stuff in here. The stories of how asylum seekers would go through some unimaginable things, only to be accused of lying once they get to America/UK was devastating. I also really appreciated the examination of false accusations/confessions under duress.
Loved the look at how asylum agents/cops are trying to find liars rather than trying to help. Great stuff.
What’s bad:
Anytime the author takes about herself or her family or her own belief. (We get it, you think all religious people are faking/psychotic). Literally, should not have had any memoir material at all (other than her own experience seeking asylum. That was fine.)
Also, the book was super all over the place and the stories got hard to follow. I could manage it, but everything was super weaved together.
What’s really bad?:
The authors refusal to believe her brother in law (BIL) is mentally I’ll. Her double down and defending herself in believing that BIL was faking/attention seeking/not working hard when that BIL literally kill’s himself. Because he was white and kinda affluent, that means, according to the author, he was not allowed to suffer and, in reality, that isn’t how mental illness works. That whole thread of her trying to balance the “faking” BIL with all asylum seekers as truth tellers just did not work. It took away from the gravity and seriousness of how asylum seekers are not taken seriously. Which is a crucial a important focus of this book. But it is so dampened when the author won’t take mental illness seriously because the sufferer falls into a category of people she doesn’t like. He. Literally. Killed. Himself.
What’s good:
The examination of asylum seekers, falsely accused prisoners, and even what causes people to believe or not believe in faiths. There was some harrowing and powerful stuff in here. The stories of how asylum seekers would go through some unimaginable things, only to be accused of lying once they get to America/UK was devastating. I also really appreciated the examination of false accusations/confessions under duress.
Loved the look at how asylum agents/cops are trying to find liars rather than trying to help. Great stuff.
What’s bad:
Anytime the author takes about herself or her family or her own belief. (We get it, you think all religious people are faking/psychotic). Literally, should not have had any memoir material at all (other than her own experience seeking asylum. That was fine.)
Also, the book was super all over the place and the stories got hard to follow. I could manage it, but everything was super weaved together.
What’s really bad?:
The authors refusal to believe her brother in law (BIL) is mentally I’ll. Her double down and defending herself in believing that BIL was faking/attention seeking/not working hard when that BIL literally kill’s himself. Because he was white and kinda affluent, that means, according to the author, he was not allowed to suffer and, in reality, that isn’t how mental illness works. That whole thread of her trying to balance the “faking” BIL with all asylum seekers as truth tellers just did not work. It took away from the gravity and seriousness of how asylum seekers are not taken seriously. Which is a crucial a important focus of this book. But it is so dampened when the author won’t take mental illness seriously because the sufferer falls into a category of people she doesn’t like. He. Literally. Killed. Himself.