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A review by aziraphales
On the Farm: Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver's Missing Women by Stevie Cameron
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.5
nightmare nightmare nightmare. complete and utter failure of the justice system. evil from pickton himself to the vpd to the presiding judge. so much love and community and tireless work by the families and institutions like WISH, all dashed because the life of an addicted woman or a sex worker is something the courts can simply turn away from. it doesn't matter. these women loved and were loved and no one was allowed to truly speak for them when it came time for robert pickton to get some kind of retribution.
i've seen some other reviews complaining that stevie cameron spent too long going over the details of each missing woman. not to get too heated, but if you came into this book wanting the juicy details of their deaths and the butchery their bodies were subjected to, shame on you for not wanting to take the time to understand the people they were. this is a long, difficult book that had me in tears multiple times. there is a rage in me about these women -- and any other marginalized person from the DTES who disappears not because no one cares for them, but because our systems don't care for them -- that i never want to lose. the very least you can do, if you're hoping to get some sort of edgy shiver out of reading descriptions of the dismemberment of human bodies, is spend some time learning who these women were and the giant spaces they left in their communities when they disappeared.
i've seen some other reviews complaining that stevie cameron spent too long going over the details of each missing woman. not to get too heated, but if you came into this book wanting the juicy details of their deaths and the butchery their bodies were subjected to, shame on you for not wanting to take the time to understand the people they were. this is a long, difficult book that had me in tears multiple times. there is a rage in me about these women -- and any other marginalized person from the DTES who disappears not because no one cares for them, but because our systems don't care for them -- that i never want to lose. the very least you can do, if you're hoping to get some sort of edgy shiver out of reading descriptions of the dismemberment of human bodies, is spend some time learning who these women were and the giant spaces they left in their communities when they disappeared.