Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

White American Youth: My Descent Into America's Most Violent Hate Movement -- And How I Got Out by Christian Picciolini

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pmhandley's review

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dark emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

3.5

Honestly, a lot of my interest in this book grew after realizing Picciolini grew up not that far from where I grew up. I didn't realize that when I initially put it as a to-read. So a lot of my reading ended up being driven by a morbid curiosity about all the place names I recognized and the discomfort that came with realizing there was apparently the center of the Illinois skinhead scene going on nearby right before I was born, and probably continuing after Picciolini became disillusioned and left. When he talked about having to
finish high school at community college after being expelled 5 times from high schools (that I all recognized the names of) I'm 90% sure I know which college he was at.
Even reading about when his first son was born (only a few months before I was) it occurred to me there was a good chance it was the same hospital I was born at. All of that aside, it's a quick read that's hard to put down. You definitely become invested in what happens next. Anytime I found myself thinking the author was a little naive and not good at grasping nuance, I had to remind myself he was a literal child for most of it, being influenced by people he saw as authority figures, and was barely into adulthood when he left the skinheads. I did feel like it was a little shallow though, and skims across his radicalization and then escape quickly, and there could have been more depth. I realize it's a difficult subject and the author rightfully may not want to share in exact detail all of his time in the white nationalist movement.  I felt like the last few chapters where he discusses leaving the movement are very condensed and I wish there was more detail there, about him going back to school and building his own nonprofit as someone that helps youth escape extremist groups. 
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