Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

18 reviews

marywahlmeierbracciano's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious slow-paced

5.0

Say Nothing is a chilling chronicle of The Troubles of Northern Ireland and its aftermath, with special focus on the orchestrated disappearance of civilian mother of ten Jean McConville.  Per the author, Patrick Radden Keefe, the book is not a comprehensive history, but as someone who knew virtually nothing about The Troubles going in, I found Say Nothing to be a great place to start.  I found the account of the Price sisters to be particularly fascinating.  This is a compelling story about people standing up for what they believe in, filled with betrayal and deadly consequences.  Matthew Blaney’s narration is exquisite.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Kidnapping, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Pedophilia, and Dementia

foxonabook's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Classism

hannahquin's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Gun violence, Hate crime, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, and Mental illness

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, and Pedophilia

atsundarsingh's review against another edition

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

5.0

Exemplary writing. The Troubles are such a hard thing to write about, precisely because the story of the violence is still such a live issue. Still, this is a tightly coiled and deftly rendered dig into some of that hard history. Since it's such recent history, it was also really cool to be able to look up some of the obits and editorials that he discusses online, and know they were only a quick search away. Finally, and this is historian brain speaking, the absolutely essential nature of oral history projects especially to peace and reconciliation efforts is on full display here, and so is history's present-day relevance. A very well-deserved award winner, and likely to send me on another full anti-empire rabbit hole of books. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

laurenfro22's review against another edition

challenging dark informative medium-paced

4.5

Solid text about the memories of folks in the Troubles and the surrounding political, social, and economic landscapes. Made more interesting from my personal history in Belfast and current work at Boston College. The writing is clippy, keeping you moving back and forth in time from perspective to perspective so it doesn’t feel dense and slogging like some other books about this era. Certainly puts events and decisions into perspective laying out the information for readers to explore and understand better. 

“The bogs of Ireland are a landscape that remembers everything that has happened in and to it.” (265) 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Suicide, Blood, Police brutality, Murder, Alcohol, and War

kgroods9's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

you can tell the author writes for the new yorker because this should have been a quite dense and taxing read, but instead it reads more like a novel. the author manages to discuss a macro event, but tell it through the lens of individual players involved. a great read if you’re interested in history, but often put off by the density of historical writing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and War

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, and Murder

malloryfitz's review against another edition

dark informative sad

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Suicide, Blood, Religious bigotry, and Medical trauma

Minor: Animal death, Cancer, and Excrement

jbellomy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Hate crime, Violence, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, and Police brutality