Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

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

14 reviews

akswhy's review against another edition

challenging dark informative tense slow-paced

3.5

A wildly comprehensive book on a notoriously difficult to tackle subject. I learned TONS, but I think the book was too long. It could have been trimmed down. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Eating disorder and Misogyny

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Dementia, and Alcohol

ketsy95's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Pedophilia and Sexual violence

mikeybjones's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Alcohol, and War

bigheadcam's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

An absolutely incredible, fascinating, and perfectly paced narrative nonfiction on the Troubles. Radden Keefe is very careful to specify that this book is not "historical" nonfiction because a lot of the information in this book is derived from oral accounts. He did his best to reconcile these accounts by corroborating them with more official records and reports, but the Troubles are not well documented and were a truly chaotic time.

Radden Keefe's writing is objective and informative while also remaining gripping and maintaining an excellent storytelling tone. I was consistently impressed with how well he kept every subject covered interesting, and how he manages to switch contexts without losing the reader or making it jarring.

Thanks to John Oliver for recommending this on Hot Ones. I'd happily do the same for anyone with an interest in history, radical ideologies, revolution, and modern struggles for independence as well as the cost of said struggles.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

timesnewroman12point's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Alcohol, and War

helenab18's review against another edition

challenging dark informative

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Alcohol, and War

lipliplip's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Classism

travisppe's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

Very interesting narrative, almost reads like a novel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

plumpatio's review against another edition

informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.5

 A compelling narrative about historical events which I know very little about, I was grateful for the audiobook (read by an Irish narrator, which drew me in). I would recommend the book to anyone who enjoys narrative nonfiction with multi-faceted storytelling, but caution that the book is long. I'm not sure I would have finished it so quickly without the audiobook, the only downside of which is the lack of footnotes and images 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Suicide, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, and Alcohol

A significant portion of the book centers around what are now considered war crimes including

force feeding and "disappearing" people (i.e., murdering people and hiding their bodies)

. There are also discriptions of counterintelligence methods utilized during the conflict.

proudtobeabookaholic's review against another edition

challenging informative medium-paced

2.0

Patrick Radden Keefe tar avstamp i bortförandet av 38-åriga änkan Jean McConville i december 1972. Hennes tio barn återstår henne aldrig. Att det var IRA som låg bakom hennes försvinnande var tydligt, men vad hade Jean egentligen gjort? Keefe redogör sedan för stora delar av IRA:s historia och terror, i den mån han kunnat gräva fram uppgifter.

Vi får lära känna flera personer och det är inte lätt att hålla reda på alla, eller vem som är vem. För mig blir systrarna Dolours och Marian Price mest minnesvärda. Deras engagemang i Provisoriska IRA, "provos", beskrivs detaljerat, men även deras liv efteråt. Gerry Adams och Brendan Hughes är två andra huvudpersoner, där Adams ständigt förnekat sin inblandning i IRA. Denna våldsamma konflikt mellan den protestantiska, lojalistiska sidan respektive den katolska, republikanska sidan pågick mestadels under 1960-1990-talen, men har efterverkningar än idag. 

Eftersom det här är en slags reportagebok så har den inget rakt händelseförlopp och många gånger känner jag bara att namn, grupperingar och årtal snurrar runt i mitt huvud. Det finns definitivt intressanta och till och med spännande delar, men för det mesta är jag förvirrad eller bortkollrad. Har lyssnat på den här boken och tror jag hade uppskattat den mer om jag läst den. Det är en bokcirkel-bok, så det ska bli intressant att höra vad de andra tycker om ett par dagar.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Mental illness and Alcohol