caribbeangirlreading's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
tense
medium-paced
5.0
We all like to think of the Klan as a historical dinosaur that only exists in history books, but Kirk Wallace Johnson is here to tell you that the Klan is alive, well, and very active in Texas. I'm still sitting here, thinking about the fact that Pasadena, a suburb of Houston, was a sundown town until the 1980s. That the Boy Scouts that were trained by the Klan are now men in their 50s walking among us. That the majority of the vile, racist, xenophobic people written about in this book are alive and still living among us. That the whole idea that the Klan infiltrated law enforcement and the armed forces is not something new that exploded on January 6, 2021. White supremacists have always been among us and they have never gone away.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, and Racism
Moderate: Gun violence and Sexism
Minor: Death, Animal death, and Cancer
notbucket24's review
5.0
This book is a hard read. Not a knock on the author, but on the sheer racism, violence and hatred inflicted on the Vietnamese immigrants in this book, especially knowing that attitudes displayed by the locals and the KKK they brought in have become more acceptable and embraced over the past few years. The author does a very good job telling the story of that, and weaving a story of an environmental disaster that also pushes the fishing community to the limit.
arcookson's review
challenging
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Racial slurs
Minor: Animal death
sde's review
5.0
It usually takes me forever to read non-fiction, but I finished this book over the course of two days. The author did a great job of writing short chapters and ending them with cliffhangers, and I fell for it. I kept saying to myself "one more chapter," and turned the page.
I was young when most of what is depicted in this book took place, but I am surprised that I didn't hear about any of this before beyond the fact that I knew that many Vietnamese settled and fished along the Gulf Coast. I only knew that because my brother lives in Louisiana and married a New Orleans native, and many of her friends are Vietnamese.
The shocking thing to me in this book was not the fact that the Klan existed, but that people were extremely open about belonging as recently as the 1980s. I didn't know anything about the backlash/growth of the Klan after the Vietnam War. I also was not shocked with the extreme disregard for the environment and the population that the chemical plants had, but I was surprised that even when the EPA investigated, the plants rarely got cited.
The author did a good job at portraying even Klan members as complicated people who had both positive and negative sides. Although much of what these people did was horrendous, the author helped the reader understand better why they did it.
At the end of the book, the author writes that the book is going to be turned into a movie. I hope Diane Wilson is a central character in the book and they do an accurate job portraying her. I am fascinated by her and how she had the strength to do all she did despite hardly ever leaving her small town. She had the courage to speak out and do unusual things even though she knew they would likely make her an outcast. I did not know about the horrible environmental conditions in Taiwan until I read about Diane's visit there, and I wish there was more about her visit in the book.
I was young when most of what is depicted in this book took place, but I am surprised that I didn't hear about any of this before beyond the fact that I knew that many Vietnamese settled and fished along the Gulf Coast. I only knew that because my brother lives in Louisiana and married a New Orleans native, and many of her friends are Vietnamese.
The shocking thing to me in this book was not the fact that the Klan existed, but that people were extremely open about belonging as recently as the 1980s. I didn't know anything about the backlash/growth of the Klan after the Vietnam War. I also was not shocked with the extreme disregard for the environment and the population that the chemical plants had, but I was surprised that even when the EPA investigated, the plants rarely got cited.
The author did a good job at portraying even Klan members as complicated people who had both positive and negative sides. Although much of what these people did was horrendous, the author helped the reader understand better why they did it.
At the end of the book, the author writes that the book is going to be turned into a movie. I hope Diane Wilson is a central character in the book and they do an accurate job portraying her. I am fascinated by her and how she had the strength to do all she did despite hardly ever leaving her small town. She had the courage to speak out and do unusual things even though she knew they would likely make her an outcast. I did not know about the horrible environmental conditions in Taiwan until I read about Diane's visit there, and I wish there was more about her visit in the book.