Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe

70 reviews

emmaevns's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Murder, and War

Moderate: Eating disorder and Kidnapping

marina_s's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad slow-paced

For someone with limited knowledge of “the Troubles”, this was an informative and insightful read. The narrative weaves between characters and through time in a way more reminiscent of a novel than of non-fiction. 

This book centres on the people who lost the most, and gives a real sense of trauma inflicted on everyone both during the active fighting, and the rippling after effects. I kept thinking this was further in the past but the events at the end of the book were well within my adult lifetime. How do people move on, and should they?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Murder, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism, Eating disorder, and Torture

qqjj's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, 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

nitar8's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault

mmccombs's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

4.5

Patrick Radden Keefe is the example of how to do great investigative journalism that blends facts, personal narratives, and emotional nuance. It took a while for me to get fully invested in this one (as opposed to Empire of Pain, which I immediately couldn’t put down), but after I switched over to audio to mix it up, I loved how Keefe guided our view of the Troubles through the lens of individuals and how their stories intersected. He never placed value judgements on any one person’s actions, but didn’t shy away from showing the incredibly devastating impacts of violence on communities. I learned a lot from this one and feel I have a better grasp on what I now realize is a vastly more nuanced, cultural history that is felt today. 

“Who should be held accountable for a shared history of violence?”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Eating disorder, Violence, and Religious bigotry

sonygaystation's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Eating disorder, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Torture, and Medical content

Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Excrement, Dementia, and Suicide attempt

_cararichardson's review against another edition

challenging mysterious sad slow-paced

4.75

This book was extremely well done and thoughtfully researched. I got a lot of quotes from this one. It’s a fairly dense (not in a bad way) and was a fairly slow read for me, although that’s usually the case with non fiction. It’s a very complicated issue and I liked how Radden Keefe slowly unraveled the story  and it’s players. I didn’t know anything about the Troubles before going into this. I will say it took me a while to get a firm grasp on who supported what and what the different political groups stood for. At first I didn’t know how me or the author felt about the conflict, but as the narrative built I got a better understanding of the factors at play (what any great nonfiction book hopes to do!). Keefe managed to tow the line between sympathetic and scrutinizing. Overall, while this wasn’t an ~enjoyable~ read in the tropical sense, it was very heavy subject matter, I came away from this book with a lot to think about. Where should our ideals end, and how far should we be willing to go for our ideals?

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Kidnapping, and Murder

Minor: Rape

laurenkimoto's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.5

Going into this my knowledge of the troubles was limited to Derry Girls and that small plot point in Criminal Minds, so to start I was a little confused (and I’m still not 100% confident) but overall was explained in an interesting and clear way. 

The audiobook gets a bonus 0.5 star (not included) because it is narrated by an Irish man and every time he said “poor” it added a week to my life. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

meredith_peruzzi's review against another edition

challenging dark informative fast-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism and Gaslighting

Minor: Terminal illness and Fire/Fire injury