... a powerful oral history told in voices that pulse with terror, incredulity, and rage. In his own clear, powerful prose, Gibler places the tragic events in historical, political, and international context. On the final pages, he lists the names of the dead and the missing. This is an essential work of exacting, caring, and memorializing reportage.
Although repetitious in places, each youth's retelling from his perspective helps to build the tension and disbelief each one felt through the long hours of that night ... The afterword is particularly important: it clears up details of that night as well as exposes the cover-ups, tampering with evidence and lies the police and government officials at the highest levels continue to insist are fact. By pulling together all these traumatic narratives, Gibler helps the parents of the disappeared throughout Mexico say, 'Basta' (enough). They won't give up on searching for their loved ones and for the truth.
Gibler delivers a meticulous and affecting recreation of the events ... It’s a heartbreaking reconstruction of a horrific event, made all the more profound by the persistent demand from the parents of the disappeared, their classmates, and citizens across country for the safe return of the students.
Gibler only presents one side, but he offers compelling testimony that there is no other side—that police attacked without provocation and the government did its best to cover up what it had perhaps authorized in the first place. The results seem beyond dispute ... Repetitive in detail but cumulatively very moving.
