Powerful ... Evangelista makes us feel the fear and grief that she felt as she chronicled what Duterte was doing to her country. But appealing to our emotions is only part of it; what makes this book so striking is that she wants us to think about what happened, too. She pays close attention to language, and not only because she is a writer. Language can be used to communicate, to deny, to threaten, to cajole. Duterte’s language is coarse and degrading. Evangelista’s is evocative and exacting.
Meticulously researched ... The bleak, gripping prose is reminiscent of a crime novel. It is gruesome without feeling exploitative. Evangelista unravels the web of dehumanization and everyday failures that led to Duterte’s rise, leaving the reader with few answers and an unsettling picture of the future. Analytical, ambitious, and told with empathy, this will stand as a definitive historical account of the Philippines’ drug war.
