November 26, 2023 – Thornbury
This book is my villain origin story. It broke me over and over again. I've been reading it for months, picking it up and then needing to take a break, over and over and over again.
The scale of this is so big, and the violence so stomach churning, it becomes hard to take in. But how you can read this and not become radicalised is beyond me. It's so extreme, the fact that it's not a national emergency seems wild to me.
The stories in here are so upsetting, but it's clear that Jess Hill knows what she's doing, balancing education, shock and empathy.
Interlocking systems of oppression — patriarchy, capitalism, class, policing, the family court, colonialism, racism — are hard to untangle. I hope we can eventually escape this nightmare.
Anyway this is required reading. Not pleasant but critically important.