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Beautiful. Fierce. And heart-wrenching at times, there's a lot of trauma covered here. Author is a trans POC.

It's a journalist telling the story of 20th century global colonialism as implemented by the CIA and US State department. We learn about the topic through stories about some of the people affected by the murderous programs. Stories based on interviews make the book more accessible than a more academic approach. So if the topic of neocolonialism is new to someone, this book would be a good entry point.

When the subtitle refers to an "anticommunist crusade" it seems to reinforce Washington's propaganda. I would have preferred the cover to name it accurately as "colonialism".

The book focuses on Southeast Asia and Latin America. Those are not the only places in the world where the CIA was active in disrupting local governments. I would have liked to see wider geographic coverage, but I suppose the journalistic approach taken by the author made that difficult to accomplish.

Paints a picture of what life was like for queer and gender non conforming people in the 1960s ­­– 1980s.

Not an easy read. Full of traumatic experiences including multiple instances of assault. I had tried to read it once before but I only got 3 chapters in and decided it wasn't good for my own mental well being to keep going. A few years later when I was feeling stronger I tried again and I'm glad I finally made it through.

A beautiful collection of short stories that paint pictures of the Haitian people. I love how many of the stories are interconnected in little ways. Most are connected in some way to the fictional Haitian town of Ville Rose, which also appears in other writing of Danticat.

This should be mandatory reading for every organizer. What an excellent reference!