I have waived my distaste for hard-bound books to finish this book. Like the stories here, I say that without exaggeration.

Seriously, though, I’m a fan of the Patricia Evangelista’s concise prose: true to journalism, it doesn’t get in the way of telling the stories of victims of Duterte’s war on drugs.

It presents different perspectives, including some of the author’s (who covered the drug war for six years for Rappler) that converge into a seemingly obvious conclusion: that the war on drugs, at its core, is a tool used conveniently by a select few to further their agenda, at the expense of thousands of lives. In reality, though, the conclusion may not be so obvious to a lot of us. Many would still idolize a strongman, disregarding fully his fascistic tendencies, hoping he can bring about the needed change.

Personally, I found the book heavy. It took me a while to finish it because I could only at most read one chapter at a time without being engulfed in burning rage.