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Triggered: Creative Responses to the Extrajudicial Killings in the Philippines
Six students. Six mentors. Twelve stories. One country’s fate.
In 2017, college professor Jocelyn Martin invited her freshmen English classes to write fiction stories about the issue of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. Six of the best stories were chosen for publication. Her fellow teacher Cyan Abad-Jugo invited professional writers to mentor these students in polishing their stories and in learning more about how to process this very complex topic, all while contributing their own written pieces in response.
What resulted was an anthology of creative responses to a crucial subject, a conversation between generations, and a memorial against oblivion.
Triggered is YA (young adult fiction) written by YA. Edited by Jocelyn S. Martin and Cyan Abad-Jugo.
In 2017, college professor Jocelyn Martin invited her freshmen English classes to write fiction stories about the issue of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. Six of the best stories were chosen for publication. Her fellow teacher Cyan Abad-Jugo invited professional writers to mentor these students in polishing their stories and in learning more about how to process this very complex topic, all while contributing their own written pieces in response.
What resulted was an anthology of creative responses to a crucial subject, a conversation between generations, and a memorial against oblivion.
Triggered is YA (young adult fiction) written by YA. Edited by Jocelyn S. Martin and Cyan Abad-Jugo.
- GenresShort Stories
200 pages, Unknown Binding
Published November 1, 2021
23 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 13, 2024
It was... creative. I appreciate the effort to put this together. The stories were written in a simple manner, but never easy to read. I had to take some breathers between reading because although fictional, you know that this happened in real life. And it was even worse.
My favorites were September 28 and The Life Penalty.
September 28 - Because I do often wonder WHAT IF Sandro Marcos studied in UP and became woke? How will that change things? I like the perspective that this story brings. I can't exactly put it into words, but this line from Colleen Hoover's It Ends With Us springs up - It's easy when we're on the outside to believe that we would walk away without a second thought if a person mistreated us. It's easy to say we couldn't continue to love someone who mistreats us when we aren't the ones feeling the love of that person. When you experience it firsthand, it isn't so easy to hate the person who mistreats you when most of the time they're your godsend. Maybe most people aren't as ignorant as we think them to be. What's an easy decision for one person, is the hardest for another.
The Life Penalty - This one I did not expect. I like the delivery of the message, and how at the end of the day, it gives hope. Again, another line from CH reminds me - "There is no such thing as bad people. We're all just people who sometimes do bad things." When I was first read this, I was like, "But there ARE bad people!" But then again, what do we know about them? Who are we to judge their lives based on a single action? You know how like in a corporate world, when you're trying to solve a problem, you analyze the root cause, and you fix that. Yes, you can come up with temporary, short-term solutions to mitigate or minimize the risks, but a long-term solution is to identify the root cause and fix that. Ang lagay, e kanya-kanya tayo ng iniisip na root cause, hanggang sa hindi na nga naayos ang problema....
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One could tell by the dark circles under their eyes and the growing wrinkles on their foreheads that this wasn't how they imagined change would come. Change was not a strong, armored knight who would sail across a sea and journey the scorching desert to reach his goal. Yes, change was still strong, but instead, he was a giant that took large and quick strides to finish the race without wondering how many he had stepped on along the way.
My favorites were September 28 and The Life Penalty.
September 28 - Because I do often wonder WHAT IF Sandro Marcos studied in UP and became woke? How will that change things? I like the perspective that this story brings. I can't exactly put it into words, but this line from Colleen Hoover's It Ends With Us springs up - It's easy when we're on the outside to believe that we would walk away without a second thought if a person mistreated us. It's easy to say we couldn't continue to love someone who mistreats us when we aren't the ones feeling the love of that person. When you experience it firsthand, it isn't so easy to hate the person who mistreats you when most of the time they're your godsend. Maybe most people aren't as ignorant as we think them to be. What's an easy decision for one person, is the hardest for another.
The Life Penalty - This one I did not expect. I like the delivery of the message, and how at the end of the day, it gives hope. Again, another line from CH reminds me - "There is no such thing as bad people. We're all just people who sometimes do bad things." When I was first read this, I was like, "But there ARE bad people!" But then again, what do we know about them? Who are we to judge their lives based on a single action? You know how like in a corporate world, when you're trying to solve a problem, you analyze the root cause, and you fix that. Yes, you can come up with temporary, short-term solutions to mitigate or minimize the risks, but a long-term solution is to identify the root cause and fix that. Ang lagay, e kanya-kanya tayo ng iniisip na root cause, hanggang sa hindi na nga naayos ang problema....
---
One could tell by the dark circles under their eyes and the growing wrinkles on their foreheads that this wasn't how they imagined change would come. Change was not a strong, armored knight who would sail across a sea and journey the scorching desert to reach his goal. Yes, change was still strong, but instead, he was a giant that took large and quick strides to finish the race without wondering how many he had stepped on along the way.
December 1, 2022
The fictional short stories in the book Triggered center on extrajudicial killings (EJK) in the Philippines. Jocelyn Martin, a college professor, urged the freshmen in her English class to create fictional accounts of EJK. This report highlighted the top six books.
When I tell you how much I enjoyed this book. Since I'm not a big lover of short tale collections, I thought that I'd feel conflicted about this one. Additionally, I learned from the synopsis that it was written in a YA style. Given that YA is one of my favorite reading genres, I was truly intrigued.
It was interesting to consider things from several viewpoints. Even though it was fiction, it seemed real because it was. The alarming part is that it is still taking place. Because I adore the divergent writing styles so much, I was genuinely shocked that the stories were written by freshmen rather than professional writers.
When I tell you how much I enjoyed this book. Since I'm not a big lover of short tale collections, I thought that I'd feel conflicted about this one. Additionally, I learned from the synopsis that it was written in a YA style. Given that YA is one of my favorite reading genres, I was truly intrigued.
It was interesting to consider things from several viewpoints. Even though it was fiction, it seemed real because it was. The alarming part is that it is still taking place. Because I adore the divergent writing styles so much, I was genuinely shocked that the stories were written by freshmen rather than professional writers.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews