- WE WERE ONCE A FAMILY is investigative journalism at its best: a book that brings you the untold side of the story and uncovers corruption and neglect far beyond what you thought possible, while maintaining the full humanity of the families at the center of the story.
- This is one of the most enraging books I’ve ever read. It’s the story of people and systems that we sweep under the rug and ignore, because our society has preemptively deemed them as not worth saving.
- Asgarian is quite blunt in her conclusions: none of this had to happen, none of this should have happened, none of this need ever happen again in the future if we wake up and begin to treat everyone as a human worthy of love and care, and if we work to tear down the flawed and failed systems that allowed it.