Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Não Contes a Ninguém by Gregg Olsen

20 reviews

twistykris's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

3.75

The abuse and torture so many endured at the hands of Shelly (and Dave) is absolutely horrific. A very difficult read for the content involved (PLEASE check trigger/ content warnings).

I understand how difficult it must have been to compile all of this information from multiple people, but at times the book felt very repetitive and used a lot of unnecessary metaphors. 

Also, I have

VERY little sympathy for Dave. Yes, he was abused by Shelly and being a victim of someone so terrifying can alter your mentality, I know. But you CANNOT tell me he didn't know that what she was doing was so fucking wrong. He literally shot and killed his own nephew because she told him to. He watched his wife abuse her children and grown adults. He says he didn't know bleach was bad for the skin and thought it was fine that Shelly made Ron soak his feet in boiling water and bleach?? HUH?! And the fact they're both OUT AND FREE? Disgusting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Self harm, Slavery, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Gaslighting, Gun violence, and Murder

Moderate: Ableism and Animal cruelty

heathermarie08's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

3.0

This is a horrible story of an evil mother, her brave children and victims. I usually enjoy true crime but for some reason did not enjoy this book as much. It read a bit slow and I felt like could've been a shorter book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, and Bullying

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Child death, Excrement, and Fatphobia

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Cancer, and Alcohol

melly82092's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

5.0

I don't think I have ever read a story more painful and gut wrenching then this one. The Author did an excellent job re-telling the events through the POV of those involved. This one is going to haunt me for quite awhile, I can feel it... 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child death, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Gun violence, Death, Body shaming, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Torture, Murder, Mental illness, Cursing, Child abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Abandonment, Drug use, Cancer, and Blood

cxxitlyn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

1.5

The writing in this book really ruined it for me. It felt very poor for the first half, after that it just seemed I had grown “used” to it. The events described are horrific, and it’s hard to remember that these are things people truly lived through and experienced. Reading their story is really the only thing that kept me reading. Their events are told in detail though, so this book is not for the faint of heart as some of the things described are incredibly hard to read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Bullying, Death, Abandonment, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Fatphobia, Grief, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Torture, Toxic friendship, Blood, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Child abuse, Cursing, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Cancer, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Abortion, Hate crime, Murder, and Homophobia

turtle_camille's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, Body horror, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse

madsreads_'s review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

2.0

as you can see by all the content warnings - a grim read. also felt like the author was kind of revelling in the vivid descriptions of abuse????? the story felt almost fictional in the way it was written, unlike other true crime I have read 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Mental illness, Murder, Alcoholism, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Suicide, Bullying, Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Toxic relationship, and Violence

lapluie8's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

4.0

SHOOKETH

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Suicide, Torture, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Suicide

reading_warren's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad tense slow-paced

2.5

This book was an arduous read for me due to the crimes and abuses discussed and depicted.  It was in gruesome detail and the situation for the children and other victims, "friends" of the criminal, seems hopeless throughout a majority of the novel.
Frankly, I regret reading this, but I did it for the Amazon Kindle summer reading challenge.  I know that it is important to acknowledge survivors and victims, to hear their stories, and be aware of criminals and how they're able to manipulate others and the law to get away with evil acts, but this was just too much, even for someone like myself that avidly (regrettably) listens to a true crime podcast or two.  
There's little in the realm of levity or uplifting moments. It's like falling into a pit of despair where each page turn takes you deeper, further into an abyss even when it seems you've hit the bottom. Even when

she's apprehended

there wasn't a real sense of relief until I was able to mark the novel as finished and remove it from my Kindle library. For someone who is stronger and able to emotionally handle and process learning about truly vile things people can do to their children and "friends," this may be a more tolerable novel.  That was simply not the case for me.  Still a 2.5 because the novel itself is like. Pretty fine. The information is good and a majority of it comes from interviews with survivors or those close to the criminal.  Maybe the pacing was a little slow at points, but I genuinely can't tell if that was from how hard it was for me to dredge my way through it or not.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, and Torture

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Animal cruelty, Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, and Cancer

Brief, unspoilery as possible, descriptions of trigger warnings (from what I recall): Child abuse:

incredibly graphic maternal abuse of three girls and one boy from very young ages to young adulthood, including being forced to abuse each other and father being told to abuse them by mother abuse is physical, emotional, and could be considered sexual (no penetrative rape is depicted or discussed as far as I remember)

Domestic abuse:

multiple men abused by wife/ex to varying degrees of severity

Emotional abuse:

children, friends of mother, and mother's husband and exes

Physical abuse:

mother would physically abuse children and two "friends" and would sometimes enlist the children or her husband to do her bidding for her

Drug use:

mother forces multiple people to take (unknown?) prescription pills

Murder:

three murders in graphic detail, one of a young adult by a father figure at mother figure's bidding

Gaslighting:

gaslighting of children described in detail at multiple points

Toxic relationship:

for further information see domestic abuse and child abuse and murder

Torture:

I feel as though what the children underwent was torture, and certainly what the mother did to her "friends" counts as such. truly horrible things were done to these people

Sexual Violence:

genital trauma and nudity as punishment, to the children when they are teens and to mother's "friends" as well

Homophobia:

one of the "friends" of the mother is a gay man who she attacks with homophobic slurs on multiple occasions

Suicidal thoughts:

If I recall correctly, the novel discusses the suicidal ideation of at least one child

Animal cruelty:

If I recall correctly, there are brief mentions of animals being mistreated in this novel but it's not discussed in really any detail, it's mostly a "and if you thought she was evil for what she did to her kids, she also mistreated her animals" type of inclusion

Panic attacks/disorders:

It is mentioned at least once that a child experienced a panic attack as a result of maternal abuse

Suicide attempt:

It is mentioned that a child tried to commit suicide with poisonous berries at one point, I cannot recall if there were other suicide attempts, but there was at least one. One of the mother's "friends" threatened suicide when she wanted to kick him out to try to avoid responsibility for his failing health and inevitable death

Cancer:

mother pretends to have cancer to manipulate those around her

msfaltersbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Domestic abuse

julienicole1106's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Toxic friendship, Violence, Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Body shaming, Cancer, Child death, Death, and Homophobia