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dianametzger's review against another edition
4.0
A slow burn book with an ending that pays off any meandering.
kitinthehall's review against another edition
5.0
this is one of the single best written memoirs i have ever read in my entire life and certainly the bravest and if you rated it 1 star because it wasn’t ”true crime” enough then you missed the entire point of it
madisenmc's review against another edition
4.0
Gripping and interesting story that is extremely well told.
This book is hard to get through in a good sort of way.
This book is hard to get through in a good sort of way.
willwork4airfare's review against another edition
3.0
A very vulnerable and compelling book, definitely not what I expected.
zellm's review against another edition
3.0
I would have loved this if it was a little more memoir, or more true crime. I felt like it didn't fully commit to either, and it suffered because of this. It felt like the Daughter, as a victim, was not respected, and there was a tad too much fetishization of being a victim. It explored the crime committed, but didn't discuss the ramifications thoroughly.
eralbesu's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
4.0
I’m really not a true-crime reader, but this was one I didn’t want to put down.
brooke_review's review against another edition
3.0
I received an ARC copy of this book from the publisher.
This memoir provided an interesting glimpse into what it might have been like to be a wealthy Jewish teenage girl growing up in NYC in the ‘90s. I found the passages on Weiss’s life to be more entertaining than the pieces on Gary Wilensky. I believe that the memoir would have worked better if the author had actually been a victim of Wilensky. She had contact with him as one of “Gary’s Girls,” but nothing ever really happened (thankfully.) Therefore, this memoir wasn’t as scintillating as the blurb would have you believe.
This memoir provided an interesting glimpse into what it might have been like to be a wealthy Jewish teenage girl growing up in NYC in the ‘90s. I found the passages on Weiss’s life to be more entertaining than the pieces on Gary Wilensky. I believe that the memoir would have worked better if the author had actually been a victim of Wilensky. She had contact with him as one of “Gary’s Girls,” but nothing ever really happened (thankfully.) Therefore, this memoir wasn’t as scintillating as the blurb would have you believe.
ingridostby's review against another edition
4.0
This is an incredible book that defies genres—a memoir that reads like a novel with [real] true crime woven in here and there. It is not "true crime." It is filled with authentic 90s specifics that forced me back into time and filled me with nostalgia. I appreciated the true crime *elements*, I loved the prose (which were exquisitely read in the audiobook) and I was moved by reading about a woman, and a girl, who grew up in the 90s never feeling good enough. It's incredibly relatable and poignant—I know all too well how it was to be a girl then. I know what it was like to, because of being raised in that era, struggle with self esteem and with not being popular, with losing friends, with wanting to be an adult's favorite, with being sexualized and wanting but not wanting to be sexualized, of being raised to accept a certain degree of sexualization, disrespect, bullying. All of this is covered, and poetically, in the book.
I know what it is like to be a victim of horrific crimes because I am a woman, and many women know what that's like. Most women can also relate to being a young girl coming of age in a world that is particularly patriarchal and predatory, a world in which we don't quite understand stalking and don't quite believe women when they say they are being stalked, a world that has endless amounts of men who believe you to be an object for their fantasies, who feel entitled to your space, who are convinced they are superior and see no issue to use you to fill their emotional voids and complement their neuroses. Piper was a victim of all of that, as were all of "Gary's girls." Varying degrees of victimhood exist. When you are in the network of a predator, you are already in his net, by his design.
I know what it is like to be a victim of horrific crimes because I am a woman, and many women know what that's like. Most women can also relate to being a young girl coming of age in a world that is particularly patriarchal and predatory, a world in which we don't quite understand stalking and don't quite believe women when they say they are being stalked, a world that has endless amounts of men who believe you to be an object for their fantasies, who feel entitled to your space, who are convinced they are superior and see no issue to use you to fill their emotional voids and complement their neuroses. Piper was a victim of all of that, as were all of "Gary's girls." Varying degrees of victimhood exist. When you are in the network of a predator, you are already in his net, by his design.