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h_teichman's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Murder, and Suicide attempt
ilycianna's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
fast-paced
5.0
cbiskner's review against another edition
dark
emotional
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Child abuse, and Mental illness
jourdanicus's review against another edition
I got enough of an impression of the situation by the time I was about halfway through, and the word-for-word psychiatric interview was becoming repetitive. A sad story of yet another victim of religious cultism and our piss-poor mental healthcare system, whose children were the ones who ended up paying the ultimate price.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Murder, and Mental illness
Moderate: Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Pregnancy and Miscarriage
xxstefaniereadsxx's review against another edition
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced
3.0
I picked this book up yesterday at the library when I took my girls to do an activity for the summer reading program. I have no idea why in the world I got this book, because this case makes me absolutely rage. Nevertheless, I got it, and I read it all last night. (This has it marked as 400 pages, but the edition that I have is less than 300 if you do not include the index pages.) Guess what? It made me so angry.
Andrea Kennedy Yates was born in 1964 in Texas. As a teenager, she suffered from bulimia and depression. She once even spoke to her friend about suicide. She did well in school, going on to become a nurse. She worked in that capacity until she met her husband, unfortunately marrying him. They decided they were going to have as many children as God would allow, which is a religious position that irritates me. If you cannot mentally handle having children, which is noticeable after the first one or two, (especially in this particular case), then you do not need to have four or five more.... you put yourself and your wellbeing at risk, not to mention the lives of the children involved, even if they aren't murdered. Anyway, I digress. That husband moved them into an RV, as though being crammed in an RV with babies while you are having a mental breakdown is helpful. He then decided he better get them a little bitty house to pack five kids into for "her health" as though continuing to have kids against all reason was for "her health".
Andrea Yates is portrayed in the media as this absolutely evil woman who murdered her children. When I first became aware of her case, I was shocked by her ability to drown five children one after another. In fact, I probably thought she was absolutely diabolical. I was wrong, and a lot of other people are wrong about her as well. She is not evil. Not by any stretch. Did she kill her children? YES. Is she guilty of doing that? YES. She is not evil. Andrea clearly suffered from mental illness. This book has a very useful timeline in the front of significant dates, which I appreciated. She had a baby in 1994 and 1995. Being pregnant and having children back to back creates a lot of changes in your life-mentally and physically. (I personally have some mental health issues, and I know they were worse when I was unmedicated during pregnancy and post partum depression was no joke.) She had a miscarriage in 1996, which creates a whole host of other feelings and changes. She has another baby in 1997. She has yet another baby in 1999. She was hospitalized for trying to overdose, and was diagnosed with major depressive disorder. She tried to kill herself again after that hospitalization. She is off and on medications and seeing therapists from that point onward. She has another baby in 2000, as though that was a great idea, since her therapist told them to stop having kids because it was making her mental issues worse. Her father died in 2001, right around the time that she was hospitalized for a third time with postpartum depression and recurrent major depression. In the spring of 2001, Andrea filled the bathtub with water, and thought about drowning her children, but did not because her mother in law and husband were home. She was hospitalized again. Two days before she killed her children, she saw her therapist. The woman was given medications and then taken off of them so much, I cannot imagine how she could regulate. She had also become obsessed with the Bible, the mark of the beast, and doing a sacrifice.
Andrea called 911 to report what she had done, but she never did confess over the phone. When the police arrived, she told him that she had killed her children. She sat on the couch and calmly waited until they finished with their crime scene stuff, and went calmly to jail. She confessed what she did. She was put on trial, which was delayed due to the attacks on the World Trade Center. She was found not guilty by reason of insanity, as she should have been. She was clearly disturbed and not thinking properly at all. Her mental illnesses were clearly documented prior to this event, and it was clear it wasn't a last ditch made up effort of a defense for trial. She has been incarcerated in a low security mental health facility since. She is reportedly doing quite well and is medicated, and she has no desire to leave the facility. I cannot imagine how she must feel about all that has happened when she is thinking clearly and not in the throes of a breakdown.
Something that really gets on my nerves is how everyone feels sorry for the husband. Yes, it is sad for him that he lost all of his children in one day. That's about all the sympathy he gets from me. He married this woman, and then was completely irresponsible. He could clearly see that she was struggling. He could clearly see that something was wrong. He claimed he was concerned for her wellbeing, yet he sure kept her pregnant as though that was helping the issue. He claimed he was concerned for the children, enough to have his mother come babysit his wife to make sure she didn't hurt them or herself. He wasn't concerned enough to stop having them. He wasn't concerned enough to listen to the medical professionals that explained to them that having children was setting off her schizophrenia and post partum psychosis. He just kept her pregnant and isolated. He is trash, and there isn't a soul on the planet that will change my mind from that stance. I have seen his interviews on various shows and documentaries, and he absolutely disgusts me. He filed for divorce from Andrea, because he just couldn't stay married to her after she had did that to their children, as though he bears no accountability for it. He remarried and his new wife filed for divorce from him.
The case is sad. It is sad that five little kids were brought into this world and had to live in such a strain for their short lives. It is sad that Andrea has suffered from mental illness for essentially her entire life. It is sad that she murdered her children, and it is sad that the children were murdered. It is sad that her husband was irresponsible and hid behind organized religion to fuel his own personal desires. It is sad that the media vilified someone who clearly should have been committed a long time ago, spreading misinformation about post partum psychosis and the onset of schizophrenia after childbirth. I hope that everyone involved finds some peace, even that husband, and that this case serves as a reminder that these issues are real and should not be glossed over with that "baby blues" term.
Andrea Kennedy Yates was born in 1964 in Texas. As a teenager, she suffered from bulimia and depression. She once even spoke to her friend about suicide. She did well in school, going on to become a nurse. She worked in that capacity until she met her husband, unfortunately marrying him. They decided they were going to have as many children as God would allow, which is a religious position that irritates me. If you cannot mentally handle having children, which is noticeable after the first one or two, (especially in this particular case), then you do not need to have four or five more.... you put yourself and your wellbeing at risk, not to mention the lives of the children involved, even if they aren't murdered. Anyway, I digress. That husband moved them into an RV, as though being crammed in an RV with babies while you are having a mental breakdown is helpful. He then decided he better get them a little bitty house to pack five kids into for "her health" as though continuing to have kids against all reason was for "her health".
Andrea Yates is portrayed in the media as this absolutely evil woman who murdered her children. When I first became aware of her case, I was shocked by her ability to drown five children one after another. In fact, I probably thought she was absolutely diabolical. I was wrong, and a lot of other people are wrong about her as well. She is not evil. Not by any stretch. Did she kill her children? YES. Is she guilty of doing that? YES. She is not evil. Andrea clearly suffered from mental illness. This book has a very useful timeline in the front of significant dates, which I appreciated. She had a baby in 1994 and 1995. Being pregnant and having children back to back creates a lot of changes in your life-mentally and physically. (I personally have some mental health issues, and I know they were worse when I was unmedicated during pregnancy and post partum depression was no joke.) She had a miscarriage in 1996, which creates a whole host of other feelings and changes. She has another baby in 1997. She has yet another baby in 1999. She was hospitalized for trying to overdose, and was diagnosed with major depressive disorder. She tried to kill herself again after that hospitalization. She is off and on medications and seeing therapists from that point onward. She has another baby in 2000, as though that was a great idea, since her therapist told them to stop having kids because it was making her mental issues worse. Her father died in 2001, right around the time that she was hospitalized for a third time with postpartum depression and recurrent major depression. In the spring of 2001, Andrea filled the bathtub with water, and thought about drowning her children, but did not because her mother in law and husband were home. She was hospitalized again. Two days before she killed her children, she saw her therapist. The woman was given medications and then taken off of them so much, I cannot imagine how she could regulate. She had also become obsessed with the Bible, the mark of the beast, and doing a sacrifice.
Andrea called 911 to report what she had done, but she never did confess over the phone. When the police arrived, she told him that she had killed her children. She sat on the couch and calmly waited until they finished with their crime scene stuff, and went calmly to jail. She confessed what she did. She was put on trial, which was delayed due to the attacks on the World Trade Center. She was found not guilty by reason of insanity, as she should have been. She was clearly disturbed and not thinking properly at all. Her mental illnesses were clearly documented prior to this event, and it was clear it wasn't a last ditch made up effort of a defense for trial. She has been incarcerated in a low security mental health facility since. She is reportedly doing quite well and is medicated, and she has no desire to leave the facility. I cannot imagine how she must feel about all that has happened when she is thinking clearly and not in the throes of a breakdown.
Something that really gets on my nerves is how everyone feels sorry for the husband. Yes, it is sad for him that he lost all of his children in one day. That's about all the sympathy he gets from me. He married this woman, and then was completely irresponsible. He could clearly see that she was struggling. He could clearly see that something was wrong. He claimed he was concerned for her wellbeing, yet he sure kept her pregnant as though that was helping the issue. He claimed he was concerned for the children, enough to have his mother come babysit his wife to make sure she didn't hurt them or herself. He wasn't concerned enough to stop having them. He wasn't concerned enough to listen to the medical professionals that explained to them that having children was setting off her schizophrenia and post partum psychosis. He just kept her pregnant and isolated. He is trash, and there isn't a soul on the planet that will change my mind from that stance. I have seen his interviews on various shows and documentaries, and he absolutely disgusts me. He filed for divorce from Andrea, because he just couldn't stay married to her after she had did that to their children, as though he bears no accountability for it. He remarried and his new wife filed for divorce from him.
The case is sad. It is sad that five little kids were brought into this world and had to live in such a strain for their short lives. It is sad that Andrea has suffered from mental illness for essentially her entire life. It is sad that she murdered her children, and it is sad that the children were murdered. It is sad that her husband was irresponsible and hid behind organized religion to fuel his own personal desires. It is sad that the media vilified someone who clearly should have been committed a long time ago, spreading misinformation about post partum psychosis and the onset of schizophrenia after childbirth. I hope that everyone involved finds some peace, even that husband, and that this case serves as a reminder that these issues are real and should not be glossed over with that "baby blues" term.