Reviews tagging 'Child death'

If You Tell by Gregg Olsen

80 reviews

nuuamuikkunen's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

2.75

Tykkään siitä miten Gregg Olsen kirjottaa tositapahtumista kuin ne ois fiktiota. Mutta se misogynian ja fat shaming oli ihan överiä tässä kirjassa! Et naiset haluaa vaan olla äitejä ja jos lihot 10 kiloa oot ihan kamalan läski. Yök.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Torture, Slavery, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Murder, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Body shaming, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Confinement, Kidnapping, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, Death, Gore, Domestic abuse, Child death, and Bullying

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Animal cruelty

Minor: Medical content, Terminal illness, and Cancer

bell4trixx's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

3.0

For anyone who is in to true crime. There are parts of this book that is interesting and informative, it does seem like the author did a lot of work researching what happened, but this book could have used a better editor. By the end of it, it really seemed to drag on, I think some of the stories of abuse could have been edited out..

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Physical abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Murder, Gaslighting, Mental illness, and Cursing

Moderate: Sexual content, Blood, Excrement, Torture, and Medical content

If you are triggered by abuse not a good read. Good read if you’re in the mood for an in-depth true crime on an abusive family/mother

kayleedenise0's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Murder, and Torture

priscillarobock's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Body shaming, Cancer, Child death, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Medical content, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Slavery, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Bullying, and Toxic relationship

n_binversie99's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Violence, Gaslighting, Murder, Torture, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Mental illness, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Suicide, Sexual violence, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, and Vomit

Minor: Gun violence, Incest, and Animal cruelty

stacym's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Murder, Physical abuse, and Torture

maddness22's review against another edition

dark sad fast-paced

0.25

I do not respect this book in the slightest. It's an attempt to capitalize on one family's horrible tragedy during the height of the true crime fascination. This is poorly written without any substance to the cruelty it outlines. There's no additional psychological insight into the mother's sadistic nature, no actual mention of the "bonds of sisterhood" until the final 10% of the book and even then it's a rather weak grab, and the timeline of events is written in the worst and most confusing manner. This was literally just composed for shock value and really only lists the acts of crimes committed by the narcissistic and sadistic mother and her pathetic husband. 

If it was meant as a warning for Shelly's release or even as a toolkit for others to recognize how severe abuse can be so subtle in its nature to integrate so fully in a victim's life, the message could've been conveyed with about 200 less pages and repetitive drawn out torture scenes. However, these lessons are barely conveyed successfully anyways. The writing is vague, confusing, and the author truly uses the word "niggled" un-ironically at one point. Like? Seriously? That's not even a real word and it sounds childish at best. 

Skip this shock value torture nonsense. Just know their mother was vile and we need to believe in victims. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, Cancer, Child abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

csimonsensays's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Grief, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Violence

katieryan723's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse

anusplugger's review

challenging dark hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

This story was truly heartbreaking to read and to know that these were true events were frightening. There are people out there who are like Shelly out in the world living without facing any consequences for their sadistic actions and it's so sickening . My heart goes out to all of the victims and victims family who were involved in all of this. There were moments in the story where I got frustrated with the victims because I kept thinking this was all fictional, but I had to take a deep breath to remember that these were true events. And if I were in their shoes, I myself would have done the same as them. However some people in the story should have been more involved and should have taken more action.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Self harm, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Torture, Violence, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Suicide attempt