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 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.
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