Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Raised by a Serial Killer: Discovering the Truth About My Father by April Balascio

5 reviews

macyjreads's review

dark fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

lexcellent's review

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

librarymouse's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

3.75

I found myself at stops and starts with this book. April Balascio has a gift for drawing readers into the experiences she describes, and for having sympathy in her heart for people who have hurt her. What surprised me most about the memoir was how kind and receptive her father's victim's families were to her. Though, in retrospect, given that she turned him in, that should not have been that much of a surprise. The anticlimax of her escape of her father's house shows the banality of evil in people. As she puts it, her father never saw himself as a monster. I know in memoirs like this, we only get one side of the story, but the difference between the childhoods Balascio and her two brothers nearest in age had, vs that of her two youngest siblings does show in her younger sister's pushing back against Balascio's initial instinct to report what she suspected of her father to the authorities for fear of what it would do to their family. I'm glad she left her husband. How she described him in the book, he seemed like a terrible man. A different sort of terrible than her father, but still unkind and combative. Balascio is vulnerable throughout the book, sharing the impacts the abuse of her childhood had on the rest of her life. She shares how her father's presence and child rearing techniques lead to her own problematic habits as a parent, while still taking responsibility for her actions.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, and Blood

Minor: Bullying, Eating disorder, Homophobia, and Incest

incest tagged for a memory Balascio recounts, in which her father gives her a hickey as a young teenager, to try to make Balascio's boyfriend at the time lash out at her and break up with her, so he can reinstate total control.

cayleeguy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Violence

wamorrison95's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring fast-paced

4.75

This book is difficult to read and the documentation of April Balascio’s father’s crimes is dark, but April’s story has a hopeful turn in the third act that is a testament to human resilience and makes this book a refreshing, new take on true crime and the work that goes into healing afterwards. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Violence, and Murder