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lapluie8's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Suicide, Torture, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Suicide
schohayes's review
4.5
Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Gun violence, Mental illness, and Suicide
erica_reads_things's review against another edition
4.75
As far as the writing goes, it was pretty well done and attention grabbing. Interesting to listen to, though it does skip around the timelines quite often so it was hard at times to keep track of where things were and how small story tangents fit in. I had to rewind the audio a couple of times to relisten and focus on what was happening. Small qualm with the overall structure or else I would have given it 5 stars. Very tastefully and respectfully done.
Graphic: Physical abuse, Violence, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Torture, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Confinement, Homophobia, Vomit, Drug use, Fatphobia, Grief, and Excrement
Minor: Medical content, Stalking, Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, and Pregnancy
l0ve2h4te's review
4.5
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Rape, Suicide, Violence, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Incest, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Cancer, Child death, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Cursing, Drug use, Gore, Torture, Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, and Murder
julienicole1106's review against another edition
3.25
Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Toxic friendship, Violence, Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Body shaming, Cancer, Child death, Death, and Homophobia
beckyremillard's review against another edition
4.0
However, I was not prepared for the horrors that the victims had to endure. Of course a true crime story discussing murder will have horrendous crimes, but the details of what they experienced - especially first hand from the children - was more than I was expecting.
Honestly, I might not have finished this book, but the beginning describes the sisters in the present. I knew they survived and were doing well today, so once I started reading about the abuse I needed to make it to the end to read about the the survival.
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Torture, Body shaming, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Violence
Moderate: Cancer and Terminal illness
maxgdy's review
4.0
Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Torture, Body shaming, Excrement, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Vomit
lilracc's review
5.0
Graphic: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Murder, Suicide attempt, Homophobia, Hate crime, Gun violence, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Cancer, Animal death, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Cursing, and Blood
caidycat1015's review
4.5
Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Violence
kelly_e's review
4.0
Author: Gregg Olsen
Genre: True Crime
Rating: 4.0
Pub Date: December 1 2019
T H R E E • W O R D S
Disturbing • Shocking • Haunting
📖 S Y N O P S I S
If You Tell is the real-life horror story of three sisters who endured years of torture and abuse at hands of their very own mother, Shelly. It delves deep into their lives as Shelly manipulated and controlled everyone in her life. It's a story of dark family secrets, the power of denial and the unbreakable bond of sisters.
💭 T H O U G H T S
There's always something about true crime that interests me. Having studied psychology, I am fascinated by the human brain and often drawn to stories for the psychological sides of things. This book was definitely one of those where I had a million questions going through my mind as to why and how something so horrifying could happen.
When it comes to content it is certainly not an easy read to stomach, and yet it reads very well structurally. I was gripped from the very first pages, and although the pace seemed to tag three-quarters of the way through, it kept my interest. Olsen has done a fantastic job pulling together pieces of both the past and the present. It is clearly evident he has done a tremendous amount of research in putting this book together.
While there were certainly times when I had to put this book down just to give my mind a break or because I was absolutely blogged by the horrific events that took place, the bond between the three sisters offered a glimpse of hope. I wanted nothing more for these three girls to be able to find happiness and safety in life after facing such evil for much of their first twenty years. This book is definitely not for the faint of heart, but I enjoyed learning about this story and was absolutely shocked to learn Shelly will be released next year after all she has done.
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• True crime fans
• Psychology students
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"She knew that Shelly was searching high and low for her, and that thought of her mother coming to get her made Sami sick inside. Even so, the hold her family had on her was like a leg trap and she was some animal out in the woods."
"I loved my mother because I didn’t know I had a choice. I had to love her."
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Moderate: Cursing, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Blood, Excrement, and Gun violence