Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

If You Tell by Gregg Olsen

39 reviews

mtehan7's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Torture, Body shaming, Gaslighting, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Homophobia, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Cancer, Child death, Emotional abuse, Slavery, Violence, Vomit, and Sexual harassment

cxxitlyn's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

1.5

The writing in this book really ruined it for me. It felt very poor for the first half, after that it just seemed I had grown “used” to it. The events described are horrific, and it’s hard to remember that these are things people truly lived through and experienced. Reading their story is really the only thing that kept me reading. Their events are told in detail though, so this book is not for the faint of heart as some of the things described are incredibly hard to read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Bullying, Death, Abandonment, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Fatphobia, Grief, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Torture, Toxic friendship, Blood, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Child abuse, Cursing, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Cancer, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Abortion, Hate crime, Murder, and Homophobia

mob333's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Bullying

randalynhill's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

4.0

Somehow the saddest part about this book is that it’s all very real. I had to stop and remind myself often that I was reading nonfiction & people actually lived this wild, insane, and incredibly unfortunate experience. 

Yes, it was incredibly engaging for my thriller / crime loving mind, but thinking about trauma and the reality that these people are free in the world again, mind blowing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse

nerfie's review

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gaslighting, Violence, Bullying, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Body horror, Confinement, Drug abuse, and Emotional abuse

lydiasturges's review against another edition

dark emotional informative medium-paced

5.0

Horrifying story that was told in such a respectful and informative way. Did not feel exploitative at all. It was clear the family wanted the story to be told on their terms.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Torture, Blood, Violence, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Suicide attempt and Cursing

ka_ke's review

dark emotional informative slow-paced

3.0

I didn’t realize If You Tell was non-fiction until I actually started reading it. But the content of this book reaches a level of dark monstrosity that not even Stephen King himself would write it. The Knotek case is a once-in-a-lifetime look into psychopathy with plenty of theories as to how Shelly Knotek’s early childhood impacted her through out her life until her imprisonment. It also shows just how effective abusive individuals can be with their victims. For Shelly to claim having cancer for literal decades with no one questioning her, its almost amazing to learn about. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, Torture, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Alcohol, Bullying, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

reading_warren's review

challenging dark informative sad tense slow-paced

2.5

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

she's apprehended

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.

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Content Warnings

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

julienicole1106's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

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

thewoodlandbookshelf's review

dark informative medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Sexual violence, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Fatphobia, Slavery, Suicide attempt, Violence, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Murder, Death, Emotional abuse, and Excrement