Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

If You Tell by Gregg Olsen

45 reviews

nerfie's review

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

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

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

Moderate: Cursing and Suicide attempt

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

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

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: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Animal cruelty, Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide attempt

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: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

thewoodlandbookshelf's review

dark informative medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

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

beckyremillard's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

4.0

This was so hard to read. I wasn’t aware of this story, as all of this occurred before I was born or when I was young. I don’t read many true crime stories, but this one was recommended to me and the summary sounded like thrillers I have read. 

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Cancer and Terminal illness

maxgdy's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

lilracc's review

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Blood, Excrement, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

caidycat1015's review

dark emotional sad slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail