Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

If You Tell by Gregg Olsen

27 reviews

autumnwhite's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Toxic friendship, Torture, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Gore, Gaslighting, Violence, Vomit, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Murder, Blood, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, and Drug use

msennflinn's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Torture, Violence, Body horror, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Confinement, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Domestic abuse, Death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Body shaming and Grief

kj45165's review

Great writing. Content too heavy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Sexual harassment

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: 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

modernbookmom's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad slow-paced

2.0

This story was absolutely tragic and needs to be told. But I had the hardest time wanting to finish it or grasp what timeline the story was on. It is severely lacking in cohesiveness even though I do understand multiple view points can be hard to do. I have more questions now than I did before and a lot of them seem like what the general public would most likely inquire about. The fact that there was basically no follow up on why things happened how they happened is frustrating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Torture, Child death, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic relationship

kelly_e's review

challenging dark tense medium-paced

4.0

Title: If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood
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." 

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Content Warnings

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

tesslestial's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture