Reviews tagging 'Death'

If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood by Gregg Olsen, Gregg Olsen

174 reviews

bhahnert's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Child abuse, Body horror, Stalking, Cursing, Child death, Homophobia, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Violence

spookysierra's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Death of parent, Animal death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Slavery, Blood, Vomit, Alcohol, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Torture, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cancer, Gaslighting, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Addiction, and Violence

kcp3321's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

4.0

This book was a lot to digest.  This is the harrowing true story of a family with an abusive and murderous mother.  The daughters survive, despite a childhood full of trauma, terror, and torture.  There were many parts of the book that were disturbing to read so I can only imagine how the girls felt living those experiences.  I think the most difficult part of this book to read was the hair trigger switch that had the mother swinging from pretending to be happy to being absolutely vile.  
I thought it was well written and I commend the daughters for their strength to escape.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Mental illness, Torture, Child abuse, and Death

nanirump's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

3.5

So brutal. So hard to fathom some of the thing in this book- the complicity, that no one believed them, that no one around them noticed more.. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Murder, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, and Child abuse

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, and Bullying

jessrica77's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.0

This was a good story, but I did not care for how it was written.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Death, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Murder, Torture, and Violence

fink1129's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Vomit, Torture, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Slavery, Mental illness, Murder, and Bullying

laciejanelle94's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Bullying, Child death, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Child abuse, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, and Torture

carax561's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Grief, Murder, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Body shaming, Bullying, Violence, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Sexual violence, Torture, Death, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

kamrynkoble's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

4.5

This was the best true crime nonfiction I’ve read so far. I flew through it.

I know this is a personal preference, but I liked that this focused on an active narration and witness/victim perception. I prefer this style to true crime that’s mainly comprised of court docs, police records, and criminals’ journals. This still summarized the police and court case, but it’s not the focus. It was organized well, wonderfully paced, and struck the right balance of being thorough without being laborious to read. 

Some of the other reviewers commented that this was too much “what” and not enough “why.” I, for one, prefer not to have authors inject their own personal opinions and speculations. I appreciated the afterword which spoke more to psychology, and a bit more analysis of Shelly specially would’ve been interesting. But for someone who reads a lot of true crime, I liked the author’s “position” in telling the narrative—telling, without injecting himself. 

It’s so evident that the three children of the abuser were highly involved in this project. I was invested in these girls, and had real emotional reactions to what they and the other victims faced. 

This includes heavy trigger warnings for abuse/torture of all kind against adults and children. If you’re sensitive to these elements, I’d recommend checking out a more thorough warning. 

If you’re looking for a riveting and perfectly executed true crime book, I recommend this one!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Murder, Death, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Blood

gellyreads's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.5

I feel like I should probably give this 5 stars because I devoured it. But, it just felt like something was missing. I'm not sure. Although, this is the best true crime book I've read. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Child abuse, Death, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Child death, Torture, Murder, Violence, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Bullying, Body shaming, Slavery, Cursing, Confinement, Gaslighting, Mental illness, and Blood