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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
This book got off to a kind of slow start, and I thought I was going to hate it. It picked up, however, and turned into a really interesting read. I had never heard about this case, and just happened to see this at the library. This story was really tragic. All of these missing girls and family members and friends who loved them left behind, not knowing what in the world happened to them or who was responsible for that. It is also terrible to think that someone was just out there, maybe still out there, doing these things to people and getting away with it.
In this true crime time, I was interested in exploring this book. I found the lives of the girls and the subject well-written, fair, and honest.
A fascinating and eye-opening read, though inherently unsatisfying for me because there are no answers in this case. This book does not dwell much on the details of the murders, nor does it provide any logical suspect for the culprit. It is instead a narrative about the victims, their families, their lives, and the cultures (of sex work, police work, and the barrier communities of Long Island) that failed these women and those they loved. This case is truly odd, confusing, and complicated, which makes for good true crime literature. However, if you can't handle stories without resolutions or you want the author to take a stance on what they believe happened, this is not the book for you.
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
Good read, I just took to long to read (not the book’s fault..it was my own
I’m really bummed because I know I wrote a careful review on why I dnfed this one a few years ago and it seems to have vanished.
But my main concern was the original did not have any information containing sources, reference material, or citations, and when I went to check a quote I had no idea what publication it was from.
I am wary of reading nonfiction without proper citations because who know if that is correct, then?
But my main concern was the original did not have any information containing sources, reference material, or citations, and when I went to check a quote I had no idea what publication it was from.
I am wary of reading nonfiction without proper citations because who know if that is correct, then?
Heavy, heavy in some parts and lots of OMG and WTF moments. Also, I hardly remember hearing about this case when it first happened. I feel like there wasn't much coverage over it, especially outside of local reports. Curious to see how the Netflix movie covers it.
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
dark
emotional
slow-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
slow-paced
When Shannan Gilbert went missing after being seen running through the quiet Oak Beach community screaming for her life nobody could have realised how it was going to turn out. The police and local community weren’t interested in what may have become of the young woman who had been working as an escort but seven months after she went missing a discovery was made in the bramble alongside a local highway; the bodies of four other young women, all wrapped in burlap but still no sign of Shannan. The women, Maureen, Melissa, Megan and Amber were also all working as escorts but were they killed by the same person and what happened to Shannan?
One of my friends on Instagram sent me this copy of “Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery” after she had finished with it and I’ve seen mixed reviews around but I was intrigued by the more victim centred approach that Kolker had gone for.
It’s a very sad tale. These women have been let down time and again throughout their lives and for a variety of reasons have all turned to escort work, mostly using platforms like Craigslist.
I love true crime stories that centre the victims and honour their memories and Kolker has definitely focused on the victims. I did feel the book needed a little re-ordering. Kolker starts off by moving through each woman’s story from childhood before then moving on to their adulthood up to the point of their disappearances. This did mean a little back and forth and gave the book a bit of a disjointed feel. Personally, I think it would have been better to focus on one woman’s story from beginning to end before moving on to the next. It was further complicated by the fact that some of the women used aliases in their adult lives and some of their names were quite similar so I did find myself getting a little lost at times.
It saddened me to see the attitudes towards the women and the element of victim blaming that came into it from sections of the media and even the Police who were supposed to be investigating. The case became a source of political point scoring with opinions switching between whether there was one killer or multiple and whether Shannan was murdered or died accidentally. Ultimately, they were let down just as much after their deaths as they were in their lives.
I knew going into this that it was an unsolved crime but I don’t think I was prepared for exactly what that meant. The Police didn’t really have any suspects at all. The sites that were being used were very transient in their nature so it wasn’t easy for anyone to track who any of the women could have been meeting when they went missing and due to their lifestyles some of them were missing for a while before anyone realised there was anything wrong.
Overall I’m glad I’ve read this and it’s absolutely right for Kolker to shine a light on this case and raise awareness of what happened to these women but his telling was disjointed and lacked focus.