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neurospicychaos 's review for:
Cries Unheard: Why Children Kill: The Story of Mary Bell
by Gitta Sereny
This is a horribly sad book. Mary Bell's life before her crimes was never OK and when she killed those two toddlers, when she was 10 and 11, she basically ensured that her life would never be OK, ever. This is not a book that condones her actions, it is a book that tries to understand how it came to the point that an older child killed two younger children.
The saddest thing about this whole thing is, that if someone had paid attention and had done something, two boys might not have died and Mary Bell's life might have been saved.
As mother of a toddler I can too easily imagine the pain these families who have lost their children are going through.
But this book shows us that we can't turn a blind eye to neighbourhood child who is in obvious pain, we all have a responsibility to protect the children in our community and we can't ignore these kinds of problems out of politeness to the families or an idea that the best thing is to keep to ourselves. These children's pain, ignored for too long, will eventually explode in one way or another.
The book describes the crimes, trial, Mary's time in different institutions, amongst them prison when she was only 16, and her life as a parent, trying to live with what she has done.
The pacing is slow going at times, but prison life is monotonous and the writing reflects that.
The saddest thing about this whole thing is, that if someone had paid attention and had done something, two boys might not have died and Mary Bell's life might have been saved.
As mother of a toddler I can too easily imagine the pain these families who have lost their children are going through.
But this book shows us that we can't turn a blind eye to neighbourhood child who is in obvious pain, we all have a responsibility to protect the children in our community and we can't ignore these kinds of problems out of politeness to the families or an idea that the best thing is to keep to ourselves. These children's pain, ignored for too long, will eventually explode in one way or another.
The book describes the crimes, trial, Mary's time in different institutions, amongst them prison when she was only 16, and her life as a parent, trying to live with what she has done.
The pacing is slow going at times, but prison life is monotonous and the writing reflects that.