Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by bri_i
The Family Next Door: The Heartbreaking Imprisonment of the 13 Turpin Siblings and Their Extraordinary Rescue by John Glatt
3.0
I agree with the reviews saying that this was primarily a book of things you could have learned from a google search. This was essentially a compilation of quotes and summaries of the events of the Turpin children’s lives.
However, it is undeniably an engaging story. What happened to those kids is absolutely deplorable. I do worry that this book was exploitative, the only quotes from the children are those publicly available in court records or interviews. I doubt they had any involvement in this telling of their own story.
The book was also repetitive towards the end, telling us about the abuse in one chapter and then retelling that same story, but this time in a court setting. This felt like an attempt to fluff the book up and raise the page count more than anything.
I wish there was more discussion on what happened to the kids after, this book painted the picture of a happy ending when in reality the kids struggled quite a bit to gain access to any of the money or services offered to them by the public. Some of the kids ended up couch surfing due to not being able to obtain a job or access their trust fund for rent money. The system failed them twice and the book does not capture this at all.
However, it is undeniably an engaging story. What happened to those kids is absolutely deplorable. I do worry that this book was exploitative, the only quotes from the children are those publicly available in court records or interviews. I doubt they had any involvement in this telling of their own story.
The book was also repetitive towards the end, telling us about the abuse in one chapter and then retelling that same story, but this time in a court setting. This felt like an attempt to fluff the book up and raise the page count more than anything.
I wish there was more discussion on what happened to the kids after, this book painted the picture of a happy ending when in reality the kids struggled quite a bit to gain access to any of the money or services offered to them by the public. Some of the kids ended up couch surfing due to not being able to obtain a job or access their trust fund for rent money. The system failed them twice and the book does not capture this at all.