Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Off the Deep End: Jerry and Becki Falwell and the Collapse of an Evangelical Dynasty by Giancarlo Granda, Mark Ebner

2 reviews

pmhandley's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark reflective tense fast-paced

3.5

Definitely revelatory. The organization of the book was confusing, because it's not exactly chronological, and the way it jumps around makes it difficult throughout the book to put events in order. Sometimes occurrences that happened years later are sandwiched in the middle of an otherwise chronological story without it being immediately clear that it happened at a different time period. I do hope it was freeing for Granda to tell his story and escape the abuse and control of the Falwells. The gut punch, for me, is something that goes unsaid. Describing his interaction with Becki and Jerry when he drove them home, it certainly sounds like Granda was sexually assaulted by Becki. I don't now if Granda sees it that way, and no one can tell him how to view his own experiences. But it doesn't sound like anything he consented to, and he throws out the self-blaming points any survivor of sexual assault would recognize about how he didn't stop it and he didn't say no and even views it as infidelity to his then-girlfriend. It is terrible and heartbreaking to read. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

annareads97's review

Go to review page

informative slow-paced

2.25

As someone who once attended Liberty and lived in Lynchburg when the Falwells fell from the pedestal they’d managed to claw their way onto, I had high hopes for this book. The story in and of itself is entirely worth knowing, but the writing fell utterly flat to me. Political/religious scandal tell-alls can be both informative and riveting and this one certainly had that potential, but Granda’s voice was something reminiscent of a personal diary and a bad high school essay rolled into one, and I’m honestly not even sure where or how Mark Ebner comes into play as a writer since everything is written in first person. Overall the whole thing read as “this happened, then this happened; they did this, then I did that.” Again, I believe his story completely and am happy he gave it voice and helped dismantle some of the ridiculous power and influence the Falwells once wielded, but as a… I don’t even know what to call it? Autobiography? Tell-all? Regardless, it was a struggle to get through. A great deal of potential but it did not live up, sadly. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
More...