Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

If You Tell by Gregg Olsen

255 reviews

bookishwhims's review

challenging dark sad fast-paced

5.0

This was perhaps one of the darkest  and most disturbing books I have ever read. What made this book even harder to stomach is that this isn't a work of fiction.
 If you are going into this account of the heinous crimes of Shelly Knotech with the expectation of getting answers as to "why" a person does something like this or what turned her into a person who could do these things, you will be disappointed. The goal of this book is to tell the story of her victims and perhaps her longest-suffering victims, her daughters. This is the story of three sisters' horrific abuse at the hands of the person(s) meant to love and protect them most in the world. I'm not  leaving this book with all the answers I'd like nor am I leaving feeling as though justice was achieved, but that is true with most crimes. 
This book and this story, I fear, is going to stick with me for a very long time.

*Check tw*
*audiobook*

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

katemonster's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

4.5

I listened to the audiobook version. Could not stop listening. Devoured it in 2 days on a long car ride. It is very disturbing. There were several times I wanted to cry. Very difficult content. It kept me interested and invested in the family (especially the sisters) from the beginning. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Murder

stayceee24's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

5.0

An awful story told exceedingly well. Not for the faint hearted.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Vomit, Murder, and Gaslighting

livia_0612's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Torture, Violence, Grief, and Murder

mjoybo's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Murder

maruchan's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

I don't know how to rate this book.

Should I give if five stars so people know I recommend it?

I feel bad giving a rating to an experience so raw.

What happened to this girl's is simply awful. Can't be put into words. Please know that this is a really painful read. It will stay with me for a long, long time. 

How can a person be so rotten inside? We will never know. I feel so bad knowing she was released from jail. Justice wasn't served enough.

Please read this. Even tho it's hard, the sisters deserve their story to be known. 

This book was so well written, it felt like fiction. I wish it was fiction. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

your_geekygf's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

2.0

This book is a true story but it is unbelievable. It is graphic, sad and frustrating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer and Rape

ashleyneidick's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

3.0

The stories told in this book are truly, absolutely horrific. You can’t help but feel for the victims. But the way the book is written makes everything feel pieced together, which it is to an extent, but there are a ton of blanks that could have been filled in that weren’t - such as almost nothing written about the police and why they didn’t act sooner, and so much was left out of the trials. It was hard to get through and finish this book for more than one reason.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia

dsimon22's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

3.5

This was an incredibly hard book to listen to and finish. It’s a true story so it made it hard to continue knowing this happened and that these girls had to go through all of this. I am disgusted by all the mother did and how sick and twisted she was but I’m even more sickened that her husband never noticed half of was was going on and that he allowed her to manipulate him into being somewhat his accomplice. I’m angered by their sentencing because they both in my opinion deserve to be in prison a lot longer than what they were sentenced!!! Overall a well written book just not sure this is my kind of read I could read over and over

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Murder

goosiana's review against another edition

dark tense

3.5

It was good. I can't believe what this mother and father (if you can call them that) did. It had everything you would need to tell a story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Excrement, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty