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A review by the_fenharel
The Darkest Web: Drugs, Death and Destroyed Lives... The Inside Story of the Internet's Evil Twin by Eileen Ormsby
4.0
Really loved this book as it is something new and quite dangerous to write about! An in-depth look at the dark web from the perspective of a journalist who spends her time trying to take down these websites was invaluable. I would highly recommend this book to people interested in the dark web and the catching of criminals through cyber security.
This novel was set into three parts: Dark, Darker and Darkest.
Dark.
This part of the book was really interesting and a great starting point. I loved hearing about the drug trade and the slow descent into evil of the owner. Who goes from making a website for weed selling to suddenly hiring hitmen? While it started off with good intentions, discussing the Silk Road and the drug trade that occurred, it began to hit dull notes when discussing small details of what happened to the men and women after they were caught. This chapter could have easily been cut in half to maintain interest. But altogether, it was very interesting and I could see how much the author actually began to care for these people and I could see some of her personal opinions leaking through - which I loved!
Darker.
This chapter was when everything became very interesting. Focusing on the case study of the Allwine murder, we get a look at the types of people looking to hire hitmen online. It was sort of comforting to know that these hitmen sites aren't real (at least not the ones the author looked into) and it was interesting to see the types of messages that were passed between the owner and potential buyers.
The whole case was fascinating and had me looking into further research - which is when I realised something was missing. When doing a case study like this, would you not use images? A picture of the family house, a picture of the Besa Mafia website, or even a picture of the murderer or victim? It was difficult to imagine when a lack of detail was received. Perhaps this book could do with some gloss pages with images or even just printed in black and white amongst the words? Even if it was a recreation of the website main page or emails that were sent between people. BUT, I understand this would be difficult to maintain when it came to the next section so maybe some gloss pages in the middle with some photos of Silk Road and such? I know the author got photos with some of the men.
I feel like this was the most complete section of this book. The story of all of these people were over and nothing more could be added and I didn't end up with a whole heap of questions.
Darkest.
I enjoyed (if that's the right word to use) this section the most. The darkness on this side of the 'internet' is scary to think about and how quickly something created for the US military is turned into the hunting ground for paedophiles. It's disgusting and shows what kind of opportunists these creeps are.
Lux was definitely the best part of this chapter. To learn that he was from my country and doing such depraved things when he's only a couple years older than me is terrifying. He was running an empire at such a young age - to the point where the police didn't even consider him!
This was the juiciest part of the book - where we got into the real gritty sides of the dark web. I was severely disappointed in the size of this chapter. When writing about something as dark as paedophilia on the dark web, you can't shy away from the topic. The parts she did add made me angry though. Reading about what they thought about children, the aiding in creating monstrous videos and hearing about 'Daisy's Destruction' had me furious. Then, of course, to hear Lux would still be young when he got out of jail had my blood boiling. It really makes me think our system is failing our children when I read things like this.
It also seemed to me like the author had purposely separated herself from what she was writing - as if it were all things she had heard of and was writing as if she'd only seen a secondary source. Obviously she would not look and watch the images and video on these sorts of websites (that's completely understandable) but she went so in-depth with a family halfway across the world in 'Darker' while she has people like Lux sitting on her doorstep seemed a tad of an oversight. How did they catch Lux? Who were the detectives looking into it? What did they have to deal with? What do the lawyers working with him think?
I ended up with more questions than answers, so if that's a hint at a sequel I am there!!
I really enjoyed this book and I thought the author had guts to write about a topic that could be quite dangerous for her. Just revealing 'Besa Mafia' as a fraud had her hit with death and rape threats. Publishing a book on all of this? It seems very dangerous and I really think the author is amazing for doing that.
I found this book left me with too many questions, as if a lot of these stories were not even close to finished. Maybe the author will go back and write more about people like Lux and Scully as more is revealed? Maybe she'll interview Lux and write a novel about him? (I would read that!)
I also would have liked to have heard more about the guy who was arrested for 'Besa Mafia' when he was catching predators online. What happened to him??
This novel was set into three parts: Dark, Darker and Darkest.
Dark.
This part of the book was really interesting and a great starting point. I loved hearing about the drug trade and the slow descent into evil of the owner. Who goes from making a website for weed selling to suddenly hiring hitmen? While it started off with good intentions, discussing the Silk Road and the drug trade that occurred, it began to hit dull notes when discussing small details of what happened to the men and women after they were caught. This chapter could have easily been cut in half to maintain interest. But altogether, it was very interesting and I could see how much the author actually began to care for these people and I could see some of her personal opinions leaking through - which I loved!
Darker.
This chapter was when everything became very interesting. Focusing on the case study of the Allwine murder, we get a look at the types of people looking to hire hitmen online. It was sort of comforting to know that these hitmen sites aren't real (at least not the ones the author looked into) and it was interesting to see the types of messages that were passed between the owner and potential buyers.
The whole case was fascinating and had me looking into further research - which is when I realised something was missing. When doing a case study like this, would you not use images? A picture of the family house, a picture of the Besa Mafia website, or even a picture of the murderer or victim? It was difficult to imagine when a lack of detail was received. Perhaps this book could do with some gloss pages with images or even just printed in black and white amongst the words? Even if it was a recreation of the website main page or emails that were sent between people. BUT, I understand this would be difficult to maintain when it came to the next section so maybe some gloss pages in the middle with some photos of Silk Road and such? I know the author got photos with some of the men.
I feel like this was the most complete section of this book. The story of all of these people were over and nothing more could be added and I didn't end up with a whole heap of questions.
Darkest.
I enjoyed (if that's the right word to use) this section the most. The darkness on this side of the 'internet' is scary to think about and how quickly something created for the US military is turned into the hunting ground for paedophiles. It's disgusting and shows what kind of opportunists these creeps are.
Lux was definitely the best part of this chapter. To learn that he was from my country and doing such depraved things when he's only a couple years older than me is terrifying. He was running an empire at such a young age - to the point where the police didn't even consider him!
This was the juiciest part of the book - where we got into the real gritty sides of the dark web. I was severely disappointed in the size of this chapter. When writing about something as dark as paedophilia on the dark web, you can't shy away from the topic. The parts she did add made me angry though. Reading about what they thought about children, the aiding in creating monstrous videos and hearing about 'Daisy's Destruction' had me furious. Then, of course, to hear Lux would still be young when he got out of jail had my blood boiling. It really makes me think our system is failing our children when I read things like this.
It also seemed to me like the author had purposely separated herself from what she was writing - as if it were all things she had heard of and was writing as if she'd only seen a secondary source. Obviously she would not look and watch the images and video on these sorts of websites (that's completely understandable) but she went so in-depth with a family halfway across the world in 'Darker' while she has people like Lux sitting on her doorstep seemed a tad of an oversight. How did they catch Lux? Who were the detectives looking into it? What did they have to deal with? What do the lawyers working with him think?
I ended up with more questions than answers, so if that's a hint at a sequel I am there!!
I really enjoyed this book and I thought the author had guts to write about a topic that could be quite dangerous for her. Just revealing 'Besa Mafia' as a fraud had her hit with death and rape threats. Publishing a book on all of this? It seems very dangerous and I really think the author is amazing for doing that.
I found this book left me with too many questions, as if a lot of these stories were not even close to finished. Maybe the author will go back and write more about people like Lux and Scully as more is revealed? Maybe she'll interview Lux and write a novel about him? (I would read that!)
I also would have liked to have heard more about the guy who was arrested for 'Besa Mafia' when he was catching predators online. What happened to him??