Author: Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich
Published: 2017
Language: English
Pages: 352
Rating: 4/5
Summary:
Part true crime, part memoir, in this book Marzano-Lesnevich explores the case of Ricky Langley, a paedophile who has killed a six-year old boy, as well as her own childhood and the abuse she endured.
Review:
This was a really intense book, and equal parts horrifying and fascinating.
I was a bit unsure how the whole memoir/true crime combination would work in this, but it works wonderfully and it weaves a multi-layered story that is not difficult to follow. The author not only does a great job of exploring the case of Langley, but she unflinchingly lets us into the deepest and darkest parts of her childhood. It's an incredibly interesting look at family, abuse, the death penalty, justice and humanity.
One thing I found particularly interesting as well as absolutely infuriating in this is the way the authors family deals with what has happened to her and the overwhelming silence she has to live with. That part was heartbreaking and you can't help but feel how important it must be to the author to speak her truth and be heard in this.
It's an incredibly emotional book and it searches for humanity in monsters. It's powerful, raw and disturbing. Not all the questions the author raises are necessarily answered and it leaves the reader to make up their own opinions, which I thought made it an even stronger book.
It's a painful book though, there's no denying it, and I would not recommend reading it if you're triggered by child abuse and sexual abuse. For those of us who can bear reading about those sorts of things though, this is by far one of the most human and interesting books on the topic I've read.
You can read more about it on Goodreads
