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Fighting Back: A Battered Woman's Desperate Struggle to Survive by Robert Davidson, Robert Davidson
thegeekybibliophile's review against another edition
3.0
The Beast I Loved: A Battered Woman's Desperate Struggle to Survive tells the story of June Briand. In February 1987, after five years of marriage, she shot and killed her husband James. Convicted of first-degree murder, Briand served ten years of a fifteen year sentence before being pardoned.
This true crime offering paints a grim picture of June Briand's life, telling readers about a woman who suffered abuse throughout her life. Her marriage to James Briand was filled with brutal violence, until finally—fearing he would kill her after discovering she was planning to leave him—June took his life, shooting him while he slept.
I read this book in a matter of hours, unable to stop reading about this tragic story until I reached the end. Writing this review has been problematic for me, and it took me a while to figure out why. The Beast I Loved only tells June's side of the story. While her side would obviously be the focus of the book, not including a rebuttal of events from members and/or a representative of the Briand family leaves the book feeling unbalanced.
Was June justified in shooting him as a result of suffering from Battered Woman's Syndrome, as illustrated in the book? Or was she a cold-blooded killer who was never abused by her husband, as the Briand family maintains? Either way, June's actions that night irrevocably changed not only her life, but the lives of everyone who loved James Briand.
I received an advance reading copy of this book courtesy of WildBlue Press via Netgalley.
This true crime offering paints a grim picture of June Briand's life, telling readers about a woman who suffered abuse throughout her life. Her marriage to James Briand was filled with brutal violence, until finally—fearing he would kill her after discovering she was planning to leave him—June took his life, shooting him while he slept.
I read this book in a matter of hours, unable to stop reading about this tragic story until I reached the end. Writing this review has been problematic for me, and it took me a while to figure out why. The Beast I Loved only tells June's side of the story. While her side would obviously be the focus of the book, not including a rebuttal of events from members and/or a representative of the Briand family leaves the book feeling unbalanced.
Was June justified in shooting him as a result of suffering from Battered Woman's Syndrome, as illustrated in the book? Or was she a cold-blooded killer who was never abused by her husband, as the Briand family maintains? Either way, June's actions that night irrevocably changed not only her life, but the lives of everyone who loved James Briand.
I received an advance reading copy of this book courtesy of WildBlue Press via Netgalley.
canary20's review against another edition
2.0
Received this book as an ARC for my my honest review.
June went through hell and back from the time she was little to the time she was an adult. The book detailed everything she went through (probably way more wasn't documented) and it was horrific but the author didn't make you connect with June which is really unfortunate. The author also didn't show any documentation to substantiate the claims (not saying that there wasn't any) but I think the reader like to see these types of things in a true book. And there was no documentation from the other side either.
I looked at other reviews and found things that made me question this book in total which is really unfortunate also.
June went through hell and back from the time she was little to the time she was an adult. The book detailed everything she went through (probably way more wasn't documented) and it was horrific but the author didn't make you connect with June which is really unfortunate. The author also didn't show any documentation to substantiate the claims (not saying that there wasn't any) but I think the reader like to see these types of things in a true book. And there was no documentation from the other side either.
I looked at other reviews and found things that made me question this book in total which is really unfortunate also.
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