Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery by Robert Kolker

8 reviews

theprinceofdenmark's review

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Fatphobia, Grief, Classism, Domestic abuse, Body shaming, Sexual assault, Violence, Drug use, Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual violence, Trafficking, and Sexism

daralexandria's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, and Sexual content

Moderate: Murder and Kidnapping

Minor: Death of parent

michelles_book_nook's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

⚠️ CW: murder, domestic abuse, drug use, addiction, child abuse, sexual abuse, rape and mental illness ⚠️ This is one of the hardest hitting true crime books that I've read in a long time! One spring evening in 2010, Shannan Gilbert went missing in the Oak Beach, Long Island. No one who had heard of her disappearance thought much about what had happened to her as she was a Craigslist escort who had been fleeing from one of her customers, but no one could be sure why. The Suffolk County police seemed to have paid little attention to the case, until seven months later when an unexpected discovery near the remote Gilgo Beach turned up four bodies. But none of them were Shannan. They were Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello. Like Shannan, all four women were petite, in their twenties, and had come from out of town to work as escorts, and they had all advertised on Craigslist and its competitor, Backpage. But unbeknownst to everyone, this was just the tip of the iceberg. This case is equally heartbreaking and infuriating at the same time. The fact that these poor women and their families were unable to get any justice solely based on how their case was treated due to their work is mind boggling to me. They were all human beings and deserved to be treated as such. As for the writing though, I absolutely loved how Kolker humanised these women after how they were treated and portrayed their stories with empathy, care and compassion, as well as giving their stories so much attention in the impeccably detailed research he did. Overall, I highly recommend this book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Domestic abuse, Addiction, Rape, Mental illness, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Drug use, and Drug abuse

henrygravesprince's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Murder, and Grief

Moderate: Violence, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Minor: Trafficking and Abandonment

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative medium-paced

4.5

After hearing that LISK had been caught, I read this book about his victims. I enjoyed the victim-centric narrative. So many true crime books focus on the killer, not the victims, I know when this was written he hadn't (presumably, innocent until proven guilty) been caught. But I think that made it a better book, focusing on the victims. He didn't even really go into how they were killed. So it was more a biography of the victims and their families than a true crime book. Overall a great read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Mental illness, Trafficking, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Abandonment, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Death, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Sexual violence, Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Minor: Cursing

afestivalaparade's review against another edition

mysterious sad tense medium-paced

3.0

I really appreciated the approach of this book, centering the women and their families. It was done thoughtfully and with great respect; I learned a lot about the types of lives and challenges these women faced that led them into prostitution and the shape of their world. It was clear the author spoke to many people, and he managed the immense amount of information very well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault

dunningsk's review

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Solid 4 stars for me. The writing is extremely strong. The amount of detail and investigation is so impressive. Don’t go into this book expecting an analysis of potential suspects, theories, or anything like that. This is a book about the women who suffered and were victimized by someone evil. I’ve never read anything quite like this in the true crime genre. I’m so glad I did and I cannot wait for the day they arrest this man. Only critiques really are that it’s a bit tough to keep track of all the people involved, and the maps in the book are kind of dark and hard to see I think more photos and maps would have been very helpful. And yes, part of me wishes that the author had discussed some of the leading suspects, but I understand why he didn’t. This is about the women first and foremost. Small note, there have been some updates since this was published. Some victims have been identified that were not at the time this was published. It’s not necessarily the most comprehensive breakdown of the Long Island Serial Killer but it is worth reading for sure. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Murder, Drug use, and Drug abuse

ckoosmann's review

dark informative medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Violence, and Drug use

Moderate: Domestic abuse