A BIG THANK YOU TO NETGALLEY AND OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA FOR SENDING ME THIS BOOK FOR REVIEW, HOWEVER ALL OPINIONS ARE MY OWN.
Genre: True Crime
The true crime bestseller about Fred and Rose West a couple virtually unique in British criminal history who loved and killed together as husband and wife.
During their long relationship the Wests murdered a series of young women, burying the remains of nine victims under their home at 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester, including those of their teenage daughter, Heather. What was left of Fred West’s eight-year-old stepdaughter was dug up from under the Wests’ previous Gloucester home; his first wife and nanny were buried in open country outside the city. Several victims had been decapitated and dismembered, their remains showing signs of sexual torture. These twelve are just the ones the police found when the Wests were arrested in 1994. There may be more whose bones have not been located.
My Opinion: I think it’s important to start out by pointing out the triggers. This book contains abuse in every way possible and described in great detail.
Fred & Rose will haunt me for the rest of my life. Last year I gave a 5 star rating to the book Helter Skelter and decided that I was very interested in the true crime genre. After reading this book however I am shaken. I had never heard of the husband and wife serial killers prior to reading this book and every single page I was more and more disturbed. We are introduced to Fred and Rose in the beginning of this novel, starting with their childhoods. While reading about their childhoods was extremely hard to go through, they had been through tremendous amounts of abuse, the rest of the book gets even worse. Once Fred and Rose meet, it became the perfect human recipe for disaster. Both of these individuals were not intelligent, had been through traumatic childhoods, and had a taste for destruction. The things these two did to other people, including their own children, will never escape my mind. A few times I actually had to book this book aside and decide whether or not I could continue. About halfway through I thought I wasn’t going to be able to read any longer I was so disgusted and saddened. I have never in my life heard of a more terrible serial killer, not to mention this was just not one person. This was two people who loved each other very much and worked together to sexually abuse children and young adults and eventually murder many of them. The author paints a vivid picture of Fred and Rose, it is clear that he had done extensive research to write this book. I don’t think this story could have been told any better. It was not bias, it was only the facts of the case and the facts of Fred and Rose’s lives. I cannot imagine being the author of this book and not adding into the story the level of disgust I had for these human beings. This book is perfect for anyone who is a lover of true crime novels, or anyone who is interested in the minds of these two extremely demented and disturbed human beings. While reading this I wanted to cry, I felt physically sick, and completely shocked that two people like that existed. I recommend this book in the highest regard for people who think they can stomach the torture of these girls. The author does not shy away from any given detail no matter how terrible. If you have a weak disposition, I recommend giving this book a pass.
