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PRODUCT
If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood
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Product Description:
Price:
Original price was: $15.95.$9.59Current price is: $9.59.
Detailed description:
A #1 Wall Street Journal, Amazon Charts, USA Today, and Washington Post bestseller.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Gregg Olsen’s shocking and empowering true-crime story of three sisters determined to survive their mother’s house of horrors.
After more than a decade, when sisters Nikki, Sami, and Tori Knotek hear the word mom, it claws like an eagle’s talons, triggering memories that have been their secret since childhood. Until now.
For years, behind the closed doors of their farmhouse in Raymond, Washington, their sadistic mother, Shelly, subjected her girls to unimaginable abuse, degradation, torture, and psychic terrors. Through it all, Nikki, Sami, and Tori developed a defiant bond that made them far less vulnerable than Shelly imagined. Even as others were drawn into their mother’s dark and perverse web, the sisters found the strength and courage to escape an escalating nightmare that culminated in multiple murders.
Harrowing and heartrending, If You Tell is a survivor’s story of absolute evil―and the freedom and justice that Nikki, Sami, and Tori risked their lives to fight for. Sisters forever, victims no more, they found a light in the darkness that made them the resilient women they are today―loving, loved, and moving on.
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Categories: Business & Money
Product name:
If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood
Price:
Original price was: $15.95.$9.59Current price is: $9.59.
Noelia –
Emotional Impact:
If You Tell is a harrowing true story that evokes deep feelings of rage and sadness. The narrative is both heartbreaking and frustrating, making it a challenging read. It’s one of the most disturbing stories I’ve encountered, and it left a profound emotional impact.
Story vs. Writing:
The book’s strength lies in its true story, which is one of unimaginable cruelty and resilience. While some readers have criticized the writing for being repetitive and leaving questions unanswered, it’s important to recognize the limitations the author faced. The lack of complete answers reflects the reality that even the survivors—the sisters—may not fully understand the events or motivations behind them.
Criticisms and Perspectives:
Many reviews focus on the desire to understand the “why” behind Shelly’s actions and the lack of earlier intervention by authorities. However, the book is not intended to provide all the answers. Instead, it serves to shed light on the sisters’ survival and the horrific experiences they endured.
Conclusion:
While some readers may find the storytelling frustrating due to unanswered questions, If You Tell effectively conveys the unimaginable horror faced by the sisters. It isn’t about solving a mystery but rather about bearing witness to their story of survival and resilience.
Jesús Arenas –
There are moments while you are reading the book when you wonder why the explicit cruelty with which the writer tells the story of the Knoteck family. There are paragraphs that are hard to read. It is just a true story worth reading.
Zelin M. –
A dark story with horrific happenings. Wonderfully written; the details of the victims and abusers were justly done. I don’t think it’s overdone and too much gruesome details are mentioned. But I think it was needed so we can understand why the victims did what they did. However, I cannot come to terms with the kind and intensity of the abuse. I wish Shelly was given capital punishment for what she did. She truly deserved it.
MJ Hoevker –
I’m not big on nonfiction novels, but this one had been recommended by too many people to not dig into. From the beginning, I felt my guts twist. I know a few people that might’ve just been a Shelly, Nikki, Sami, Tori, and Dave, all in their own way. This book is an important look at what happens when people overlook. It was moving, hurt my heart, kept me rooting for the sister’s and wishing I could’ve saved them. I read it in two days. I’ll be hugging my children extra tight from now on.
I’ll also be picking up any and anything else Mr. Olsen writes.
Richard P. –
As has been noted in quite a few reviews for “If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood,” this is a book that is simultaneously a rather brutal read yet also a remarkably compelling one.
“If You Tell” is based upon the true story of an almost unfathomably abusive family led by the iron first of Shelly Knotek, a domineering woman whose abusive ways seemingly have no explanation yet whose ways are inflicted upon nearly everyone who crosses her path including boyfriends, husbands, her three children (Nikki, Sami, and Tori), and some misguided souls who unfortunately cross her path and pay the ultimate price.
“If You Tell” goes into detail, brutally so, regarding the emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of the three children and the impact it had on their inability to end the cycle until lives had been lost including those of at least two boarders. “If You Tell” also provides remarkable detail regarding these crimes, as well.
This isn’t a book for the timid reader. Best-selling author Gregg Olsen doesn’t shy away from the brutality of this household and these crimes. A good majority of the book is centered around these actions, while only a brief section in the beginning goes into Shelly’s early years and an even more brief section at the end goes into the post-conviction lives of the three girls who seemingly have managed to build normal lives despite childhoods that were anything but normal.
Several of the reviews have commented with disbelief regarding the actions, an understandable and even refreshing response given one would like to believe that everything that unfolds in “If You Tell” is the exception and not the rule. It’s difficult to fathom a parent being this brutal to so many people and so many people for so many years simply not reporting it.
While we could spend days discussing the cycle of trauma that helps to explain the lack of reporting, to a healthy heart and mind it’s simply difficult to believe.
In some ways, “If You Tell” reminded me of one of Indiana’s most famous homicide cases – that of Sylvia Likens in 1965 when a young teenager who’d been staying with a neighbor while her parents were traveling with a circus ended up being brutally assaulted/murdered by the mother, her daughter, and several neighborhood children. The same kind of questions arose to the surface – “How could a family do such things?,” “How could children be involved?,” and “How did no one notice until it was too late?”
While it’s important to note that the children were not involved, other than simply being aware of it and being too terrified to report it and being under a sort of authoritarian spell by a mother who could justify anything, the dynamics are very similar in the stories.
If there’s a beef I have with the book, and there is, it’s that Olsen focuses so much energy on detailing the brutality yet does a relatively weak job of setting up the characters in the story and an even weaker job in providing a satisfying ending. Without giving the ending away, there’s so many possible ways to explore questions, pending issues, and possible conflicts that aren’t that far off in the future that “If You Tell” feels incomplete and, in the end, feels like it’s exploiting the story and its subjects.
While there’s a possible reason to document the stories so brutally, and as someone who has written a book myself from the perspective of being a survivor, it’s ultimately the structure of the book that I find insufficient as I wanted more about the lives of the three sisters and how they are ultimately preparing for the future. There is reference to the relationship with the father, but it’s practically an afterthought.
While “If You Tell” is far from a weak book, it’s ultimately a book that sells the drama more than tells the story. The survivors deserved much more than that.
D.M. –
This book is so well written. I cannot wait to read others by this talented author. The content was disturbing at times but so captivating.
Amazon Customer –
Easy to read, page turner. Shelly is a sick sick person and the author got that across v well. I bought this to read on holidays and started it before to get a feeling or the book!!! I have it all ready before we go, it was that interesting..
Kindle Customer –
I found this book hard to read. Just imagining what these people went through just kills me. That town failed Kathy and Ron. The poor kids never stood a chance. It breaks my heart that this is a true story. Someone’s true reality.
Nicole Eddy –
I had to read this book over time. It was a suggested read from a friend. Not fully knowing what was in this book led me to begin reading it. I only thought a few chapters would cover the horror that was contained in the Knotek home but I was wrong. It was 350+ pages of torture, abuse, and manipulation. So many times I found myself speaking out loud and asking why anyone, especially adults, would stay. I finally finished this book after maybe a year of trying to get through it. I’m glad I did. So good to hear that the children are living their lives trying to break the abuse cycle through raising their families in loving homes or enjoying adult life free of abuse and manipulation. Also learning that the children wanted this book written as a warning to others for when their mother is released, of which she has, is a plus.
If you have a weak tolerance for violence and abuse I don’t suggest this book. It was a bit much. Well written but hard to stomach at times.
KimberlyM –
This is a true crime story of three sisters who were horrifically and systematically abused by their parents, Shelly and Dave Knotek. Their mother was a master manipulator who both actively engaged in the abuse and forced others to commit abuse for her. Over the course of many years, she tortured and murdered three other people as well, two family friends and a cousin of the sisters. The things she devised to do to those she abused were nothing less than depraved. Eventually, the sisters could escape their parents and reach out to the authorities. Ultimately both Shelly and Dave spent time in prison for their crimes. If you enjoy the true crime genre, you’ll find this to be well-written with a smooth flow. The story itself is both shocking and captivating. If you’re squeamish about DA you shouldn’t read this. Gregg Olson doesn’t sugarcoat the details.
meghan –
This was so good I finished it in a day!