Mae West (2) (1972–)

This is one of those books you can't put down once you start; I read it in 4 days (that's fast for me!), a friend of mine read it in 2.

My heart goes out to Mae and her relatives who have had to navigate such a horrendous childhood, yet have come out the other side as amazingly strong people. This book shows that generational trauma can be put to a stop, though it (as always in true crimes as heinous as these) will never get you to a point of truly understanding why people like Fred and Rose show more become who they are. Surprisingly, Mae points out the times where her parents knew the right way of behaving, yet was confounded as to why they didn't just behave as they should have. There are some parts of this book, of Mae's childhood, that will stay with me - they're scorched on my brain forever.

I had a basic knowledge of the crimes of Fred and Rose before I started reading. This book does mention some details about the deaths of the victims, but ultimately, it's a book about her childhood and upbringing. In a way, I appreciated that it kept its focus on that, and not too much on the gory details which you can find elsewhere if you want to. Some may find it helpful or more interesting to have a background knowledge of their crimes, but it's not necessary to do this before you read it.

What is equally as shocking as the crimes committed by the West couple, are the general public's reactions/responses towards their children. Mae mentions how some people assumed that her and her siblings took part, played with the victims' bones, were aware of, and enjoyed, everything that happened in the house. How awful of people to say such things about children! Even if a child did such things, the entire responsibility of their behaviour lies entirely upon the "parents" who have raised a child in such an awful way. Mae and her family have had to endure so much through their childhood, and fear even being recognised in the street, so to then have those ideas pushed onto them on top is so insensitive and soul destroying.

What kept this book from reaching 5 stars were the near constant mistakes. You can usually overlook them but the book was littered with them, and there were a couple of occasions where words were omitted, making a sentence obsolete because you lose what Mae was trying to get across to the reader. I'm not sure if these have been corrected with the Kindle edition, but maybe that would be better to try as I'd imagine they've been corrected by now.
Secondly, I found the second half of the book to be quite repetitive. This could be Mae's thoughts, that are continuously looping over and over again in her mind about what to think about her mother, inadvertently coming out through the pages, but I felt like I was going through those looping thoughts myself as I was reading and not getting anywhere with it. I really felt like some of the book could've been snipped down but I imagine this may be due to the contract Mae was given, requiring a set amount of pages to be written. Although, the occasional reminder of some things mentioned in previous chapters was sometimes advantageous to those of us with poor memories!

All in all, I feel this is a book that shouldn't be missed and, however hard it is to read (in more ways than one!), you won't regret reading it.

I'm wishing Mae a long, happy, fulfilling and rewarding life ahead. ♥ show less

Though this book was a hard read, it was very well written and gives an honest look of what life was like in the West Household and the impact on their lives. It shows people’s resilience no matter what has happened in their lives.