The Little Prisoner

This book is visual, never in my life have I read a book that had such a visual impact on me. The story played like a movie in my head. You become the character, feel when she is scared, and hurt, and would do anything to rescue her. Her story will stay with me forever, how brave of her to stand up to her abuser, and allow the rest of the world into her very private life. Really made me think that you truly never know what happens behind closed doors. Tonight I will thank my parents for the awesome job they did, and kiss my children good night promising quietly that I will never hurt them. A must read for everyone.

Survival stories always seem to be shocking and inspiring, but generally leave one feeling empowered by sharing the experience. There was no such feeling in my heart when I finished Jane's survival tale. Jane was a victim of abuse, psychological, physical and sexual. She was controlled in the very worst ways by everyone around her from the time she was four until she finally made her escape, seventeen years later. It's hard to fathom such a stint of despair.
Jane recognizes several times within her memoir how hard it is for people to understand her story if they've never been in that situation. Because her past was so very violent I don't think a lot of people will be able to identify with her, even if they empathize or sympathize. At show more least, that is my hope.
As with "A Child Called It" by Dave Pelzer, the story shocks the reader beyond the realm of believability, not that one thinks it is false, but it is just so unreal that a parent could treat their child in the ways that are described.
Jane keeps her memoir as vague as possible so that it is not obscene at any given page, even if it flirts with sensationalism several times, but it is detailed enough that the reader is given full disclosure of what happened in her past. The thing I liked about the memoir the most is how she spelled out the emotional journey she went on. It was a hard and far from happy read, but one that definitely showed growth and gave the reader hard food for thought.

To place oneself in Janey's shoes would be impossible, implausible at best for me. But I could wonder if I were one of her friends, what would I have done, or been able to do? Would I have had courage to stand by her and encourage and support her? Or would I have cringed from the violence and obscenities that surrounded her? I fear it would be the latter but I would hope that unlike the woman in the pub, if confronted I would have given the help so desperately asked for.

To deal with thinking of Richard at all simply leaves a sick feeling of disgust and uncleanliness in the pit of my stomach. Of all the villains in literature, only one other has affected me this way, and knowing that Richard is real makes him ten times worse. Knowing that the perspective we've seen gives absolutely no room for any redeeming qualities helps me face the world still, but the pure venomous violence of the man and his family just flabbergasts me.

Even though the book claimed to be a dark fairy tale, I don't equate the two in my mind. Neither is it a particularly inspirational tale. It is clearly an emotional journey and perhaps a necessary story to liberate the minds of others who have made that trek, but it is not a plotted adventure. The story wanders from one memory to another and not in any particular pace or order, and the vagueness can at times be distracting. Because memory works the same way, I can see how the manuscript followed this flow, but it doesn't work particularly well for a storyline. For that reason, and because the story stays dark up to the last page, without much of a happily ever after, I would never classify it as any kind of fairy tale. It has its own merit. show less

This is a gripping yet harrowing read. Jane Elliott tells the sad tale of how her stepfather abused her physically, mentally and sexually throughout her childhood and young adulthood. I'm not a fan of this kind of book, but this one really drew me in.

Jane shows tremendous courage and I found myself really feeling sorry for the trauma she suffered and admiring her for the strength she showed.

Despite the tough subject matter, this is not a hard book to read, and if you had the time, could probably be read in one sitting.

A devastating life this woman has lived. That she survived and seems well adjusted, has a family, is amazing. The strength inside is evident. I hope that someone reading this book will seek help if they are facing a similar situation - and that seems to be her desire as well. Powerful, frightening, shockingly truthful.

It’s hard to imagine that the kind of evil described in “The Little Prisoner” happens, but tragically, it does happen. After reading this book, I thought I should wait a few days to write this review until shock of Jane Elliott’s story wore off. Then I realized I am still in shock after reading “A Child Called It” so many years ago, and believe the shock of this story will never wear off just as the shock from the Pelzer books will never wear off. Anyone working with children should read this book, anyone afraid of reporting a child abuser should read this book, anyone that is interested in a survival story should read this book. This memoir is a horrifying account of some of the worst kinds of betrayals, a betrayal of a show more mother to her daughter, a brutal betrayal of a step-father, and a betrayal of a community to an innocent and vulnerable child. Once I started reading this story, I could not put it down no matter how much I wanted to in certain parts. I am glad the author wrote this book as it has the potential to help other children in abusive situations, but I am sorry the author had to endure such hell on earth. show less

This was a very hard book for me to read. At first I did not really understand why she let him do that to her even when she was an adult but then I started thinking of her family. Real white trash. They terrorized the neighborhood and everyone was scared of them.
We have families like that in The Netherlands too and people do not dare to complain cause they know they will be punished for it later.
What annoyed me mostly was that the mom got off free. No punishment at all while in truth it was mainly her fault. A mom is the one that should protect a child when there is no father or if a dad is abusive. if you cannot count on your mom, who can you trust?

Wow. This book brings to light the true depravity of human evil. Jane Elliot is one of the bravest people in the world for telling her story. An as the epilogue tells, she pays for it with pain.

Some of the actual wording and story telling itself is rather stilled and almost hard to follow. She skims parts that are important to the story, but you can understand why.Some of the chapter breaks come in odd places and occasionally the reader feels like they missed an important paragraph or two. You catch the overall drift though.

The story is very powerful and you can tell that it had to be terribly hard to tell. It is hard to read, and I can't imagine trying to live through it. The end result is the overwhelming desire to find Jane show more Elliot's family and kick them square in the behind...repeatedly.

I think this is obvious, but I will state it anyway, anyone with child abuse or sexual abuse in thier past is warned that this is a very triggering story. show less