If You Tell

The retelling of this true story was chilling and fascinating. The author goes into vivid detail of years of abuse suffered by Shelley Notick’s (the main character, abuser and murderer) children, husband, and friends using direct quotes from the survivors. While it was very well written and eye opening, it was definitely a heavy read. Throughout the book I kept thinking “this lady couldn’t possibly get any more evil” but she continued to get worse.

I do not recommend this book to anyone who doesn’t enjoy reading/watching true crime stories. I am fascinated by this genre, and while reading this book I learned a lot about sadism and why victims of abuse will keep things to themselves. As dark as it is, it is also a survival story which made it a satisfying read and hard to put down. Greg Olson did an amazing job retelling this story.