“The world knows Virginia Roberts Giuffre as Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s most outspoken victim: the woman whose decision to speak out helped send both serial abusers to prison, whose photograph with Prince Andrew catalyzed his fall from grace. But her story has never been told in full, in her own words—until now.”
The impact of this memoir was grueling. Reading the abuse Virginia suffered not only at the hands of those close to her, but from Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and their cronies. It was nauseating. It’s mind-boggling to me that Epstein didn’t believe anything he was doing was wrong. That’s not a human that’s a monster. Even after being deemed a sex offender he was still surrounded by the elite doing who knows what. Think of all the people who were connected to him who are still out there and what they can be doing to the youth. It is disgusting
This book really showed me the extent of the crimes that Epstein was committing. It humanizes the term “the files“. I knew that people were being abused, but a lot of us just want their political nemesis to be taken down rather than caring for the victims. Virginia was so honest, putting this memoir together. It really shows how the rich and powerful took advantage of these poor girls in terrible situations.
The author truly put herself into this book, even if it made her unlikable in the eyes of some. I was shocked by some critiques that the author got from the masses for making settlements with her abusers or selling photos to publishers. Epstein and Maxwell took away her teenage years and left a lasting negative impact on her life. Why should she not gain anything from them? It’s the least they could do. As for the photos and for this book Virginia wanted to help as many people as possible by gaining justice for herself and her Survivor Sisters and to save the young people out there who might come across powerful people wanting to take advantage of them. The story needs to be read by as many as possible.
The writing style had such vivid imagery, which I didn’t expect for a memoir and one with these themes. It was so immersive that I felt like I was right there in the scene. This isn’t my typical kind of style, so it did get a bit dense for me at times where I felt like a chapter would never end, even if they were shorter in page number.
In early parts of the book there would be modern happy moments thrown in to make things lighter. Those threw me off, making me confused. They seemingly vanished as the book progressed. The book could have gone without them. The second half did lose its momentum as it got repetitive at times (sometimes I did need those refreshers) It mainly didn’t work for me because of the legal battles. That stuff was hard for me to understand but it is necessary for the book.
This is an important book that needs to be read. People need to be informed with what is going on in our world.
4 out of 5 stars.
Izzy Reads 