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tianamead's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.5
Incredibly story that was beautifully written.
anji444's review against another edition
4.0
Easy to read tale of author's life leading up to the incident. Every red flag waved in plain sight to the reader about her husband's manipulative and coercive behaviour. Shocking it took her so long to accept his guilt. We must listen to our sixth sense - it is there to protect us...the only problem is if we act on our intuition and prevent a bad thing happening, we don't always know what could have been.
jim_bar's review
5.0
Absolutely miraculous.
Victoria "Vicky" Cilliers details all of the important events and relationships in her life leading up to a dive that could've ended her life. After which, she describes the media circus that surrounded her.
If this were a fictional thriller, readers would be shouting plot armor (as I'm sure we would with any "I Survived" story). I knew of Vicky Cilliers's story before reading this, but the way she described what happened to her and how she felt is jaw-dropping all the same. I'm amazed.
Not only does this highlight the subtle signs of domestic abuse, but it also highlights social media's impact on cases like this. I hate victim/survivor-blaming, and red flags people see on the outside are much harder to detect when you're in love with the person waving them. I had so much empathy for her as she dealt with this. None of it was easy, and my heart goes out to her still.
Victoria "Vicky" Cilliers details all of the important events and relationships in her life leading up to a dive that could've ended her life. After which, she describes the media circus that surrounded her.
If this were a fictional thriller, readers would be shouting plot armor (as I'm sure we would with any "I Survived" story). I knew of Vicky Cilliers's story before reading this, but the way she described what happened to her and how she felt is jaw-dropping all the same. I'm amazed.
Not only does this highlight the subtle signs of domestic abuse, but it also highlights social media's impact on cases like this. I hate victim/survivor-blaming, and red flags people see on the outside are much harder to detect when you're in love with the person waving them. I had so much empathy for her as she dealt with this. None of it was easy, and my heart goes out to her still.
llbaxter's review against another edition
dark
emotional
fast-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse and Murder
sarahcharlie's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
2.75
Unsure how to rate this one . I could connect to the story and relate to characters emotions
melbsreads's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
sad
medium-paced
3.5
Trigger warnings: toxic relationship, gaslighting, emotional abuse, medical content, cheating, attempted murder, miscarriage, medical trauma, addiction
This was an extremely fast-paced and extremely rage-inducing read. Years ago a friend was in a very similar relationship - not the attempted murder aspects, but the disappearing, the cheating, the debts, the gaslighting, the emotional abuse. So reading this made me want to travel back in time to hand this to said friend.
Is it well written? No, not entirely. Does she leave out certain parts of her own story? Yes, but who doesn't in a memoir. I did want a little more of a wrap up than this gave me, but on the whole? A really solid insight into non-violent domestic abuse.
This was an extremely fast-paced and extremely rage-inducing read. Years ago a friend was in a very similar relationship - not the attempted murder aspects, but the disappearing, the cheating, the debts, the gaslighting, the emotional abuse. So reading this made me want to travel back in time to hand this to said friend.
Is it well written? No, not entirely. Does she leave out certain parts of her own story? Yes, but who doesn't in a memoir. I did want a little more of a wrap up than this gave me, but on the whole? A really solid insight into non-violent domestic abuse.