Review: 053805: Life at Fifteen - Robert J. Gagnon

053803: Life at Fifteen - Robert J. Gagnon

Paperback - 336 Pages

Published by R. J. Gagnon Publishing, 2006

Borrowed from Karmin

GoodReads Review:

Before the time of youthful offender camps, a fifteen year old bank robber is sentenced to life in adult prison.  Covering a 9 1/2 year period from 1975 through 1985, the author gives a vivid description of how he survived by using his wits, luck, and creative remedies.  Insightful, informative and at times humorous, prison life is explained from a unique perspective that anyone can relate to.  Thorough descriptions of actual escapes and a prison riot are included along with a breakdown of prison policies and inmate mentality.  

Listed in the National Criminal Justice Referral Service Library as a study aid for its social and educational value.  Currently under review for suggested reading in Florida high school reading groups.

My Review:

I was extremely intrigued by the review of this book on GoodReads.  As a lover of all crime type books I really thought this would be so interesting.  I was getting to go inside prison as a 15 year old boy, and see what things were really like.  

The story started out really slow, and I was hoping that the pace would pick up.  Unfortunately it never did, but overall I was interested in what was going to happen to Robert.  I found myself extremely upset in the beginning because I just can't understand how a juvenile would be charged and sentenced to life in prison for a botched burglary.  I really felt like from the get go he was doomed.  

There were many times throughout the book that I just felt bad for him, however there were many times that I was cheering for him.  He was able to use his wits and humor to make it through 9 years in an adult prison.  While I realized that a lot of the things he described happen, I just didn't realize that the adults in the prison would treat a juvenile the way that they did.  If he wasn't so smart and quick on his feet, I don't know if he would have made it through.  

The ending was heartwarming, and I'm glad to know that eventually everything worked out.  I just was extremely frustrated about how he was treated.  I don't know the laws in Florida, so I don't know if what he did would qualify for life in prison, but even during his parole hearings I thought he was treated like crap.

I really enjoyed all of the descriptions of what went down during his years in prison, and I could really relate to what he was going to (even though I've never been in jail before).  It is much of the same stuff that we go through in the free world, only a little harder.  While his descriptions of the "bossmen" (guards) irked me a little, I'm sure that is how they act.  He portrayed them as jerks that really just liked to beat the hell out of inmates/convicts just to show them who's boss.  You have to think about it from their point of view too.  They've got hundreds of men locked up in a confined area that have all been convicted of a crime...so they've gotta show some authority.

I enjoyed the book, however I did feel that it was really slow and some of the grammar and punctuation irritated me.

My Recommendation: 

I would recommend this to pretty much anyone that hasn't served jail time (and even those that have).  I think that it was a very informative book, and really showed how growing up in prison can affect someone.

3 out of 5 stars

Happy Reading!

Review: Cries in the Desert - John Glatt

Cries in the Desert - John Glatt

Paperback - 288 Pages

Published by St. Martin's True Crime - 2002

Borrowed from Karmin

Goodreads Review:  

A PLAYHOUSE OF TWISTED THRILLS AND TORTURE...

In the fall of 1999, a twenty-two-year-old-woman was discovered naked and bleeding on the streets of a small New Mexico town south of Albuquerque.  She was chained to a padlocked metal collar.  The tale she told authorities - of being beaten, raped, and tortured with electric shock - was unthinkable.  Until she led them to 59-year-old David Ray Parker, his 39-year-old fiancee Cindy Hendy and the lakeside trailer they called their 'toy box'.  What the FBI uncovered was unprecedented in the annals of serial crime: restraining devices, elaborate implements of torture, books on anatomy, medical equipment, scalpels, and a gynecologist's examination table.  But these horrors were only part of the shocking story that would unfold in a stunning trial...

My Review:

Without giving it all away, there is no way for me to truly write about this book.  All I can say is, obviously I've been living under a rock, because never in a million years would I think someone this sick and twisted actually existed. While reading this book, there were a few times I had to stop and close my eyes, to escape the creepy, crazy mess that was this book.  Honestly, if you want the pants scared off of you -- take a peek at this book...otherwise...keep to the cutesy, romantic tales...

Recommendation:  I guess the only people that I could recommend this to would be people like me -- interested in true crime, psychology lovers, and maybe just a handful of wacko's...

3 stars -- because it was creepy, and because it kinda dragged on forever and ever...

Happy Reading!

Review: Such Good Boys - Tina Dirmann

Such Good Boys: The True Story of a Mother, Two Sons and a Horrifying Murder - Tina Dirmann

Paperback - 256 Pages

Published by: St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2005

Borrowed from Karmin (My "MIL")

GoodReads Review:

AN ABUSIVE MOTHER

Raised in the suburb of Riverside, California, twenty-year-old college student Jason Bautista endured for years his emotionally disturbed mother's verbal and psychological abuse. She even locked him out of the house, tied him up with electrical cord, and on one occasion, gave him a beating that sent him to the emergency room. His fifteen-year-old half brother Matthew Montejo also was a victim to Jane Bautista's dark mood swings and erratic behavior, but for some reason, Jason received the brunt of the abuse-until he decided he'd had enough...

A SON'S REVENGE

On the night of January 14, 2003, Jason strangled his mother. To keep authorities from identifying her body, he chopped off her head and hands, an idea he claimed he got from watching an episode of the hit TV series "The Sopranos." Matthew would later testify in court that he sat in another room in the house with the TV volume turned up while Jason murdered their mother. He also testified that he drove around with Jason to find a place to dump Jane's torso.

A CRIME THAT WOULD BOND TWO BROTHERS

The morning following the murder, Matthew went to school, and Jason returned to his classes at Cal State San Bernardino. When authorities zeroed in on them, Jason lied and said that Jane had run off with a boyfriend she'd met on the Internet. But when police confronted the boys with overwhelming evidence, Jason confessed all. Now the nightmare was only just beginning for him...

My Review:

HOLY SCARE-FEST.  Okay, so I asked Karmin to borrow a book or two from her, because I know she loves to read non-fiction, true crime stories, and I have enjoyed one or two in the past.  This was by far one of the creepiest things I've read in a long time.

Jason and Matt grow up in an abusive household, and you hear their story from the beginning.  It is obvious that their mother, Jane is a paranoid schizophrenic, and puts them through hell.  Basically Jason has had enough and realizes that the only way he can hope to have a normal life is to make sure that his mother is no longer a part of it.  Unfortunately, instead of just getting up and moving out, he decides that killing her is the best option.  I started to really freak myself out because at one point I started thinking -- can you really blame the kid? I mean his mom is completely looney.  But then I started to read further and discovered that not only does he manually strangle his mother, he also cuts off her head, and both hands (because he saw an episode of The Soprano's in which one of the characters kills another character and discards the head and hands so that police will have a hard time identifying the body). So like I said, I started to kind of feel for the kid, until he is describing how easy it was for him to just saw off his mothers head/hands and only had to stop "a few times" to turn around and vomit.

WOW. Just wow.

This was definitely a quick, easy read, although quite disturbing.  I honestly couldn't put it down because I just wanted to know what was going through this kids mind.  UGH!

My Recommendation:  Honestly, I only recommend this to people that really, truly want to read about a psychotic mother, who raises two psychotic boys.  Otherwise, save yourself the trouble and read a quick article on Wikipedia about it -- the gory details are not for everyone.

3 out of 5 stars

Happy Reading!