Crime

Very interesting subject matter (albeit horrifying, obviously). However, the book itself felt badly written, in the sense that it kept going back and forth, and being repetitive with the same content. For example, the same descriptions/content (almost verbatim) would appear across various chapters, once as it was happening in the story, once when one of the people involved were giving statements to the police, and again when decribing media reports. This type of repetition happened rather a lot. While it is sometimes useful to convey what information was provided by different sources, it felt like a waste of time to read exactly the same things again and again without any particular additional point. ( )

In 1984 in Austria, Josef Fritzl (who had already been raping his middle daughter, Elisabeth, since she was 11-years old), imprisoned her (now 18) in a dungeon under his house that no one knew existed. He had spent six years building it. He kept her there for 24 years, and fathered seven children with her (he already had seven with his wife – Elisabeth being the middle/4th one).

This book does look at all the abuses toward his daughter that just went on and on. Not only that, but previous to all this, he had a history of sexual crimes, only one of which he was convicted and went to jail for. His wife knew nothing about what had happened to Elisabeth – he told everyone she had run away (which would have been no surprise, as she had run away a couple of times previous) to join a religious cult. He took three of the children upstairs to raise them with his wife as adopted/foster children, so he could get the money for them. So, three of the children were raised in the “real world” upstairs, while three others in the dungeon, never seeing sunlight, and rife with all kinds of health issues (the 7th child only lived a few days before dying when Josef refused to get him medical help).

What a monster! Omg, don’t read this if you are at all queasy. I don’t know if I remember this case. She got out with her kids in 2008, only a couple of years after Natasha Kampusch (and I do remember that one). Maybe I don’t remember as much because the entire family ended up changing their names/identities so they could try to get some peace and try to heal. Elisabeth and her children got out of the dungeon in 2008 and the book was published in 2009. The book still managed to get in much of the aftermath, though I did look up more (the trial and to see how Elisabeth and her kids were doing after the end of the book). There is some repetition in the book, but it was well-researched. ( )

I read this book in practically one sitting. I could not put it down. The story of Josef Fritzl imprisoning his daughter Elisabeth in his celler, unknown to everyone but himself, was horrifying. When this news story broke I was appalled and fascinated.

I saw this at the library and picked it up. I remember I had read stories on the Internet but didn't get the big picture. As awful as this subject matter is, I was drawn into this book and this horrific crime.

It's not always well written. At times the author repeated himself a few times. It seemed to be well researched, though. The 4 stars does not represent writing syle, it represents the fact that I couldn't put the book down. ( )

Yes this was indeed a very quick read. I finished it last night so read it in 2 days and it was interesting but there are way too many questions left. Come on. we all want to know more about how the family is doing now. Does Elisabeth still not speak with Rosemary? How are the children doing? but you do not get any answers. i guess we have to wait to see if anyone of them will write a memoir.

I liked the book but I thought it was some what repetitive and most I already knew from the news papers. (and I hardly read the news!)

I read that someone said he was called insane but on wikipedia I read this:

"Fritzl's attorney, Rudolf Mayer, confirmed that a disguised Elisabeth sat in the visitors' gallery during the second day of proceedings, at the time her video testimony was aired. "Josef Fritzl recognised that Elisabeth was in court and, from this point on, you could see Josef Fritzl going pale and he broke down," Mayer said. "It was a meeting of eyes that changed his mind." The next day, Fritzl began the proceedings by approaching the judge and changing his pleas to guilty on all charges.

On 19 March 2009, Fritzl was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for 15 years. He said that he accepted the sentence and would not appeal"
( )