Absorbing and sickening in equal amounts this biography and evaluation of the life of notorious killer Rose West is essential reading for anyone interested into the thinking and deranged mind of serial killers. The early years of Fred and Rose is a harrowing tale of constant physical and sexual abuse in a world where there were few if any boundaries. What goes around comes around is the central theme and children will often imitate the teachings of parents whether that be good or bad. If the young are witness to and the object of incest, beatings, and even murder it is not surprising that they may choose to adopt this way of life as some code of practice. However no amount of bad upbringing can excuse the crimes committed by Fred West and Rose Letts. Crimes that spanned a period of some 25 years and never once did anyone suspect what this lovely chatty couple at 25 Cromwell Street were involved in behind closed doors. It was only after a flippant remark made by the younger West children when in care..."their father had joked that he'd put them under the patio like their big sister"...that social workers and finally the police in the guise of DC Hazel Savage demanded entry to Cromwell Street where the lives, deaths and torture of so many innocents was soon to be discovered under the patio.

This was never an easy read and yet once started I found it impossible not to finish so fascinated and shocked was I by the content, simply astounded by the evil that man or woman can perform and see as normal or accepted. The whole experience is best summed up in a quote from the early chapters...."I think the human race is pretty rotten. The more I see of it, the more rotten it becomes."... ( )

This was an exceptionally good book. When you like True Crime, as I do--you always wonder what makes the person that commits such terrible acts tick. This book comes as close as you could get to ever answering that in this case since last I heard she still denies knowledge and responsibility of her crimes. Had she not showed her true modus operandi to other rape victims she might well have been believed by the police and the world. But she did leave her mark in the scars of living victims and turned on her husband (usually the most psychopathic of a duo when they are caught will turn on the other).......most telling of all was she was never afraid of her murderous husband murdering her.

So while she may have been guided into murder by other hands, she out grew those hands and eclipsed them in all manners of cruelty. She truly was the Frankenstein her father and husband had created. But her sexual sadism was second nature to her. As was the will to survive at all costs.

This book tells a sick, twisted story of the most gross abuses human kind visits on its equals and worse its own offspring. You always hear an awful true crime story but wonder how that person got to where they could do this.

This book tells us how Rose West was brought into this world and learned to survive in it with a father that beat his perpetually pregnant wife and children mercilessly. Rose learned young sexual favors with her own father could avoid the most brutal beatings. For Rose who was hardly allowed to associate with other children this is what normal family life was for all. And it was her foundation when she met a man as sexually deviant later in life!

Incredible book. In the US we haven't ever had too much press on this case but I had seen shows and read short summaries on the horrors at 25 Cromwell Street.

The most fascinating and intriguing part of the book is how the author researched Rose's background. She said something to the effect that the best way to avoid another Rose, is to understand what caused Rose to come about and not allow that to happen again. And at the end of the day, abuse--EXTREME PHYSICAL, SEXUAL, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL ABUSE.

So we need to do our best as societies to protect our most precious commodity, our young--from such horrors to prevent as many traceable Rose and Fred West 's as possible. ( )

I should probably stop myself as I have read too many books about Rose West already, however, it is of note that so many of them were used as research in the writing of this book. Initially, this book offers a deeper insight into Rose's history than the majority of other texts in that it goes further back into her family tree. The detail given about not only her parents' childhoods, but both sets of grandparents' lives does go some way to shedding light onto her upbringing. The social and psychological legacies from previous generations really do highlight the 'nurture' aspect of the nature vs nurture argument.

There is also sufficient information on Fred West himself, prior to meeting Rose, which also helps to show how their relationship was such a toxic combination. The backgrounds of the victims are not given in much detail, although the terrible sexual crimes and murders are relatively graphic in places. Furthermore, while a great deal of information has been written about Anna-Marie (Fred's daughter to his first wife) and, to a lesser degree, about Stephen and Mae (Fred and Rose's older children) there is precious little attention given to the child whose disappearance led to the ultimate capture of the killers - Heather, Fred and Rose's firstborn.

As previously mentioned, the author has relied on the works of other writers to compile this book, including the autobiography of Anna-Marie, and Stephen and Mae's collaborative effort, which would explain why their stories are more prominent. Although the title clearly states that this book is about the MAKING of Rose's character, rather than being specifically about her actions later in life, I did feel robbed of Heather's story. Further insights into the events leading up to Heather's death, and the stories of the other children, would have fleshed out Rose the adult; instead, the latter part of the book seems to be cataloguing the murders and a handful of events around Fred and Rose's marriage. The whole of the eighties rush by and Heather's death feels a little like an epilogue, rather than being central to the final outcome.

Content aside, I found the writing to be a little teenage: there were a lot of ellipses, often laughable conjecture, e.g. 'Fred probably said something like "I'll find you a home fit for a Princess"' and the amount of 'or so he thought'/'or so it seemed' really jarred after a while. There were also several hints at the secrets that were to unfold later in the book, which read like a soap opera script and didn't always deliver satisfactorily on the promise. Additionally, there was too much unnecessary repetition, e.g. we are told twice that Fred had decided he wanted to live in Gloucester after having visited the city to purchase his first suit at the age of fifteen!

Overall, this is worth a look if you are interested in the psychosocial backgrounds of serial killers but be prepared for the slightly sensationalist writing style. ( )