The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir in Around the World in 80 Books

Dec 16, 2022 Fee rated it really liked it

This is a grimly fascinating, empathic, and provocative examination of the killing of six year old Jeremy Guillory by Ricky Langley, a troubled paedophile who was sentenced to life in prison for the murder. Marzano-Lesnevich dives into Langley’s past, exploring his upbringing and the possible motivations behind Jeremy’s murder, whilst also reflecting on and discovering parallels with her own childhood, which was wracked with sexual abuse by her grandfather. She details how her family dealt with ...more

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Aug 07, 2018 Carol rated it really liked it

Raw, difficult and brave. Not an easy topic- pedophiles and their victims- but the author writes openly, honestly through self discovery and search for understanding. This one will stay with me.

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Feb 25, 2018 Kemlo rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, biography-and-memoir

Well, I certainly didn't wake up today thinking, "Hey, I really want to read a book about child molestation!" but somehow that's what I ended up doing. The explicit details in this book are very upsetting, and I felt tempted to put it down, but . . . when I thought about how much courage it took for this author to do the work of writing this book, and what a phenomenal job she did recounting not only her own experiences but also her in-depth research into Ricky Langley and the State v. Langley c ...more

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