Each month Abington Library will feature a favorite book from a faculty, staff member, or student. They will give a brief synopsis of their chosen book. Instructions can be found on the instructions tab or at libguides.asub.edu/VanguardSpotlightBook/Instructions.
If You Tell by Greg Olsen
Review by April Frost
My name is April Frost. I work at the college library here at ASU-Beebe. I love to read fantasy and suspense fiction, but I also love to read true crime books. After I read a true crime book about a serial killer or a dysfunctional family, I will look them up on the internet to verify the facts that I read about in the book. For this month’s Vanguard book of the month, I chose If You Tell by Greg Olsen. This book is not for the faint of heart. It is a very dark book about a family that are the likes you have never seen or read about before. This was a book that I found myself reading into the wee hours of the morning because I couldn’t put it down. In my opinion, this is one of the best true crime books that I have ever read.
If You Tell is a horrifying tale of a dysfunctional and murderous family in rural Washington State that focuses on Shelly Knotek and how she abused, tormented, and controlled her third husband and her three daughters. Not for the squeamish, the narrative chronicles how the girls endured beatings, bleach baths, and verbal abuse, at the same time shedding light on how and why Shelly’s family bowed to her tyranny for years. Shelly brought others into her insane world and home, including her nephew Shane, her best friend Kathy Lorenzo, and an almost stranger Ron Woodworth, all of whom ended up dead. Eldest daughter Nikki, after years of torture, fled to her grandmother’s and began a new life, while middle child Sami bargained with Shelly that she wouldn’t tell the family secrets if she could go to college. But youngest sister Tori was left at home, and when Tori revealed that she was now the target of violence, the sisters banded together and forced a police inquest that resulted in the rescue of Tori and the arrest and imprisonment of both parents.
Disturbing and nerve-wracking, If You Tell is a survivor's story of Nikki, Sami, and Tori, who risked their lives to fight for freedom and justice from their evil mother. Sisters for life, victims no more, they found hope in the darkness that made them the resilient women they are today.
