Customer Reviews

Girl Trouble: The True Saga of Superstar Gloria Trevi and the Secret Teenage Sex Cult That Stunned the World

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This is one of the most sensational true-crime books I have ever read, and one reason I loved it is because it's not sensationalized. Christopher McDougall makes Gloria Trevi appear so true to life, and then peels back the layers of her on-stage persona to reveal the troubled, scary, cunning woman beneath. His characterization of the arch mastermind, Sergio Andrade, is amazing: you can't believe that a guy like that could rise to such power and remain free for so long, yet McDougall does a masterful job of showing exactly how Andrade DID get away with his secret girl-group sex cult for so long. If you're looking for a window into the dark corners of show business, sexual perversion or the perversions of wealth and power, this is it.

"That's where Christopher McDougall, who covered Trevi's story for The New York Times, picks up. Pretending to be an old music-industry pal of Andrade's, McDougall got into the famously fearsome Brazilian Papuda Correctional Facility to interview him. (McDougall speaks fluent Spanish and Portuguese.) He also finagled his way into Gloria's cell, where she promised him the truth: "I am who I tell you I am."

In unraveling the mystery, McDougall also got close to Aline Hernandez, who was a skinny 13-year-old when Gloria plucked her from a crowd for admission to the school. Aline alleged that Sergio made her strip for her "audition," later raped her, forced her into group sex, beat her with electrical cords and, when she was 15, married her. (She was the fourth Mrs. Sergio Andrade, and not the youngest.)

So what's the weirdest thing about this story? Too close to call.

"Girl Trouble" was plucked from the headlines, but has a longer shelf life ahead of it - for one thing, Trevi's comeback album just went platinum. Beyond that, McDougall gives the book a powerful resonance by finding the larger cultural context of this singularly bizarre tale."

I read this book in two sittings instead of one only because I had to go to work. McDougall skillfully weaves a tale that quickly engulfs the reader. I have to admire the way one is led from sympathy for Sergio and Gloria to revulsion and a thirst for justice. This book demands an epilogue.

i loved this book, and i think any reader who isn't blown away by it must be used to airport newsstand trash, not real journalism. i was about to write a rave review myself, but found this one from the herald to be dead on the money:

"Despite its sensationalist title, Girl Trouble is no hastily assembled fallen-superstar exposé, and McDougall is no mere gossip-rag hack. Using the "Siempre en Domingo" performance as his launching point, McDougall - who has written for The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, and the Associated Press - delves deeply and thoroughly into the bizarre irony that would become Gloria Trevi's life and career. In the process he seeks - and largely provides - answers and understanding rather than simple exploitation of this stranger-than-fiction tale.

Two very detailed stories emerge from Girl Trouble; the first of which is the story of Trevi herself and her meteoric rise to become Mexico's Madonna.

Singing songs that championed teen sexual liberation and bashed traditional macho attitudes, all the while sporting a carefree thrift-store chic and a metaphorically untamed mane of hair, Trevi was adored by young audiences - especially young female audiences. She even won over members of Mexico's intellectual community. Social critic Carlos Monsivaís and author Elena Poniatowska wrote about her in glowing praise, and none other than Zapatista guerilla leader Subcomandante Marcos admitted to being a fan.

But at the same time that she was loudly and proudly extolling sexual liberation, freedom and girl power, Trevi herself seemed to be living an entirely monkish existence. She was never spotted out and about town, she seemed to have few friends, and she never dated. When she stepped on stage or when a television camera was turned on her, she burst into her irreverent, unconstrained persona. But when the spotlight was turned off, she immediately turned sulky and introverted.

There was a good explanation for the strange dichotomy in Trevi's personality, however. She, along with a rotating cast of more than a dozen other young women and girls, had become part of a secret brainwashing sex cult cultivated by producer/manager Sergio Andrade, a quintessential macho control artist.

Here the second and larger story takes over Girl Trouble as McDougall painstakingly reconstructs not only the lurid details of the Andrade cult's workings, but also the psychology that allowed it to take shape in the first place.

Sergio Andrade, while blessed with at least some knack for penning hum-able pop tunes, is repeatedly characterized in the book as fat, ugly, boorish, slovenly, sullen, and essentially devoid of any sort of endearing personality trait. Yet somehow he managed to convince a rotating cast of young teenage girls - as well as women's lib champion Glori Trevi herself - to submit to beatings, rape, starvation and ritual humiliation. And they bore it all while remaining completely loyal, obedient, and most importantly, silent.

As McDougall explains it, Andrade's madness followed a precise scientific logic. He, along with the able help of Trevi, targeted and recruited girls almost exclusively aged 12 and 13 years to join his "talent school;" a cover for what was in effect an indoctrination center.

"But was it pure sexual attraction on his part, or strategy" to choose 12 and 13 year olds, the author ponders. To answer that question, McDougall consults with teen culture analysts as well as the classic developmental psychology theory of Erik Erikson. When the responses assert that the transition age from child to teen is precisely that at which a girl's mind is most vulnerable to influence, McDougall concludes that Sergio knew exactly what he was doing.

Once the girls had been recruited into joining Andrade's academy, they were subjected to a seemingly standardized routine of anxiety-provoking performance tests, psychological manipulation, and then later, sexual and physical abuse. McDougall turns to cognitive theory and scientific treatises on brainwashing to show that Andrade's program was no accident, but rather a regime designed precisely and perfectly to gain the girls' unquestioning obedience.

McDougall's analysis certainly helps to answer one question plaguing the reader: why in the world did these girls so willingly accept what was happening to them? But there is, of course, a follow-up question that begs to be answered as well: where in the world were the parents during all of this?

Ultimately, only after a 14-year-old Trevi backup singer abandoned her newborn baby - one of several children fathered by Andrade within the clan - could Mexican authorities persuade a set of parents to press charges. And so finally, in March of 1999, Andrade and Trevi were formally charged with rape, kidnapping and corruption of minors.

Panicked, Andrade took his harem and hid out in Brazil, fathering several more babies with the girls in hopes of protecting the clan against extradition. Eventually, in January of 2000, he and Trevi were arrested and sent to solitary confinement in Brazilian jail, where in the next bizarre plot turn, Gloria announced that she had somehow become pregnant.

McDougall followed it all, from Trevi giving birth in Brazilian prison, to the pair's extradition back to Mexico, and then, this past September, to Gloria's surprise acquittal on all charges by a Chihuahua state judge."

Page-turner. Couldn't put it down! Christopher McDougall lays bare every lurid detail.

I've seen intrigued by this case since I saw it featured on "Dateline" in early 2001.

I became convinced as I read further into the book that Gloria Trevi, too, was a victim of Andrade's abuse and insatiable need for control, but that does not excuse her part in the sickening affair.

Trevi is no feminist icon - not by a long shot.

Sergio Andrade is a pathetic, disgusting excuse for a human being. He wasn't man enough to deal with adult women so he took advantage of 12 and 13 year olds - CHILDREN.

In September, Ms. Trevi was freed "for lack of evidence" and she is back in demand. Interesting to see if she can make up for the lost time - and if she will try to cross over to English-speaking American audiences. With the oppressive turn this country has taken of late, I don't think her antics will play well in the States.

Andrade will still be tried for his crimes. I hope he gets precisely what he deserves.

I bought this book because I had read Mr. McDougall's Born to Run (which I highly recommend to readers who are into self-improvement, physical fitness-wise and performance-wise). Girl Trouble is a non-fiction historical account of the spectacular emergence and eventual crashing decline of Gloria Trevi, a one-time hugely popular Latino entertainer. Mr. McDougall has a magical way of making me feel that I am actually there in the room with the personnae that he is writing about. I felt the emotions that the individuals felt. I felt their fears, hoped their hopes, experienced their times of frustration, felt their moments of anger, and was happy when they were happy. I involved myself in Mr. McDougall's opus so heavily that when I had finished reading it (yes, it's one of those page-turners), I was almost exhausted, both mentally and physically. This book is a movie just waiting to be produced. Having said all that, I would suggest that you spend your money elsewhere.

Superstar Gloria Trevi was finally freed from prison after being cleared of rape and kidnapping charges, and intends to act and release an album, so "Girl Trouble" will be the perfect announcement of her return to stardom. Trevi was accused of masterminding the kidnap, rape and brainwashing of nearly a dozen teens in Brazil: Christopher McDougall is a journalist determined to uncover the truth, and his feature for the New York Times Magazine exposes the truth behind the scandal, tracing Trevi's involvement in the sex-slave scandal and in the music and acting worlds.

I started into this book, and then read the author bio to see if this was some vanity or self-published project. Instead, this guy has been published by heavy hitters like Esquire! And I drudge away at my hourly writing job...

How can a book about a sex scandal be so uninvolving and...blah? Sure, it's well researched--in fact, it's more like other people's thoughts simply cobbled together--but where the spark, the grace that you expect when you shell out $25 bucks for a book? Nonfiction doesn't mean styleless!!

I finished it, but it was a chore...

The story was good, especially some of the parts about sex (with of-age consenting partners); but the facts were told over and over again. The story was good, especially some of the parts about sex (with of-age consenting partners); but the facts were told over and over again.

If writing like this doesn't bother you, read this book.

This is a really interesting story. The writing? Leaves a LOT to be desired and turns the otherwise incredible subject matter into a boring mess.