Customer Reviews

Secrets in the Cellar

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

As other reviews, I agree that the book has been well written, though repetitive towards the end- but an easy read. I was able to finish it in a day.

I think Glatt just compiled all the articles that were produced since the case went public. I doubt anyone has any information on Elisabeth's dungeon diary or court testimony.
Without any of those, you will not be able to get the details on this case. If you really want to get this book, just wiki it and read the footnote articles. I doubt you'll find anything new in the book.

This is the worst crime in history. I doubt anyone can top it with anything else. Nothing is comparable.

I have one question I wish someone can answer: How is she sane?

24 years, 3,000 rapes, living in a basement, no sunlight, no fresh air, no freedom, not knowing if 'the monster' will come, not knowing what to do if he died, bearing 7 children, seeing one child die in your arms, having 3 children taken away from your arms, living with 3 children- possibly seeing one of them raped by her father/grandfather (doctors were not able to confirm that Kerstin has been raped by Josef Fritzl) yet caring for them... Need I say more?

What I like about the book is the explanation of the psychology behind Josef Fritzl's actions. When the reader is given reasons why someone would commit such an act- it settles something within them- to know, things like this don't happen at random and for no reason.

"Secrets in the Cellar" is an excellent book, very well written. Some parts were difficult to read, yet the story is fascinating and so hard to put down. How was it that Josef Fritzl was able to maintain his secret? It seems impossible to build a dungeon, imprison his daughter, Elisabeth, bring in her children to raise, all without anyone including the renters and his wife ever knowing. "How?" is the question everyone wants to know.

John Glatt starts from the beginning, the childhood of Josef Frizl. He paints a portrait of Josef's double life during Elisabeth's ordeal. Glatt also details how Elisabeth raised her children and the effects of their imprisonment mentally and physically. There was more to the story than I had ever read in the papers. Included are details about the aftermath, Elisabeth's relationship with her mother, the children's therapy and how they are healing. Glatt covered so much, yet the story flowed seamlessly.

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the Fritzl case. It will not disappoint.

In my opinion and reading true crime books, there are few cases that boggle the imagination and the case of Jozef Fritzl imprisoning his teenage daughter Elisabeth for 24 years and fathering her seven children is mind blowing.

Unfortunately for us, the author wasn't allowed contact with the victims who are secretly guarded against tabloid photographers and journalists all wanting her story. When the case broke out, everybody in the media preyed on the small Austrian town of Amstetten to find out how this man could be so diabolical, cruel, methodical, and truly evil. I have read about hundreds of books on true crimes and this one is truly horrifying.

He showed no mercy towards his daughter or his granddaughter, Kerstin, whose deathly illness helped free them. The author does an above average job in explaining the events but it's difficult when you are unable to communicate with the victims themselves and that's not his fault in the least.

He has plenty of willing and some unwilling to go on record of a man who terrorized his entire family and the community and I don't blame them. The death penalty would be too good for him. For 24 years, he didn't allow his daughter and children/grandchildren to enjoy the basic necessities of sunlight and fresh air.

Elisabeth's actions and survival is amazing because I think many of us would have done ourselves in if we were ever in her shoes. I admire Elisabeth's strength and determination to help her children think of their imprisonment as a game rather than real.

For Jozef Fritzl, I wanted to know more about the man's background. I felt that I didn't get enough information to analyze his motivations for imprisoning his own daughter. I hope that Austrian government puts him a jail cell smaller than his daughter's prison. Unable to act out his perverse sexual fantasies with a living partner, even prostitutes were frightened by his demands and wishes during paid sessions despite the money. Jozef Fritzl will have to answer to a higher power for his actions on earth.

On the morning of August 28, 1984, in the small market town of Amstetten, Austria, eighteen year old Elisabeth Fritzl, at the request of her then forty-nine year old father, Josef, accompanied him to the cellar of their house, ostensibly to assist him in some mundane chore. Little did she know that she would not see the light of day again for nearly twenty-four years.

This is the story that gripped the world when it first came to light. It was a story as bizarre as it was unbelievable. Josef Fritzl had kept his beautiful daughter Elisabeth trapped in a soundproofed concrete and steel reinforced cellar for twenty-four years. During that time, he made her into his sex slave and fathered seven children with her. Meanwhile, Elisabeth's mother, Rosemarie, lived upstairs with her husband, having been led to believe that her daughter had runaway to live with a religious cult, never knowing that Elisabeth still lived at home, albeit in the cellar.

Over time, three of Elisabeth's children would appear in infancy on the Fritzls' doorstep, ostensibly having been abandoned by Elisabeth, who was supposedly still living in a religious cult. These three children would be brought up by Rosemarie and Josef, while three others continued living in the cellar, a fourth having died shortly after birth. The three children living upstairs had no memory of their brief life below in the cellar.

In April 2008, Elisabeth's nineteen year old daughter, Kerstin, became so ill that she was close to death and taken to the hospital, after Elisabeth pleaded with Josef to save her life. This was the first time that Kerstin had ever left the cellar in her entire life. It was shortly thereafter that Elisabeth and her family were freed, and the truth that shocked the world came to light, resulting in the arrest of the now seventy-three year old Josef Fritzl.

The book explores the lives of those involved in this shocking story, as well as the events that led to Elisabeth's eventual imprisonment in the cellar, the lives that were lived below ground, and the aftermath with its many problems and issues. While this book is not well written, the story is so unusual and shocking that the reader cannot help but be gripped by its inherent pathos and horror. There is certainly a place in hell for Josef Fritzl.

We've all heard of this monster of incest and how he imprisoned his own daughter in a windowless basement bunker for 24 years while impregnating her 7 times... well here is the inside story. You will be sickened and horrified by this story of sadistic imprisonment and sexual abuse. The book leaves you guessing about a few things as there are some holes. I filled most in by doing research on the internet after I was done with the book. Read for yourselves. What is amazing is how, after the fact, the Austrian government changed their identities and is financially taking care of every victim in this tragedy and the town where the family was relocated are viciously protective, chasing off any stranger/reporter snooping around the town. Both government and townsfolk have gone to such extremes to protect the daughter and her 6 children from prying eyes ... an amazing statement of a government with true integrity and a townspeople with true humanity. Not something you ever see here in the US with victims of violent crime.

While the book was well researched and interesting enough that it was worth the fairly short read, the second half of the book is comprised almost in its entirety of repetition from information provided or gleaned from the first half. Where in the beginning the author used pieces of a quotation from a news article he would supply the article in its entirety later. This flushed out the end of the book in an unsatisfying way that did not make up for the relatively slim amount of information provided about the post-cellar experience.

Overall, still worth the read, I just disagree with the other reviews that raved about how great the writing was.

For as quick as this book came out after the facts in the news; they seem extremely accurate. This writer was very aware of what was going on, and expressed the events of crime and the scene as if you were there with Elisabeth and her family. I can relate to her in some of the events, and they had destroyed my mental health. I can't even imagine what is going how badly Elisabeth and her children are going to face their future and deal with these events.
It is clear to me that with all the backround of the father and mother that this book was researched very well.By Their Father's Hand: The True Story of the Wesson Family Massacre

I've read a few books on child abuse, but this one left me speechless. It just goes to show, that when you think your life is a living hell, there are other people out there suffering 1000x more than you. Reading this book, I kept forgetting that this really happened to real people. My brain just can't grasp this is a true story. What kind of monster does this to his own children? Well written, it kept me up at night to finish reading it. I wish Elisabeth and her children well.

This true story is horrifying and since I remember it happening I was glad to see this book come out. It was a very quick read but I felt the writing was somewhat choppy. The author tended to flit around and back and forth. I feel deeply for Elizabeth and her children and hope they have made a full recovery but since the book doesn't tell us that or what sentence her monster father received I felt a bit let down when the book ended...and that is pretty much what it did..it just ended.

Wow. This book is only to be read if you are in a great mood, life is treating you well, and you want to bring yourself back down. I don't think any murder story I have ever read was more horrific than Elizabeth and her children's ordeal. I went in the basement to do some laundry and tried to imagine staying down there for the next 24 years. I became very nervous (and it has windows). The fact they survived and were able to gain some kind of life after release is incredible.