The Lost Girls

April 1, 2015

In 2013, the world was shocked to learn that three women from Cleveland--Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight--had escaped from Ariel Casto's house after years of sexual slavery. True crime investigative writer Glatt (The Prince of Paradise) tells the gripping story of how these three teenagers were deceived by Castro and how they endured his physical and psychological torture. Castro fixed his house so no one could see his actions, while being friendly to his neighbors and not raising any suspicions. The physical beatings were brutal, especially to Knight who ended up miscarrying five times because Castro did not want her children but rather Berry's instead. When his common-law wife left him for another man, Castro convinced his daughters to make sexual allegations against her new partner, Fernando Colon. (Colon still sits in prison trying to get his conviction overturned.) After he was convicted and sentenced to prison, Castro committed suicide and his house was demolished to prevent it from becoming a shrine. Glatt writes a compelling story but doesn't cite sources for his material, which makes it hard to know if the conversations actually happened. VERDICT Libraries will see a demand for Glatt's book as a companion to Knight's Finding Me and Berry and DeJesus's Hope, as well as a planned Lifetime movie. [See Prepub Alert, 11/24/14.]--Michael Sawyer, Pine Bluff, AR

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 15, 2015
In May 2013, Amanda Berry and her young daughter escaped captivity in an ordinary-looking house on Cleveland's West Side. For more than a decade, Ariel Castro held Berry, Michelle Knight, and Gina DeJesus captive in his house of horror. The women were repeatedly raped and beaten, often chained, and always forced to celebrate the anniversaries of their captivity. Veteran crime reporter Glatt offers a harrowing look at the abduction and imprisonment of the women, the birth of Berry's daughter in captivity, Castro's cruelty (some of it chronicled in journals he provided his victims), and the daring escape that ended the long nightmare. While family members pushed police and investigators, Castro romanced his fiancee within feet of his victims. Paranoid after taking the third victim, he wrote a confession that languished in a kitchen drawer for nine years. Glatt details Castro's abusive treatment of his common-law wife and their four children, his compulsion to show up at vigils for his victims, and his self-serving defense once captured. Glatt drew on interviews with Castro family members and the neighbors who witnessed the rescue for details of this story of captivity and survival.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

March 1, 2015
Journalist and seasoned true-crime writer Glatt (The Prince of Paradise: The True Story of a Hotel Heir, His Seductive Wife, and a Ruthless Murder, 2013, etc.) recounts the highly publicized story of three women kidnapped and held in captivity for a decade. In May 2013, three women and one young child were rescued from captivity in a boarded and locked house in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. Of the three women, none had been held for less than nine years, and one had been there for more than a decade. The child was born in captivity and was the only one of the four to have seen the world outside the house and yard during their years of imprisonment. The women were victims of serial kidnapper and sexual predator Ariel Castro. Glatt has solid storytelling chops, and the result is a gripping, read-it-all-in-one-sitting kind of book. With such a well-covered crime, that kind of narrative push is all the more impressive since the ending certainly doesn't come as a surprise. Savvy true-crime readers may wonder how Glatt came by his information, which seems to be mostly compiled from other public sources such as newspapers, TV specials and public statements by the freed women. That's not to say it isn't a worthy read. In fact, Glatt's book is a page-turning, detailed overview of this remarkable story, and the author provides background on Castro and chronicles a number of alleged calls to Cleveland police by Castro's neighbors, who noticed strange behavior. Still, all three women have written about their experiences, so those looking for more depth from the victims' perspectives should seek out their accounts. For a wide-angle view of the horrific string of crimes start to finish, Glatt constructs an absorbing winner.