This was well written, although quite short. Great place to start if you are interested in learning more bout the case.

4 stars
I knew a lot about the Watts family murders before reading this, but it offered a little more detail than what I had previously encountered.

As an Australian, I did not experience the media storm that occurred when Shanann Watts and her two daughters went missing. I first encountered their story back in 2020 through the Youtube channel of Stephanie Harlowe who discussed the case. Therefore, before reading this I had a preconceived idea of the kind of monster that Chris Watts was.

I still don't understand what exactly happened. By all accounts Chris Watts was a loving father, what makes someone kill their pregnant wife let alone their children?

The text message exchanges that were included in the book were insightful and gave me a better understanding of the different relationships between the different key participants. It also helped me better understand the animosity between Shanann and Chris Watt's family.

This book is truely heart breaking. The moment the discuss pulling poor Bella and CeeCee's bodies out of the oil containers made me cry. These poor girls were innocent and they did not deserve to die scared and alone by the hands of their father.

This was well written, although quite short. Great place to start if you are interested in learning more bout the case.

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A deeper dive

I already knew a lot about this case having listened to lots of podcasts, watched a few documentaries and lots of other stuff on YouTube.
I still found this very worthwhile, especially in terms of filling in some backstory on the issues between Shanann and the Watt's family, and the deterioration of their marriage leading up to his affair.
No matter how much I read about this case though, Watt's still takes my breath away with his sheer cruelty and indifference to his wife, girls and unborn son. And nothing will ever convince me that Kessinger was properly investigated. Watts will sing like a canary when it finally sinks in he's not getting out of jail, so that should be interesting.
A chilling lesson on what happens when a covert malignant narcisisst does the ultimate discard, and completely loses the plot.
Great book overall, the narration is a bit irritating but I could get over that pretty easily.

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So much information

This book offers really comprehensive information about the case. So much has been written but this book distills the background and the information about the investigation and trial in detail and without diminishing it with melodrama. It’s a fascinating case and this book covers it very well, but I think most readers will end up like me - still wondering why.

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Wow !!! What a monster

Chris Watts is pure evil what he did to those beautiful children and his wife is disgusting.

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heart breaking

This book sent me through a whirl wind of emotions from anger to sadness to even shedding tears for a family that has been torn apart, still so many unanswered questions. I can only pray for Shannan, Bella CC and Nico along with their family and hope they can find peace knowing their angels are watching over them. truly heart wrenching.

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1 person found this helpful

Good book but lacks details.

I’ve read a few books on the case and this one lacked the details that I was more interested in hearing.

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Well narrated and very informative

I have listened to a few books now and podcasts about this tragic event and this book is by far the best. It has lots of details and heaps of research has obviously been done to try and get a clearer back story to the lead up and reason for this tragedy. Highly recommend.

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So terrible but so interesting. Highly recommend.

The detail they go into about this case was outstanding..Lots of things I never knew. It was shocking. What a human being can do to other human beings even your own blood.

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good account of the case

Personally for me there wasn’t anything new in this podcast that I haven’t already heard from Netflix documentaries and reading articles about the case.

That being said, I think this is still a great book and its covers everything quite well. I am a fan of John Glatt and I have listened to quite a few books now narrated by Shaun Grindell and I do enjoy his narration.

One thing that slightly rubbed me the wrong way was the portrayal of Shanann being overbearing and dominant in the relationship. I think it was touched on quite a lot, maybe a bit too much.

I think with all her messages to Chris when she was away in NC, it almost portrays her as somewhat obsessive. I’m not married so I can’t say what I would do in that situation, but if I was in another state to my husband who was acting so unusual I think I would go home and make sure things are alright rather than just sit there and have him ignoring me and the kids.

My heart honestly breaks for Shanann and I spend a lot of time thinking about what her last moments were like. Did she think he would keep the kids safe? She couldn’t have possibly even begin to imagine what he was going to do to them because it absolutely defies belief. The fact he would discard his babies like he did is one of the most heartbreaking and heartless things I have heard in recent memory. The video of the girls singing “you are my hero” is almost impossible to watch knowing what he would end up doing to them.

At the end of the day, family annihilators are always going to exist, and I have heard of a few cases but this one will always be the most difficult for me due to the disposal and the fact he just went to work as normal like he didn’t do the most horrific thing imaginable.

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Strange and disturbing account

This book was written in a way that heavily cast Shanan in a negative way, as though the author was attempting to justify Chris' actions. The narrating was clunky and the glorification of Chris Watts the entire time until the conviction was really disturbing to listen to and reeked of victim blame. There are far better accounts out there that will offer a much better recount of events without the maddening disrespect shown in this book.

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