What in the Lord of the Flies hellscape did I just read? This was searingly disturbing and overflowing with trigger warnings: SA, cruelty, child abuse and neglect, torture. I've seen this recommended on TikTok as far as horror that sticks with you and boy, some of these scenes I actually had to stop reading and walk away. It turned my stomach, made me both horribly sad and rageful at the same time. Ruth could have been a Nazi commandant at a concentration camp - that level of just soullessness, hatred and pure evil. She is the single mom to three totally mentally messed up boys (her doing, I'm sure) that takes in 2 orphaned nieces and proceeds to torture one of them to actual death...and she ropes in some neighborhood boys and her sons to participate. While Ruth was definitely the center of the storm, those boys gave me chills too. They fed off a mixture of causing others physical pain and humiliation mixed with a slimy, objectifying sexual gratification. Teenagers getting off on treating a 14 year old girl like a thing to use and abuse. Absolutely gross and vile and made my skin actually crawl. Even more frightening and disturbing is that this isn't pure fiction. Jack Ketchum based this on a true story - 1965 Indianapolis incident involving the torture and murder of 16 yo Sylvia Likens by Gertrude Baniszewski and her sons/neighborhood kids. God that was a deep, awful rabbit hole. I don't usually get squeamish about books but I considered DNF'ing this several times just because it hurt my heart so much. Jack definitely captured the horror of the story - he modified the storyline a bit but there are very clear connections to the actual events. If you have read The Child Called It or Gregg Olsen's If You Tell - it is that level of trauma, so fair warning. This is not for the weak...and I don't know if I could even recommend it; in fact I have a pretty strong stomach and this was almost too much for me. Now I need to go hug my babies and read a happy, palate cleansing book to restore my faith in humanity.