The Lost Girls tells the truly amazing story of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight, who were kidnapped, imprisoned, and repeatedly raped and beaten in a Cleveland house for over a decade by Ariel Castro, and their amazing escape in May 2013, which made headlines all over the world.
The book has an exclusive interview and photographs of Ariel Castro’s secret fiancé, who spent many romantic nights in his house of horror, without realizing he had bound and chained captives just a few feet away. There are also revealing interviews with several Castro family members, musician friends, and several neighbors who witnessed the dramatic rescue.
True Crime Book Review Blog: The Lost Girls
Not to be confused with another book with a similar title, Lost Girls by author Robert Kolker, this is a tale where “ghosts” don’t have to talk. I remember watching the television when news broke that the three girls who had been missing for a couple of years from a Cleveland neighborhood were “found.” It made national headlines as one of the missing girls, Amanda Berry broke free from her capture’s (Ariel Castro) home when a neighbor broke down Castro’s door after hearing her cries for help. Michelle Knight was the longest-held captive in the household at eleven years. The house where they were being held was no stranger’s home to the community as the kidnapper, and rapist Castro was a “friend” to the girls’ parents. Castro’s kids were even friends with the kidnapped girls. He even helped search for the girls hoping to blend in with the heartbroken neighborhood and detract from being thought of as a suspect. Needless to say, it worked much the demise of the girls and their families. There were even times when family members of the girls went into Castro’s home with only a wall separating them from their loved ones. But how could this happen? Why didn’t the girl shout for help when they knew there were people in the house?
Fear. Castro used fear, intimidation, and threats to keep the girls in check. He conditioned them, much like Pavlov’s dog, to behave in such a manner that they feared the consequences of being “disobedient.” Those consequences were murder, either to them or their loved ones, or an increase in rape and abuse. Castro tormented these young women and stripped them of all dignity, humanity, and of their youth. One of the girls even became pregnant by Castro, and she gave birth in the house of horrors without the proper medical care or attention that she would have received at a hospital.
The Lost Girls by John Gatto is not only a tale of horror, but it is also a story of hope and resilience. Reading the book ran the gamut of emotions in me from anger, frustration, sympathy, and more fury to finally peace and enlightenment as the girls were finally freed from the terrors of Castro. The book is a tough read, yet a hard one to put down, and although the end result is widely known for many who followed the story, it was still tense, and often it seemed as if the resolution to the whole ordeal would not have a “happy” ending. Was justice served in the end? To some, it may have been. To others, Castro got off too easy for his actions.