"I Saw The Devil's Face" by Teresa Giglio is a gripping and emotional memoir that is a must-read for true crime enthusiasts and survivors of trauma, offering a harrowing and informative account of one woman's courageous journey to confront and overcome the dark secrets of her childhood and the ruthless predator who terrorized her.

I have to say that I really wanted to like this, and I greatly respect the writer for sharing her story and I hope that the process has been cathartic. It was difficult to read in the way that it was written, and there was quite alot of jumping around in the timeline which made it hard to follow. I did read until the end and would recommend as I think it is important that these stories are out there and that the people involved have an opportunity to be heard.

HEINOUS! OMG! This was terrible! Except for the times the author kept trying to sell her next book within the pages in this one. That too was disgusting! How can a reader trust anything a memoirist has to say if book two and book three are advertised in each chapter. I have no sympathy or empathy for her . It went out the window.

This book was not for me. I didn’t like the star on the cover. It looked like it was locked the yellow Jewish Stars from WWII and I found it very distasteful.

This is a heartbreaking book by a very determined lady. She suffered so much in her young life, but her resilience shines through. It’s frustrating to see how this man was able to dodge responsibility his entire life for his crimes against children. But at least his story is being told now by someone he hurt, who has spent a long time finding her way back.

Pros:

Survivor's Story
Female Representation
Italian Representation
Minimal In-Book Details Protect The Dignity Of The Author And The Fellow Victims
Calls Out Law Enforcement For Imbalance In Justice System For Women

Cons:

No Structure Whatsoever
No Clear Point
Content Skips Around Quickly With No Transitions
Would Benefit From A Heavy Editor
Misplaced Political References
Extremely Repetitive
Outlines Ideas For Other Books The Author Has In Mind To Write

I found "I Saw The Devil's Face" on Netgalley under the true crime section. I wanted to "like" this book so much; "like" meaning in the way you'd appreciate a true crime story. However, the execution prevented me from understanding anything more than surface level material. The book itself lacked any sort of structure. It was difficult to determine which thoughts were complete and which belonged to other groups of information discussed. There were several political candidate opinions scattered throughout the book as side references, but they were ill placed and didn't add anything toward what the description said was the main point. The writing would benefit from some serious editing as several sentences were repeated, new thoughts introduced by phrases such as "anyway,...", and again, no flow or structure to aid the reader in deciphering any sort of point. Furthermore, the author alludes many times to two more books she has ideas for, and exactly what she plans NOT to discuss in this book; this made things a bit confusing. What really got me was that the author spoke about not giving any sort of details of her abuse to protect herself and fellow victims, yet she directs readers to a reddit forum to discuss her abuser. Reddit is known to have some extremely inappropriate conversations regarding true crime and victims, so I remain confused as to why that platform would be a good place to direct her readers. Overall, I respect this author for telling her story, but this book was absolutely not for me.

This book is the embodiment of trauma - the way it is structured, the writing style and the erratic level of detail in the contents all mirror what it is like to experience trauma. I am not sure if it was deliberately written this way or simply how it came out, but it makes it extremely relatable and credible. The writer has a dark sense of humour which I personally enjoyed and she challenges the reader at every turn. A really excellent autobiographical piece.

I don't think I've ever read a more personal account of trauma before, at least not this on this level. Teresa Giglio's writing style is personal, making it feel like a rapport between author and reader has already been established.

The name Kalady rings familiar to me, but I didn't know anything beyond that until reading this book. Along with the author's personal (and horrific) experience, we get a look at this monster parading as human and the crimes he committed and got away with for far too long. The memoir portion gives a general idea of the abuse and endangerment that was going on during the author's childhood but states specifically in the beginning that she will refrain from going into the gory details. While there are still moments that paint a gruesome picture, I appreciated the plea for privacy. Many of the names have been changed as well.

I Saw The Devil's Face: My Life With Joseph Michael Kalady is the first in a proposed series and is a great start as well as a standalone. If you are a fan of true crime, this book is an exceptional read.

A huge thanks to the author for sending me a free digital ARC to read and review!

“Life was just easier and more carefree for adults back then.” In the context that is this book, this quote will haunt me.

This entire book is heartbreaking and so personal as the author goes through her interactions with the absolute waste of life that was Joseph Michael Kalady and the horrific things he put children through. This is a very heavy read, obviously, dealing with child trafficking, parental neglect, sexual abuse and the results of how damaging homophobia can be.

I Saw The Devil's Face is mainly the story of Teresa Giglio's exploitation as a child by prolific criminal Joseph Kalady. Kalady was a man of many crimes but never made to answer for his serial offences against children. That lack of action,or even interest ,by the authorities towards sex crimes is the theme of Ms Giglio's book, in another episode as an adult she came face to face with a man very obviously intent on seeking out a female victim an area where there had been several sex attacks. When the police eventually turned up 30 minutes after she'd called they failed,despite what turned out to be a very accurate description,to apprehend a career criminal who lived within walking distance of her experience,that same man is suspected of murdering at least 2 women in following years.

On the same theme she tells of the 100,000's of thousands of rape kits that Police in America have failed to process,that failure meaning that a simple check on the DNA database that would potentially see hordes of sex offenders brought to justice cannot be done.

The book is written very much in a stream of consciousness style and sometimes is hard to follow as a result as stories are told in a rather scattergun style,a bit of tighter editing would have made it easier to follow.

That aside some very powerful relevant points are made,not least that sex crimes destroy lives but seem to be a low priority with most police forces in America with stolen cars seemingly more important than victims of predators.

I was glad to see also first hand the myth of the glamour of the American Mafia exposed. Too often in movies these are shown as "men of honour". The reality is ,as the book describes,they're sick,twisted and immoral people, psychopaths and thugs. They're not glamorous,they're brutal and nasty people.

Not an easy read for its content or the way its written but an important one that carries a very strong message to the forces of law and order about their priorities.