Perfect Victim: The True Story of the Girl in the Box
by Christine McGuire, Carla Norton
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Book Summary Information
Author: Carla Norton, Christine McGuireEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1989-07-01
ISBN: 0440204429
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Dell
Book Reviews of Perfect Victim: The True Story of the Girl in the Box
Book Review: Stunning
Summary: 5 Stars
This book gave me a glimpse into a hell that i cannot fathom.
This was an amazing book not just from the criminal aspect of it, but from a psychological aspect as well. The story of this tortured women is unlike anything i have ever heard, but it is told in a factual way, without sensationalism, like some true crime books. THe bare facts are the most horrifying things i have ever read, i cannot imagine this being done to someone, and more importantly, i was amazed at how the victim went through it without losing her faith in humanity or going insane. i think i would have.
I wouldn't look at this as just another "true crime" book. It is also an amazing treatise on psychology and stockholm syndrome. I understand now how much some minds can take and the reasons behind it's bizarre sounding (but really ingenious) coping mechanisms. Reading this will teach you much about the human mind, some that will scare the crap out of you. It also has well researched footnotes about other similar cases and gives a glimpse into the legal system.
Most importantly, this book shows how resilient and amazing the victim is. After knowing what the victim endured, i was amazed by her strength and by the fact that she did not seem as psychologically and physically damaged as i know i would be. Although this is probably the most horrific thing i have heard of happening to a person, she remains human (by that i mean kind and loving and dignified) and gentle in every sense. Truly an must read
off topic a bit, but my only concern was if the victim got any of the money made from the book (it was written by the D.A. who was her attorney). She seemed to not want the case well known (from what i read, she may have changed her mind) and it would be upsetting if she didn't want the book written, or didn't get her share share of payment. I hope she was not exploited YET AGAIN.
Summary of Perfect Victim: The True Story of the Girl in the Box
Called the "sex slave," and "the girl in the box" case, this is the story behind Colleen Stan's terrifying, seven-year-long imprisonment by Cameron Hooker as told by the district attorney who tried the case. Too bizarre to be anythin g but true, it is a tale of riveting intensity and gripping courtroom drama. 8 page photo insert. Soon to be a TV miniseries. HC: Arbor House.Some may find it unbelievable that a 20-year-old Oregon woman could be enslaved by a sexual sadist for seven years--that even after being able to move freely during the day, she would allow him to lock her into a wooden box every night. Perhaps it's a minor failing of this book that the authors do not elaborate on the psychology that made her such a "perfect victim." In other respects, though, the story is well told, with an impressive accumulation of details: the woman's capture, the tortures she endured, the brainwashing techniques, the fiendish contraptions her captor constructed, the slave contract he made her sign, and the increasingly strained relations within the peculiar family that included master, slave, wife, and child, all inside a single-wide trailer. As well-known attorney and author Vincent Bugliosi writes, "A gripping and disturbing story of the secret life of apparently normal people. At once, horrific and engrossing."
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