The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir

Over the last year I have been watching the critical acclaim for this debut stack up, and with good reason. Marzano masterfully weaves together personal history and the history of a child's tragic murder into a suspenseful and moving true crime drama. She structures the book with extraordinary skill, haunting prose and the precision of an expert lawyer. I ached for the people in this book, for the sometimes awful complexities of life and the terrible things we humans do to each other.

If you are a fan of intelligent true crime/psychological stories, this is not the book for you. While the underlying story may have been worth writing about (maybe), it is hard to see or remember that because of the way the story is actually written. Complete misfire.

I am giving this 2 stars because the beginning held my attention long enough for me to buy the Kindle book. Unfortunately, I could not hold my attention for long. I finished the book because I hate to give up, but I really should have not wasted my time. I can't believe this book has such high reviews. There is another 2 star rating on the store that I just read, written by Kit Taylor. She does a great job summarizing the book. Read that review but don't waste your time or money with actually reading or buying the book. There is no connection between these two cases, try as the author might to relate them. I believe she believes her version of the events of her life, but she is so self-centered it is hard to take anything she says very seriously. I have no idea why she made what should be a short article so long and so repetitive. But really, this story never neeeded to be told. There is nothing interesting or new here. Everyone has issues in our lives. Not everyone wants to share them with the world (thankfully). I feel bad for her parents and how they are portrayed in this book.

WARNING: This review contains information that's mentioned in many discussions of the book, but some readers might consider the revelations spoilers. So - If minor spoilers bother you - stop reading now.

"The Fact of a Body" melds the true crime story of child molester/murderer Ricky Langley with Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich's tale of being sexually abused as a child.

In 1992, Louisiana resident Ricky Langley killed his six-year-old neighbor, Jeremy Guillory, and - after being convicted by a jury - was sentenced to death. During his retrial a decade later Langley was defended by Clive Stafford Smith, a staunch opponent of capital punishment whose law firm specializes in death penalty cases. This time Langley got life in prison. (Note: Ricky had yet a third trial, years later, and was once again sentenced to life.)

After Langley's second trial, in 2003, Harvard law student Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich - who opposes the death penalty - became a summer intern at Clive Stafford Smith's law firm in New Orleans. During her orientation, the intern was shown Langley's taped confession from 1992, in which the murderer - a diminutive man with coke bottle glasses and jug ears - graphically described the crime.....and talked about molesting children: "Sometimes I, you know, rub my penis on them."

Marzano-Lesnevich's mind immediately snapped back to her childhood. She recalled how, from the time she was 3-years-old, her grandfather - when babysitting - would steal into her bedroom. He'd tug up her nightgown, pull down her panties, undo his fly.....and then her mind would go someplace else as she stared at her yellow lampshade.

While Marzano-Lesnevich was watching Langley's tape, she wanted the child molester to die.

After completing law school Marzano-Lesnevich decided not to practice law. Instead, she became a writer, and elected to tell Ricky Langley's story.....and her own.

To make sense of Ricky's life and behavior the author thoroughly researched his history - going all the way back to the courtship and marriage of his parents, Bessie and Alcide. The writer learned that Ricky was conceived while Bessie was in a full body cast after a horrific car crash - an accident that killed two of the Langleys small children. Bessie was drinking heavily and taking a cornucopia of drugs while expecting Ricky - and was advised to terminate the pregnancy. Bessie refused, and gave birth to a boy who had problems all his life.

Marzano-Lesnevich narrates the story of Ricky's life. As a child he lived with a semi-invalid mother (her leg was amputated), a hard-drinking father, and four siblings. The Langsley's could never make ends meet and had to move in with Bessie's sister and brother-in-law, devout Pentecostals with a strict spartan lifestyle: no music, no television, no booze (theoretically), and lots of talk about God.

Ricky was an odd friendless child who admits that he started molesting younger kids when he was nine-years-old. Ricky claims that he always knew something was wrong with him, and - as a young adult - tried to get help on several occasions, to no avail. Unable to control his compulsions, Ricky even attempted suicide. Finally, at the age of 26, the misfit became a murderer.

The summary above is the 'nutshell' version. In the book, Marzano-Lesnevich provides (what feels like) a week by week account of Ricky's life, with admittedly fictionalized components, including: descriptions of what people were wearing; what they were doing; what they might be thinking; what they were looking at; conversations they had; what they were drinking; whether sweat was rolling down their faces; and so on. The author also includes a detailed description of young Jeremy's murder, the extensive search for the missing boy, the police finding his body, and - finally - Ricky's arrest and trials.

Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich's personal story is interwoven with Ricky's tale. The author talks about growing up in New Jersey with two lawyer parents and two siblings - one a twin brother. The family was upwardly mobile, had a nice home, and went on yearly vacations to Nantucket or more exotic destinations. Young Alexandria's parents had an active social life and - when they went out - would ask the children's maternal grandparents to watch the kids. And that's when grandpa would molest Alexandria or her sister Nicola.

Grandpa would take out his false teeth, make a scary face, and tell Alexandria he was a witch who would 'get her' if she told on him - which terrified the child into silence. Even so - when Alexandria was about 8-years-old - her parents found out about the abuse when Nicola talked about 'sitting on Grandpa's lap.'

The parents learned the truth, BUT NOTHING HAPPENED. The heads of the family didn't call the police, didn't confront the predator, and didn't discuss the situation with the children. Instead, Alexandria's folks pretended nothing had happened. The grandparents still visited frequently, though grandpa was never again left alone with the children.

The molestation - and subsequent silence - scarred Marzano-Lesnevich for life and had a devastating effect on her relationship with her entire family - especially her parents and grandparents. When Marzano-Lesnevich got older, the memories of abuse also made it difficult for her to sustain romantic relationships or to be intimate with her partners.

Again this is the 'nutshell version.' In the book the author describes her childhood, and much of her young adulthood, in great detail, including the emotional (and physical) damage she suffered - and still endures. It's clear (to me) that Marzano-Lesnevich's mother and father mishandled the situation and compounded the damage caused by the sexual abuse. It's hard to fathom exactly what her parents were thinking, but this kind of 'secret keeping' is probably common within families. After all, to reveal the truth would destroy the grandparents lives. What would your parents have done in this situation? What would you do? (This would make a great topic for book club discussions.)

"The Fact of a Body" has garnered many stellar reviews and has been heralded as the 'must read' of the summer. That said, I'm not as big a fan as many other people.

First, I didn't see a real connection between Ricky's story and Marzano-Lesnevich's story. It's true that Ricky abused children and Alexandria was molested, but the situations aren't analogous.....and the author's attempt to segue between the separate crimes doesn't work (for me). It feels like two separate books have been stuck together, somewhat like an old Reader's Digest anthology. Moreover, the fictionalized details of the narratives - especially Ricky's - seem to serve little purpose, and detract from their versimilitude.

That said, I admire Marzano-Lesnevich's extensive research into Ricky's life and crimes. The author spent years preparing to write this book: she read thousands of pages of documents; listened to numerous taped recordings; interviewed people who knew Ricky; traveled to the killer's homes, jobs, and haunts; and even visited the convict in prison.

My final thoughts: the book tells two compelling true crime stories and I'd recommend it to readers who enjoy that genre.

Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevick has always been against the death penalty, that is until she heard the confession of Ricky Langley, the molester and murderer of a 6-year-old child, Jeremy Guillory. Her reaction surprises her and causes her to want to learn all she can about this particular case. She feels a strong connection to these people and events and basically becomes obsessed with this case and Langley’s life. Over the course of ten years, she studies every document she can get her hands on. She even arranges to visit Ricky Langley. As she delves into Ricky’s life and family, it opens her up more to the facts surrounding her owned troubled history. Her family has many secrets that they have struggled for years to bury, including the author’s own molestation by her grandfather when she was a child.

I could not pull myself away from this disturbing but fascinating non-fiction book. This is two books in one that the author has marvelously intertwined into an engrossing tale. The memoir of the author’s personal story is brutally honest and raw. Her reporting of the murder case and the entire life of Ricky Langley is completely absorbing. I’ve never read either a memoir or a murder case study that was such a literary marvel. The author has created a literary work that is a hybrid composed of two different genres that she expertly weaves together into a coherent whole. One part never overcomes the other and both stories meld together beautifully. She’s a very impressive author.

This is a book about forgiveness, secrecy, truth, the bond of family, memory and justice. It’s haunting, it’s heart breaking, it’s disturbing and it’s completely mesmerizing. Highly recommended.

I won this book in a contest given by the publisher and have no obligation to give a review.

I confess, I just couldnt finish it. The author tries to weave her own story with that of a pedophile killer. The stories seem so unrelated. Yes, there was molestation in each, but other than that, they were too far apart. Each would have been interesting on its own, but trying to force them together just didnt work.

The author also jumped around too much. From one childhood to another, from one story to another, to adulthood, back to a different childhood, it just didn't work for me. I finally quit reading about 40% through. Her writing is very good, but much of it was her own construction of how things may have happened. The stories could have been told in half as much prose. Too many other books on my list to waste any more time on this one.

Entitled rich girl equates her grandfathers molestations with the crimes of a child murderer from Louisiana . With all due respect, it’s not the same. Crass and overreaching to narrate personal girlhood trauma alongside with antecdotes from a lifelong pedophile. The author clearly wrote this as mea culpa, with the agenda of exonerating (or at least lessening the culpability of) a confessed child murderer. Unfortunately, she seems to be succeeding. As of 2018, Ricky Langley has now had 3 guilty verdicts overturned, despite extensive confessions.

Thoroughly disgusting to take artistic liberties with this material, as she explains in the afterword, she “imagined” a lot of the details such as what people were wearing etc.

I picked this up at the library, thinking, meh, I'll give it a chance. Might be good. When I saw in chapter one that the author went to Harvard Law, I felt resentful and jealous (I went to a third tier school, and barely made it through that school)., I was prepared NOT to like this book, for reasons I admit don't make much sense. I guess I assumed that this was going to be the story of a plucky Harvard liberal's fight to save a death row inmate from his fate.
Although I am not finished, I am finding I like this book very much. The writer mingles the story of a convicted child murderer and pedophile with the story of her own life. Both stories are interesting-, she finds a way to make them interesting. In the hands of a less talented author, I doubt this type of presentation of each story would be successful, but I find I am riveted by both stories. (Even though, I admit, I googled the pedophile/child murderer whose story the author details, and I already know the outcome of his appeals)
I do not want to get into the details of the book, as almost all of the details are 'spoilers' in my opinion. This is a beautifully written memoir/True Crime, and I recommend it highly.

I think the end of the book was quite compelling. Weaving the two stories together was very interesting. The real issue I had with the book was that Ricky just wasn't a compelling character. I get that there were complicating issues that make him not a 100% but the author identifying with the horrible crime was very hard for me to truly see. For sure the author being sexually abused was horrible but her obsession with this case seemed more like a displaced association then anything else. Clever idea for a book but her story and her mothers alone would have been a stronger and more compelling book, to me.

This book seemed to have great promise (and great reviews), but held my interest only about half-way through the book, and then I gave up (and I rarely give up on a book). It felt as though I kept reading, but was getting nowhere. The connections between the two stories were weak, and since we knew who committed the murder and who was abusing the author, there was no mystery to hold my interest. Combining these two stories didn't work for me, and finally I got bored and moved on.

It is hard to categorise this book – partly, it is the disturbing story of a murder, but it is much more than that. Part memoir, written almost as a novel, this is a painful, thoughtful account of a crime and how it affected those involved , but also how it changed the life of author Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich. The author is the daughter of a lawyer and, as long as she can remember, she recalls being fascinated by the law. At the age of twenty five, she went to New Orleans to fight the death penalty, by interning with a law firm that represented people accused of murder.

The author believed her views and opinions were set in stone, but then she meets Ricky Langley, who is facing the death penalty for the murder of six year old Jeremy Guillory. Jeremy was the son of a single mother, Lorilei; who was pregnant with her second child when Jeremy went missing. Marzano-Lesnevich entwines the story of Lorilei and Jeremy, with that of Ricky Langley and with that of her own life.

I have no wish to give spoilers in this review and you need to read this book in order to discover the links between those involved. However, this is a book about how the past impacts the present. About how families have secrets and how life is not as clear cut as we imagine it to be. There are grey areas which, unlike in a novel, are not easily wrapped up, completed, finished or put away. We carry our life experiences with us and they colour our opinions, shape our present and influence our future. This is a beautifully written, very moving book, in which every person touched by events are dealt with sympathetically and with respect. I am glad that I read it. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

The Fact Of A Body
By Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich

Reviewed by Jay Gilbertson

This is a non-fiction duo: both an account of a murder and a memoir of the author’s struggle to come to terms with her dark, secret past. Never before have I read such an intense and moving and well-documented and breath-taking account of someone finding their way out of the horrors of abuse.
With some of the most articulate and stunning sentences, author Lesnevich takes you on not one, but two separate journeys that though they never intersect, they do influence one story while attempting to find reasonable justification for the other.
One of the dichotomies within the book’s structure I found not only intriguing, but mind-blowing, was the perspective the author was able to achieve when sharing her life growing up. She discovered that those formative, young moments of being afraid of the secrets your parents carry, can not only bind you to them—but can slowly kill you.
“What I fell in love with about the law so many years ago was the way that in making a story, in making a neat narrative of events, it found a beginning, and therefore cause. But I didn’t understand then that the law doesn’t find the beginning any more than it finds the truth. It creates story. That story has a beginning. That story simplifies, and we call it truth.”
And yes, besides having an MFA, the author is also a Harvard Law School graduate. She lands a summer job at a law firm in Louisiana to help defend men accused of murder, she (at the time) thought her position on the death penalty was clear: against it, totally and completely, no exceptions. Then, she discovers the case of Ricky Langley.
In the little town of Iowa, Louisiana, in February of 1992, six-year-old Jeremy Guillory is looking for his friends to play with. Joey and June aren’t at their house when Ricky answers the door. Ricky suggests Jeremy wait upstairs for their return.
That is one of the stories.
The other: “The whispers that follow are sheathed knives, fierce contained urgency. Voices are not raised; doors stay closed. Behind one, I am questioned, and I know to keep my voice low, that my parents do not want my grandfather, grandmother, or brother to hear. I answer simply. Yes, my grandfather has touched me…”
This is how author Lesnevich finds her way through something unfathomable. She does it with the facts, the truth—and something more. Using a writing narrative both arresting in its rawness and filled with a wise depth painfully beautiful, you are carried into her story.
“I carry the memory somewhere inside my body I can’t control, can’t even access to reach inside and edit the memory out. I still want to edit it out. I still want to be free of it. But I know I’m bound in ways I’ll never see, never understand. We carry what makes us.”
We carry our story.

The facts are grim and undeniable. In the first week of February, 1992, in the rural town of Iowa, Louisiana, Jeremy Guillory, six, goes next door to see if his buddy can come out and play. The man who comes to the door, Ricky Langley, tells Jeremy that his buddy is gone but will be back soon. Does he want to come in and wait? Jeremy knows Ricky who rents a room from his buddy's parents and who has babysat for him and the couple's children so he goes in.

Later that day his mother, Lorilei, goes out and calls Jeremy to come in for supper. He doesn't respond, so she goes next door. Ricky comes to the door and tells her he hasn't seen Jeremy. She goes to her brother's house close by but they haven't seen Jeremy either so they call the police. A massive search ensues, lasting for three days. But the search will find nothing because Ricky Langley killed Jeremy in the first minutes after he entered the house. He stored his body in his bedroom closet, wrapped in blankets and a garbage bag.

Years later, Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich comes to Louisiana as an intern at a firm that handles Death Row appeals. The case she is given to help with is that of Ricky Langley who was sentenced to death at his trial for the murder of Jeremy Guillory. Although she has spent her life opposing the death penalty, she is amazed to find that her overwhelming response is to agree with the verdict and wish for the death penalty to be applied. What causes this emotion which seems to contradict her core beliefs?

The author then delves into the backstory of both Ricky and her own family. The central truth of her childhood is that she was molested for several years by her maternal grandfather, abuse that her family denied and shoved away. That denial shaped her childhood and made her determined to find another life that the one she had led to that point. She was also traumatized when she found out that she wasn't a twin, but a triplet with one sibling that didn't survive for long and wasn't mentioned in the family. Ricky's childhood started with a family tragedy; a car wreck that killed two of his siblings and put his mother in the hospital for months in a full body cast. On a home visit, she is somehow impregnated and that was Ricky. No one believed it was possible so his mother continued to receive massive amounts of medicine and painkillers. The doctors wanted to terminate the pregnancy when it was finally discovered as they thought there was a high chance of birth defects but the parents refused and Ricky was born. Was this the reason that he started molesting children when he was nine or ten? No one will ever know. Ricky was always a strange child who didn't have friends and was the odd one out in the family dynamic.

Ricky's first trial is overturned and he actually receives three trials before he is finally sentenced to life in prison. The author follows the trials and the surprising fact that Jeremy's mother testified for the defense in the second trial because she didn't want the death penalty. As the author uncovers more and more of Ricky's troubled life, she also delves into her own family's troubled lives and states the question of how do we fix the point in time when a story begins? With Ricky, did the story start when he murdered Jeremy or did it start when he was born with so many counts against him? How responsible was he as he asked for help multiple times that he didn't receive?

This is a chilling book that raises many questions for the reader. How do we overcome tragic events in our lives? Can we push the damage aside and emerge whole? What is the role of choice, or more simply, nature vs. nurture? This is a compelling memoir that will leave the reader thinking about these issues long after the last page is turned. This book is recommended for true crime readers as well as those interested in memoirs about overcoming obstacles.

I have read some excellent reviews that summarize the book, so I am going to include my visceral reaction to the book:

*Well written.
* Absolutely horrifying.
*Absolutely terrifying.
*I wish I could undo the knowledge of what I read, both about Ricky but also Ms. Marzano-Lesnevich's experiences.

In terms of my questions about the book, some of which if not all of which are completely none of my business:
*How could Ms. Marzano-Lesnevich's mother not know (I won't say about what), as she was probably a victim, too?
*Has Ricky ever pointed to Terry as having been involved, and, if not, why would he protect Terry if Terry was involved, and is he actually capable of protecting Terry, since he seems to speak stream of consciousness on many occasions.
*Question that may never get answered: why did Terry essentially kill himself and his son?

I have been a reader of the True Crime genre, but I have never read a book about a child being killed, especially about a child being killed by a pedophile and possibly (most likely) being sexually abused. I wish I had never read this book, not because the author is not excellent (she Is) but because the whole book is filled with subjects that I want to ignore: poverty, child murder, pedophiles, sexual abuse of children by relatives, physical abuse of children, the death penalty, and many other terrible subjects. I did not realize until reading the book that it would trigger emotions from my own experiences with abuse. Like I said earlier, I wish I could undo reading this book so I could pretend such horrifying things don't exist. In fact, I am going to stop reading the True Crime genre, at least for a while as I get over the content of this book.

This book is an astonishing meld of true crime story and personal memoir which should probably carry a trigger warning for abuse survivors who are not far into their healing. It is packed with elegant, beautiful prose and the immensely ugly way family systems can twist and deform their members.

I found myself in tears from time to time, and sick with rage at others. It was a difficult read for me, even though my own abuse was not of the kind the author suffered. Most of all, I recommend it for the description of the author’s journey to redemption and wholeness. Acutely observant of place and person, it is a haunting and harrowing path through hell. It is a beauty of a book that may shake you to your core even as it relates how one woman came into her own freedom and joy.

This book should be read by anyone who wishes to understand the heroism of survivors; by students of sociology and psychology; by ministers and by survivors themselves. This not a light read, but it is certainly worthwhile.

The author, Alexandria, stumbles upon the case of Ricky Langley when she spent the summer as an intern in the law firm of Ricky’s lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith. At that time Alexandria was a law student at Harvard. Ricky was a small, nerdy man of 26 when he killed a young boy, Jeremy Guillory. Ricky went through three trials. He was sentenced to death in the first in 1994. Then the sentence was reduced to life imprisonment in a retrial in 2003. His third trial was in 2009 when Clive Smith tried to have him declared not guilty by reason of insanity.

Ricky was haunted by the vision of a dead brother he never met – that brother died before Ricky was born. His father was an alcoholic. Ricky claimed that he was abused when he was a child. Was that why he became a twice-convicted pedophile?

Alexandria realizes that her own past was uncomfortably connected. She was a young child when her grandfather, her mother’s father, molested her and her sister Nicola. The discovery of that, and the unexplained death of her sister, Jacqueline at five months, might have explained the angsty behavior of Alexandria’s father. Both her parents were lawyers. Alexandria, despite having several boyfriends, is gay. Did she become gay or was it just her?

The author stitches the life of Ricky Langley so closely to her own life that her doubts about Ricky’s crime became enmeshed with the doubts she harboured about her own life. What caused Ricky to be a pedophile? How should the law determine whether a person is mad or bad? Alexandria’s account prods us to think about these questions. She was certain that she was against the death penalty until she came across the Ricky case. But by the end of the book, empathy re-entered her psyche. She writes: ‘I see the jury’s verdict differently now. While the verdict the jury voted is legally incoherent, what strikes me now is its elegant, human beauty. It says what cannot be true in law, but can only be true in life: that Ricky is both responsible and not. The law the jurors were presented with didn’t have room for this middle ground. They created it, as though they opened up space in the law, inventing a category that doesn’t exist. Ricky.’

Where to even start discussing this novel? How to explain what a special novel The Fact Of A Body is and give honor to the unique and extraordinary nature of this story? I have read a few courtroom cases but none where the court case is really put together by a narration outside of the courtroom in such a striking way.

My first favourite point of course already goes to the fact that this is true crime, reason enough for me that I really wanted to read it and what drew me to this novel in the first place. This is not just some fictious story, this is a legal case about real people (you can even look Ricky Langley up on youtube) and this makes it even a more interesting and valuable read to me. Sometimes in life the realism is just as horrendous as what some authors are imagining and writing down as fiction, and taking the life of an innocent 6-year old boy for no reason at all is so horrific to me that I wanted to know more: who was this person, how could this happen? Could I somehow understand this human better and see him for more than the crime? After reading this novel I have found the answers for myself because yes this one makes you self-reflect about your own beliefs and it will certainly make you ‘live’ Ricky’s life story. This novel is more than satisfying because it gives a face and creates a real character of someone you would only know by name in the media’s headlines. There is no question about guilt here, but it’s his background and past, going back so far as his parents getting together and his conception, and the lead up to this hideous crime that will come forward in the story. The history of Ricky Langley was very thoroughly penned down and the image painted is vivid and an outright tragic and rocky account of his life. The author did it all without any contact with him so this must have taken a painstakenly amount of work and time. The question that rises though is if he could really have escaped this path with everything that’s happened to him? Personally, I still think so. It’s not because you were treated badly (which is debatable too) and you struggle in life with who you are that you can’t change the hand dealt to you, that you have no choice. I know that he was looking for help but does that serve as an excuse? It’s all about the choices someone makes and there’s only that one pivotal moment of wrongful action. It might have started before he was born but there is only one moment that matters to me. Still, there’s plenty food for discussion to be found in here and this novel is all about forming your own opinions and thoughts and trust me that they were bubbling up and there was no keeping them down this time. I love it when a novel makes you think and occupies your thoughts like this.

Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich grew up in a household with two lawyers as parents and she chose to go to law school too (if this is something inspired by the desire for justice for those who aren’t heard in life or her encouraging environment is something I definitely wondered about as well) and she’s opposed to the death penalty. She begins her internship in a law office watching a video tape of Ricky Langley and has to wonder if she can still hold on to her beliefs. Little did she know that it would change her forever because the deeper she gets into his case, the more she’s also relating to her own past. While she’s researching she’s bravely revealing what happened to her as a child and she’s being so devastatingly honest. Entangled is a very raw and painful family history. She really weaves her own history into Ricky Langley’s story in a subtle and magnificent way.

I have a sense that this novel was kind of cathartic for the author. Something that was silenced and ignored for so many years and now there’s no ignoring anymore, now everybody will know. I got the idea that she needed to let it out and to change that feeling inside her of people not acknowledging what happened for so long. Now every reader is part of it and I can understand that gives her some relief. It can’t change the past but it changes the future.

This was a very well researched novel about a crime and a brave memoir of abuse which made it an unforgettable novel to me. I can highly recommend.

30 Best Books of 2017!

Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich weaves an emotional, gripping— beautifully and intelligently written debut; a haunting work of art— THE FACT OF A BODY A Murder and a Memoir. A cross-genre, an extraordinary mix of literary, memoir, true-crime, legal, mystery, suspense, and historical in one powerful story—traveling between a murder case and the author’s own personal childhood tragic abuse. A story that demands to be told.

When the two begin to mesh together the author begins her journey for answers. A tale of two crimes.

In 1992 Louisiana, Rick Langley (26 yrs. old) brutally murdered a (6 yr. old) boy, Jeremy Guillory. This was not the first time his name was in the news. A pedophile, he had served time in Georgia for molesting a girl.

In 2003, Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich (Harvard Law), was working an intern at a law firm. The firm was defending Langley in his death-penalty appeal.No stranger to the law, both her parents are prominent New Jersey lawyers. For some reason, she feels a strong pull to this case. She becomes obsessed with learning more about this case, yet it seems to bring out strong emotions about her own life.

A shameful secret buried by her family. Her family was opposed to the death penalty, but yet she wants him to die. She must define, and make sense of this strong feeling. In this harrowing, raw, and emotional journey, the author pieces together the story of murder, and her own personal story.

Courageously she steps out of the darkness and silence, with the accounting of her own sexual abuse as a child by her grandfather. The story begins. A grandfather who made his way up the steps and into their room. The two sisters. She recalls when she told her parents, they did nothing. Love and hurt. How to be safe. Did the grandmother know? They did not want to embarrass or shame the family, damper careers, or hurt the grandmother. They only attempted to keep the grandfather away and move forward as though nothing happened.

The case triggered deeply buried ugly evil and damaging secrets. The unpleasant truths. At the same time, she begins to dig further into the scars while attempting to understand Langley and her own abuser (her grandfather). What caused them to be monsters? Whom to blame?

A journey of self-discovery for over ten years. Leaving the law behind to begin her intense work. There is a story to be told. To be uncovered. A message.Heartbreaking, moving, and gripping. The darkness of sexual abuse. The blackness of her own family. In the process, there are even more family secrets which are unraveled.

The astounding and shocking conclusion. Her family buried the abuse. The painful emotional scars turned into depression and eating disorders. Shame. Probing questions. How will the events from the past affect her relationships in the future?

How many times has this occurred in other families? Is it passed down through generations? At what point could have the abuse ceased? When the person reaches out for help. The abuser and the victim. Through generations, what breaks the patterns? By hiding the abuse, what is gained? What is lost? Can mercy be shown? Forgiveness or acceptance?

“Is what happens in a family the problem of the family, or the problem of the one harmed by it”? There is a cost.

Thought-provoking, the author’s writing is spellbinding. A highly-skilled writer, meticulously researched; hard to believe this is a debut. A cautionary tale. Guard your children. Marzano-Lesnevich became a lawyer because she believed that the law simplified and made sense of stories; however, are they too complicated to be contained? Can the abuser be a victim as well?

I purchased the audiobook for my personal collection, narrated by the author. Her performance was outstanding. Raw and emotional. Exposed. The author having to relive five years of pain. How do you get past the hate? Even though I had read the book back in May when it came out and rated it 5 stars, I was sidetracked with my dad’s illness in NC, as his POA; hiring in-home health care nurses, later Hospice, a car accident, his death, funeral, remaining out of town for a few months; preparing his house to sell, being the executor of his estate, probate, and closing. Later, back home in South Florida, dealing with Hurricane Irma, damages, power outages, and loss of internet. Therefore, book reviews during May-Sept did not get written or posted.

When choosing my Best 30 Books of 2017, (which is a difficult task), realized I had not written my review when linking the book. Immediately this week, have gone back to the audiobook and listened once again to THE FACT OF A BODY. I highly recommend the audiobook and the second time around experience was even more powerful than the first.

The emotions are real. A desperate need to understand. Did her parent’s sacrifice their daughter’s welfare for the sake of family stability? Unspeakable crimes. What about Langley? Can the past be left behind? Do we protect the abuser or the victim? A cry for help goes unnoticed. In Ricky, the author writes her own story. What about Lorelei, Jeremy’s mother? The man who murdered her son? Should he be put to death or spared? The questions and what ifs? Where does the sickness begin?

For me, the author’s personal tragic story is more moving, intimate, and personal than Langleys. Her bravery is commendable and admirable with the difficult subject matter. Vivid descriptions which will remain with you after the book ends. Cannot even imagine having to be around a grandfather which remains in your life, after the unspeakable acts.

Mercy. Forgiveness. Is this humanly possible? An encouragement for others to come forward, which is a timely subject in our cruel world today. An example how we carry our life experiences with us. They influence our opinions and feelings while shaping both our present and future.

Award-winning writing and gracefully rendered. Told with sensitivity and compassion, THE FACT OF A BODY will leave a lasting impression. Each reader will be left with their own individual thoughts of victim and abuser— where the lines are often blurred.

JDCMustReadBooks

Fascinating to glimpse into the heads of the people surrounding the predator. Although not intertwined, the two stories wind between the perp and victim, and both families.

In Ricky’s story you get an understanding of the sweet side of this person who has capacity for evil. Ricky had a twist in his psyche that was impossible for him to control. It’s such a sad story for everyone.

You also start to realize when people say on the news after an event like this: “He was such a sweet boy”, that that was the only side they knew. It’s very heartbreaking. Sometimes you don’t see the darkness. Such secrets.

From an aunt who barely knew him until after he lived with her for a few months:
“She loved him then, she understands that now. The years have taught her that. Living with him, taking care of him, changed her. When she remembers his eyes, yes, she remembers the fear and the guilt in them-but how can she explain that what has stayed with her, what has opened her heart and what breaks her heart still, was that she saw relief? .....Relief that someone might finally make him stay.”

And he tries so hard to repair himself, that’s heartbreaking, too. It’s too big a mountain.

I read this book with an enormous amount of empathy (along with equal disgust) for Ricky, saddened that he could not fix his twist; a pain in my heart for all the victims, including the author; and a marvel at the beautifully crafted telling of a difficult story.

I love true crime books and this one looked really interesting, but I wasn't sure what to expect, since it is a memoir as much as it is an account of the actual event. I found that the book was good at both of these things simultaneously. The author has written a heart wrenching account of a real murder, with details described in such a way that it makes you feel like you are reading a thriller.

If you are tried of reading dry, droll recounts of crimes scenes by people who used third party information to write their books, then this one will offer you something different. I felt the events of this book deeply because of the compassionate and descriptive writing of the author. This was much better than most of the true crime books I've read before as it made me feel closer to the family and eager to see the guilty punished for their heinous crime.

I definitely recommend this book to others who enjoy true crime stories. Brink a handkerchief along though, you'll need it.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher, provided through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Fact of a Body is the story of Alexandria Marzano-Zesnevich's life. It is also the story of a six year old boy's murder by a man named Ricky Langley. The author winds her story and Ricky's story around each other and I was a bit slow on the uptake of that. For a little while I couldn't see why she was introducing another family into her memoir. Once my brain caught up with what she was doing, I was hooked. Alexandria was an abused child and Ricky was an abuser. It seemed odd that she would want to help him but it is that very mix that makes this story so great. She delves deeply into her own life and Ricky's life and finds that her anti-death penalty stance isn't as iron clad as she thought it was. There are so many different circumstances to consider, nothing is as cut and dried as it might seem. This story is full of ugly things: murder of a child, sexual molestation of children, very dysfunctional families, secrets and lies. But I couldn't pull away from it.

This was a difficult one. The subject matter is tough to read about, it's disturbing and so deep and raw. However it's definitely an issue that needs to be brought into the open more and people need to be less afraid of calling out and bringing molestation into the light.

This book is two stories in a way--the author's story of working through what happened to her in childhood, and Ricky's story. I didn't feel like justice was carried out in Ricky's case, but it also could have been my thoughts due to the author's presentation of the case. Although she was (is) against the death penalty, I am not so much that way personally and didn't feel that she really presented the other side of the story as it were.

Definitely worth reading if you like true crime and can stomach abuse (although handled fairly discretely) and pedophilia.

I checked this book out from the public library, all opinions are my own.

This is a riveting examination of the aftermath of the murder of a 7-year old boy by a known pedophile, Ricky Langley. His first trial sentenced him to death, and two more trials reduced it to life in prison. The author of this true crime/memoir is Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, an attorney who began an internship in Louisiana to defend men accused of murder. She was also a staunch opponent of the death penalty. This is her journey into Ricky's past and her own.

During the course of her investigation into Ricky's case and his past, she begins to face the darkest corners of her own childhood. The story of what led to Ricky's horrific acts is a counterpoint to her own attempts to come to terms with a profound betrayal by the very people who should have kept her safe. It is a fascinating examination of facts that shed light on unspeakable truths and the nature of evil through a unique combination of true crime and memoir. This book is truly deserving of a rare 5-star rating.

This is disturbing and depressing but fascinating. This is a memoir of the murder of a young boy by a confessed pedophile and written using both the factual and imagined past of the victim, the murderer and their families, all alongside the author's own trauma of sexual abuse. It is not easy reading but it's very well written: I kept thinking that I couldn't go on but I also couldn't put it down. I wanted to know WHY and HOW and to understand the world the people in this memoir come from.

This would be a 5-star book if I hadn't been so disappointed (and I felt, mislead) that the author isn't a lawyer after all. She quit law and it was a bit vague as to why and what her thought process was. When I thought she was a lawyer, it gave the book more authority and then that was taken away 3/4 of the way through. Readers going in knowing this might not be as taken aback.

The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich purports to be two things—a true crime nonfiction narrative and a memoir. In actuality, the memoir is far more engrossing than the true crime, but in combination, the book is so compelling that it will probably go on my list of favorites for the year, primarily because it is genre busting.

A word of caution: The Fact of a Body is not for the squeamish or the faint of heart because it includes murder, pedophilia, and sexual abuse. The author is unsparing in her description of events; her personal story as well as the true crime investigation regarding Ricky Langley, a convicted pedophile and murderer.

Marzano-Lesnevich was a law school student when she went to intern for the summer with a New Orleans law firm that specialized in death penalty cases. Her goal is to fight for the elimination of the death penalty. When she is given information about Ricky Langley and what he did, her beliefs and her worldview is shaken to the core. She cannot believe that she wants Ricky Langley to die. She finds herself questioning the events of her own life through the lens of Ricky Langley's life and deeds. Ricky had mental health issues his whole life and has cried out several times for help through the years. His arrest triggered several trials, which have ended with life in prison without parole.

Alexandria intermingles her own story with Ricky's. As she explores Ricky's life and its secrets, his penchant for young children, and the murder of little 6-year-old Jeremy, she is exposed, once again, to the secrets of her own family and her own childhood, including the sexual abuse she experienced at the hands of her grandfather. She explores for the first time the things that have caused her lifelong emotional scars—the things have been left unexplored and unsaid—and the reasons why they were left unexplored and unsaid.

These two narratives are totally compelling alone but best told in combination. The other portion of the book that is unique is the "imagined" way that the author fills in the gaps of Ricky's life. She only met Ricky one time in the prison in Louisiana, but she has the transcripts from the several trials and the impressions of the lawyers. She fills in the blanks, in effect. She says, "While I have not invented or altered any facts, relying instead on the documentation I've used as the primary source for this book, at times I have layered my imagination onto the bare-bones record of the past to bring it to life." All the sources she used are documented at the end of the book.

So, you can see that Marzano-Lesnevich has in effect created a new genre, a genre with which she excels. Her memoir is perhaps a bit more effective than the true crime narrative, but on the whole, the book is riveting and hugely successful. The Kirkus reviewer calls it " a powerful evocation of the raw pain of emotional scars."

I applaud the author for telling the truth about a painful part of her life which led to later emotional and physical challenges. That part of the book I found compelling. However, with the Ricky Langley portion, I often felt confused because the author "imagined" many events and conversations in his life. After a while, I didn't know what was true and what was the author's imagination. I still had no compassion for Ricky at the end of the book as he did kill Jeremy. Also I wish the author had included some of the photos she talked about: Ricky, Jeremy (when he was alive), her parents, her siblings, her grandparents, etc. It would have helped the reader feel even more attached to the story, if we could actually see these people.

The author has to be an incredibly strong woman to tell her own story of childhood abuse by a family member while telling the true story of a convicted pedophile. 

This was a hard book to read. It's honest and raw and difficult to read about. My heart bled for her and what she went through but she stuck with it and ended up finding she wasn't the only one abused, this was a long chain of secrets, no one mentioning the elephant in the room. 

A story of abuse of children, murder of a child, and the state of our Mental Health system, this will grab you and hold you for a long time.

Beautifully written and brutally honest.

Book Review: The Fact of a Body by Alexandra Marzano-Lesnevich

What does it take to put the painful past behind us? How does memory get buried in our bodies and our lives? Must we forgive those who tore our lives apart in order to make ourselves whole again? Or is justice all we need? And what is justice anyway?
The recently-released, genre-bending book, The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, digs into these questions with such a smooth, eloquent touch, you barely notice how deeply your heart’s been pierced until you turn that last page and suddenly find that everything you thought you knew is no longer clear.
The story begins…well, that’s another theme of the book. Just where does a story begin? The meaning of any story changes, Ms. Marzano-Lesnevich proves, depending on where it begins and where it ends, even if the facts remain the same. Yet every story must begin somewhere, and she chooses to start this tale during her law school internship at a firm specializing in the defense of death row criminals. She’s staunchly opposed to the death penalty, and has been for as long as she can remember. Until, that is, the first day of her internship, when she watches a video of one of the firm’s clients, an admitted pedophile, confessing to the murder of a little boy. Suddenly, she wants the man dead, and she doesn’t know why. Thus begins her odyssey for the truth about herself and her family, and the mystery of how her story is so tied up with the murderer’s.
This is a true crime book. This is a memoir. This is unrelenting reporting on a gruesome murder case. This is a story about how the secrecy and shame surrounding childhood sexual abuse strangles the flow of love and life from victims and their families. Marzano-Lesnevich deftly stewards us through a dizzying kaleidoscope of perspectives and timeframes, unraveling a tangled trail of facts that somehow always lead to more questions.
Along the way, remarkable parallels emerge between the lives of the author and the man she’s been hired to help defend. Phantom siblings. Family secrets. Hidden evidence. Both protagonists struggle to piece together the deepest mysteries of their childhoods so they can understand and move on. Both are stymied by families and cultures who refuse to see or acknowledge their pain. And both eventually find some version of peace by standing up and staring down the searing glare of truth that they alone refuse to hide from.
The Fact of a Body is the result of ten years of work by an author whose credentials read like a list of the literary world’s most revered programs and publications. Having put half that amount of time, so far, into my own memoir Wasteland Reclaimed, which explores similar terrain, and as a relative newbie to writing for publication, reading this book has grounded me in the reality of how much work and practice really goes into a masterpiece. Is “masterpiece” too strong a word here? I don’t think so. For me, this is the most important, life-changing book I’ve read in decades, as both a reader and a writer.
Here’s just part of how she describes the nauseating terror of having an abuse flashback during lovemaking with her present-day life partner:
“…it felt good and I moaned and it felt good again. And then it didn’t. When this happens I know it only the way you realize that the water has suddenly got too hot in the shower, has crossed over some invisible threshold and is now burning. Though it would be smarter to just hop out of the shower entirely—damn the bathroom rug, so it gets wet, who cares? —you stand under the spray that is now scalding you and you grope and fumble for the shower knob…Where does the mind go in these moments, while the body trembles? For me it is a white-hot slipstream blank-out, the nothingness of no time and nowhere and no one…”
She then goes on to explain how her flashback experience has changed through the years, and how she’s learned to process the memories by riding them out like a wave.
This is one of the many passages in the book that brings tears of relief and empathy to my eyes. Never have I felt so seen, understood and no-longer-alone, on such an intimate level before reading this book.
Another thread in The Fact of a Body that touched me personally is how the author sleuths into the pedophile-murderer’s story, searching for some explanation for how he morphed from boy to “monster”. She wants to understand, hoping it will lend insight into her own abuser’s transmutation. I search this way too in my own manuscript, into my parents’ marriage and what little I know of my father’s life. How could my father be both the man who helped my mother get sober, yet also be an abusive alcoholic? How could he cause so much damage to me as a child and yet so much of his positive influence still echo through my life to this day? How does the human heart manage to hate and love someone so deeply at the same time?
Marzano-Lesnevich explores these questions about her abuser too. That she finds no pat answer is more satisfying than if she pasted some over-simplified, band-aid rationalization onto her wounds in an attempt to prove she’s fully healed. As any trauma survivor knows, some mysteries are unsolvable and the healing process never ends. The Fact of a Body reveals the paradoxical beauty behind that reality.

The Fact of a Body is incredibly compelling and utterly heartbreaking. Marzano-Lesnevich masterfully weaves the murder and memoir sections with prose that is both delicate and direct, especially in the more difficult moments. That's the brilliance of Marzano-Lesnevich. She takes your hand and guides you, asks you to look at and think about things that are hard. She deftly mines the complications of loving people who are deeply flawed and sometimes dangerous. Along with the facts -- of both the murder and her own experiences -- the author explores that messy grey area where pain and love co-exist. She doesn't ask you to judge. She asks you to listen, to think. To consider the facts and the narratives.

I heard the author speak at a writers' conference. She said that she wanted "to tell the story that the little girl didn't get to." Think about that little girl. Think about Jeremy. Think about the children who didn't have a voice or were silenced. Devastating.

This is a true crime masterpiece, an exploration of the darkest of human experiences. But it is also a powerful meditation on resilience. What a gift that she found her voice and shared it with all of us.

[3.5 stars]

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

Headline:
Though not perfect, The Fact of a Body is a thoroughly unique, complex, and emotionally gut-wrenching mash-up of true crime story and dysfunctional childhood memoir.

Major Themes:
Crime, Mental Illness, Pedophilia, Childhood Trauma, Abuse, Family Secrets

What I Loved:
- This memoir / true crime mash-up is totally unique and was mostly (see below) successful for me. Marzano-Lesnevich interweaves the true story of the murder of five year old Jeremy Guillory by convicted sex offender Ricky Langley (and Langley’s childhood and coming of age) with the story of her own family and childhood, which resembles Ricky’s in surprising ways.
- The farther I read, the more sense it made to meld these two stories into one book.
- Marzano-Lesnevich’s exploration of the making of a sex offender is frightening and heart-breaking all at the same time. And, the juxtaposition of reading about the perpetrator of a sex crime alongside the victim of a sex crime gives this story incredible depth and nuance…and certainly brought up some complex feelings for me.
- By the end of the book, I was just heart-broken about all of it and surprisingly emotionally gutted.

What I Didn’t Like:
- The Fact of a Body has been compared to In Cold Blood, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Serial, and Making A Murderer. For me, the Serial and Making A Murderer comparisons were unfounded and misleading. Serial and Making A Murderer focused heavily on “is or isn’t the suspect actually guilty?” And, that’s not what The Fact of a Body does at all. Rather, you know who the perpetrator is right away and there is never any question of his guilt. The Fact of a Body is more an exploration into the psyche of a killer and sex offender…a la In Cold Blood.
- Initially, I found the writing style and structure a bit tedious. The shifts between Ricky/Jeremy and Marzano-Lesnevich’s childhood were jumpy and Marzano-Lesnevich injected her own opinions/speculation into the Ricky/Jeremy story with statements like “he must have been thinking X” or “maybe he does Y,” which I found annoying. However, either I eventually got used to the style or things smoothed out farther into the book, because it bothered me much less by the end.

A Defining Quote:
"But how could I fight for what I believed when as soon as a crime was personal to me, my feelings changed? Every crime was personal to someone."

Good for People Who Like:
True Crime, dysfunctional childhood memoirs, dysfunctional families, emotional gut-wrenchers

Check out my blog, Sarah's Book Shelves, for more reviews.

I was completely and utterly blown away by THE FACT OF A BODY. Marzano-Lesnevich tells the story of Ricky Langely, a pedophile convicted of murdering a six year old boy, balanced with the story of her own childhood molestation. THE FACT OF A BODY is both true crime and memoir, a book of searching for what makes us and trying to determine the truth. I cannot recommend this book enough.

Marzano-Lesnevich complicates things. Life is never simple. Beginnings are never easily determined. Throughout the book, she humanizes Ricky and acknowledges his faults. But perhaps what was the most gripping to me was the way that she shows how many different endings and meanings a story can take depending where you start.

THE FACT OF A BODY does not end with easy answers. It does not start with an easy story. Marzano-Lesnevich uses Ricky's story to try to find some sort of peace with her own. There is no tidy solution to either story. Rather, a simple recognition that nothing is ever simple.

I was given a free copy of this book by Netgalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

There are two books here. It seems the author is saying, "My dysfunctional life story is not so bad....just look at this guy's story. I did not care for this book even though I do read true crime and nonfiction.... and would not recommend it.

This is a stunning book that asks you to question how (and whether) facts become truth, how stories are told, and how people are perceived. It peers into the dark corners and gray areas with immense sympathy and finesse. This world is complex, yet the law must attempt to force structure and logic on that complexity; the author reveals in this beautiful and sad story that the law may do its very best to sort through right and wrong, good and evil, but is often destined to fail.

It's compelling and complex. A wonderfully provocative read.

I received an advance copy of this book. Wow! It’s very, very deep. It took me a while to process after reading it. The author is an incredibly intelligent person and a great writer. She managed to weave personal trauma and a criminal case together in a way that helped her — and the reader — fully explore both. Her ability to overcome adversity, to understand others, to commit to her values, and to forgive is almost unbelievable. I’ve never read anything like this, and I highly recommend it. I wish I could say more, but I don’t want to spoil it for those who haven’t read it.

After reading the description of this book, I expected a compelling read. However, I found that I was forcing myself to finish it. It may be that I'm just not a memoir type....I'll admit that much. I'm not one to seek out memoirs. I love true crime and legal stories so I thought this would be as interesting as it was described, unfortunately, that wasn't the case for me.

This story was hard to read. Sad for many reasons. At times I felt the author’s attempt at drawing comparisons between her experiences and Ricky’s were a bit forced. Equally tragic lives for sure. I’m not sure I would recommend this book to a friend because I finished it feeling really depressed. Not sure the author found the closure or hope she must have been searching for when writing this book.

An interesting blend of true life murder and memoir at the same time, THE FACT OF A BODY succeeds on both counts. The author does an exceptionally good job in capturing her feelings as she delves into the details of the murder, while triggering feelings about a personal trauma and the road to forgiveness. I highly recommend this thought provoking read…

This is an excellent book--well-written, absorbing, and thought-provoking. It is also a difficult book to read because it deals with the painful subjects of child abuse and the murder of a child. But it's well worth the discomfort it evokes. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in good writing on crucial subjects like the death penalty, the justice system, the nature of mental illness, and forgiveness.

Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich has written a gripping, moving meditation on what constitutes truth, and how that truth varies depending on where one considers the beginning of a story to be. How far back does one reach to understand the present? To understand how someone comes to be who he or she is? Seamlessly transitioning from past to present (in a magnificent feat of writing craft), and from the author's own story to that of a convicted murderer, this book will stay with me for a long time, leaving an imprint of awe, heartbreak, and yes—hope.

This book is so amazingly written and descriptive that I felt the Louisiana heat, I walked up the dreaded stairs with her, with Jeremy and with Ricky. But, and this is hard for me as the reviewer, it was 2 chapters too long and her climactic realization of why she took the Ricky Langley journey and her self reconciliation was not as stunning and impacting as it could have and should have been.

I loved the way the book was written, from author's perspective mixed with heavy on site research and legal info. It is interesting to see that author's personal experience and personal pain contributed to such a well written story.

In this brilliant book, Marzano-Lesnevich masterfully takes on both the culture of silence around sexual abuse and the challenges of reconciling theoretical and personal attitudes toward the death penalty through the art of storytelling. She sets out a humane and thoughtful investigation into several lives, including members of her own family and the family of a convicted pedophile who murdered a small child. By the end of the book, her narratives add up to something more than compelling true crime, more than honest and vulnerable memoir– she has made something new and difficult and necessary. Intelligent,thought-provoking, and beautifully written. This is a must read of 2017.

This combination of memoir and true crime case is well written and I think it will stay with you for days to come after the last page is read. For me, it is difficult to say which part was more interesting. I hope the author will write another true crime book in the future.

One of the most riveting reads in memory -- a complexly woven narrative that is hard to put down. While the subject matter can be harrowing, the beauty of the language and the skill used in telling two distinct stories is gripping and invites any reader to recognize the challenge of understanding events from unique perspectives. Buy a copy for yourself and others for friends in search of a great read. (Full disclosure: The author and I teach at the same university.)

Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich has written a nonfiction masterpiece. The Fact of a Body blends true crime reporting at its most compelling with memoir that recounts the trauma of sexual abuse. The result is a seamlessly braided narrative written in lyrical prose. The author brings a lawyer's sensibility to her well-researched account of a pedophile convicted of murder and tells her own story of childhood sexual abuse as a stunning counterpoint to that tale. This book is at times harrowing, often painful but, in the end, completely unforgettable. Well worth your time.

I loved this book for many reasons. Although the subject matter is serious, the author handles it with honesty, intelligence and vulnerability, all of which I found very moving. Life is so very much like this--when we stumble on something that won't leave us alone, there is usually a good reason and that narrative is masterfully shown in the braided stories she tells. I learned so much from reading this book; it is haunting and redemptive at once.

Fantastic read. If you liked serial you will love the way Alexandria writes. I could not put her book down and had to know what was going to happen. She is a fantastic writer and the format was really interesting. Highly recommend - you won't regret it.

I started this book at 6PM on Monday and finished it at 5PM Tuesday. If it wasn't so beautifully written I would have never been able to finish it. All credit to the author for taking such ugly things and finding ways to make a story I couldn't stop reading.