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Rose West: The Making of a Monster
 
 
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Rose West: The Making of a Monster [Kindle Edition]

Jane Carter Woodrow (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews) |
Print List Price: £6.99
Kindle Price: £4.49 includes VAT* & free wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet
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Review

Praise for After Evil: -- ... 'If you read any book this year, you must read this one.' -- Alma Cullen, Scriptwriter, TV's Inspector Morse 'Unsparing, shocking, beautifully told story of a young boy who woke up to a nightmare.' -- Norman Hull, AVP Films 'Insightful, revealing and detailed, AFTER EVIL is a warm and human portrait of the collateral damage inflicted on a whole family hit by a serial killer. And it is ultimately a moving story of survival and how, against all odds, it is possible to go beyond tragedy.' -- Andrea Michell, Bravura Films

Review

Praise for After Evil: (... )

'If you read any book this year, you must read this one.' (Alma Cullen, Scriptwriter, TV's Inspector Morse )

'Unsparing, shocking, beautifully told story of a young boy who woke up to a nightmare.' (Norman Hull, AVP Films )

'Insightful, revealing and detailed, AFTER EVIL is a warm and human portrait of the collateral damage inflicted on a whole family hit by a serial killer. And it is ultimately a moving story of survival and how, against all odds, it is possible to go beyond tragedy.' (Andrea Michell, Bravura Films )
See all Product Description

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Jane Carter Woodrow
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
How could she? 16 Dec 2011
By Damaskcat TOP 50 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I remember the media coverage of this horrific case at the time and I felt it was time to read a book about it more than a decade later to see how I felt after all this time. If anything it had more effect on me now than it did at the time. I found this book interesting because it showed how Rose's childhood possibly contributed to her later career as a serial killer.

Abuse in childhood has a huge effect on adult lives though not everyone who is abused as a child becomes a sadistic killer as Rose and Fred West did. Both had similar childhoods with physical and sexual abuse from parents - in Rose's case from her father and in Fred's case from his mother. But in spite of similar childhoods not all their siblings turned out in the same way and their children have not gone on to repeat their destructive lives. I was interested to learn that Fred West was not the father of all Rose's children.

As the book frequently says Rose had no boundaries and she did what was necessary to get what she wanted - not apparently seeing anything wrong in killing to get rid of inconvenient people. Maybe if she had made a life with someone else she would not have gone on to kill but because she met Fred West who was also a sadistic psychopath they brought out the worst in each other.

This book is an interesting read though clearly not for the squeamish. The gruesome details are not dwelt upon unnecessarily but some sections of the book make unpleasant reading. I felt some of the writing was a little clunky and I found I had to read some sentences more than once to fully understand them. Apart from that I did think the book was an interesting insight into Rose West's early upbringing. There was no index in the edition I read but there is a short list of further reading and some illustrations which displayed well in the e-book edition.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having read several other books on this subject, this book, in my opinion was just okay. I also think it is about 80 pages too long. Whilst it is essential in cases such as this to establish background and an insight into both the materal and paternal grandparents gives us this,I felt no need to mention the neighbours and their occupations. The endless changes of addresses, jobs and schools was also hard to keep up with and started to become monotanous.

Although the author pulls no punches in telling us of Roses horrific crimes, I still feel there is a slight bias and Rose is somewhat seen as a victim of circumstances. I totally disagree with this and also the notion that Rose is or was in any way slow, it would be naive to accept this. As they say it takes a wise man (or woman) to act the fool and I think this is what Rose West has done throughout her entire life, firstly for self preservation and thereafter to lure victims and to appear innocent to the police. Her dialogue in letters she wrote to Fred coupled with her ability to cook, clean, dressmake and take on 2 children at 17 also show, in my opinion, maturity beyond her years, how many 17 yr olds these days would be capable of that? I think her "play dumb" act was a good disguise for someone who was a master manipulator from no age and I feel her manipulation of Fred was no exception.

I believe Fred on the other hand was either genuinely slow or badly effected by the head injury he sustained as he seemed to suffer some sort of multiple personality disorder as despite his horrendous crimes he was actually capable of showing compassion, unlike Rose who without any remorse cast him out of her life as well.

There are alot of phrase repetitions in the book, jumping back and forward of timescales and typos and it all seems to end to quickly with a page or so being dedicated to each of the victims, then again we have probably heard it all before.

To the authors credit she has painstakingly researched her subject matter but I feel there are some details that would have been better left out.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
A revelation 6 Oct 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
It is very hard to comment on books about subjects like this. The content itself is so shocking you're more compelled to talk about the story, rather than the book. Every book I have read about this case has wrung me out and left me to dry, due to the level of shock you feel when reading this story. The author here however has done something remarkable - I actually feel now that I understand (as much as anyone can). She delves into the past, which in my view is always relevant in cases like this, and to me gives a very good explanation as to why this woman turned out so unemotionally sadistic.
Reading the cases again, and some of the details of the offences are still repulsive but they are skimmed over here. Our fascination with the subject always wants more information and detail, but there's enough here to know what happened and have a suitable sense of revulsion.
The real shocker for me is the new evidence from an eyewitness. I read the passage over and over again, unable to take in the implications of it. It has left me now wanting to know so much more about that witness and what has come of their revelation.
This is definitely one of the better serial killer books out there, but for a fuller picture I would recommend reading Anne-Marie West's book to complement this. It's not well-written, but painfully and brutally honest.
I don't think anyone will ever match Rose West's depravity, and I hope no-one ever does. I also doubt she will ever tell us the truth, but there's enough here for us to know it and relax that she is in the right place.

My heart goes out to the remaining Wests and what they have endured and still have to endure, along with all the victim's families. The ripples of this case reach far and wide and I don't know that I'd be able to function if one of my loved ones had fallen victim to Fred and Rose, knowing what they would have had to endure.
Read this, but take a break between chapters and a few deep breaths before continuing.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The Title is correct!
This book is called "The Making of a Monster." I am now at chapter 5 (17% in) and Rose is still in Primary school! Read more
Published 4 days ago by R. James
Highly recommended
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I have read several others on the West's case but found this book to give a very well written and detailed background to Rosemary and Fred's... Read more
Published 21 days ago by Mrs. H. Macdonald
Have I missed something?
Very well written book and completely riveting. This book leaves me in no doubt that Rosemary West was and is a completely vile human being but there are several claims made within... Read more
Published 3 months ago by J. Wright
Good read
Good book which helps you to understand the making of Rose West - I could never forgive her but do understand after reading this book what made her the way she was. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mrs. A. Williams
Fascinating Read
A compelling, well-researched account of how the life of a young girl was shaped from a very early age by malign influences within her own family, and later on by her association... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Oscar
harrowing read
This is a disturbing book giving graphic details of the events leading up Rose's imprisonment.
You feel a mix of emotions for her, from the harrowing childhood she had to... Read more
Published 7 months ago by chrisann
a gruesome read
these kind of books are obviously upsetting,but never the less make compelling reading, but makes you very wary of how much evil there is in the world, so bring back capital... Read more
Published 8 months ago by bozzy
eye opening
This book was so difficult to put down. The author explained exactly why she did, what she did, without excusing her actions. Read more
Published 8 months ago by pezza
A Fascinating insight into the psyche of Rosemary West
I found this book fascinating as it covered not just Rose West's background from childhood, but also that of her parents. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Vixen
A novel approach to the True Crime Genre
Books about the dark figures of the macabre are quite common and they tend to focus on the crimes. What this title by Jane Woodrow does however is bring the prehistory of Rose... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Gareth Wilson - Falcata Times Blog
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Narcissists also often fantasise about getting their own back on others, and this is important in the development of sexual sadism. &quote;
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although two serial killers in each family is incredibly rare. That one of them was a woman and that she was an extreme sexual sadist is even more so. &quote;
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Mae and Stephen West were to say of their parents in their book, Inside 25 Cromwell Street, &quote;
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