If You Tell by Gregg Olsen: book review

If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood (2019) is about three sisters in a farmhouse in Raymond, Washington, America, from 1975 to the present day.

Nikki, Sami, and Tori Knotek have a sadistic mother, Michelle (Shelly). Throughout their abuse, the sisters – with three different fathers – form an unbreakable bond.

The book begins in their adulthood in their 30s and 40s. But their childhood memories still haunt them. It’s the little things (the smell of bleach, the sight of duct tape) that take their minds back to the horrors. Whenever their mother wanted to punish them, it was severe and a surprise – even in the middle of the night.

Shelly had a friend, Kathy. Kathy Loreno was big, brassy, fun, until she befriended Shelly, and then ‘her personality began to dissolve right in front of everyone’s eyes.’ Then she ‘disappeared.’

This book tells how the sisters coped and cooperated. One way to cope was to go to school and college, but their mother tried to sabotage their learning. Until finally the truth was revealed.

This is a survivor’s story in three parts, and how the three sisters gained their freedom. It is also about resilence.

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MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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