Love As Always, Mum by Mae West

Love as Always, Mum by Mae West
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2 days

Pages - 320

Publisher - Seven Dials

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

The true story of an abused childhood, of shocking brutality and life as the daughter of notorious serial killer, and master manipulator, Rose West.
You're 21-years-old. Police arrive on the doorstep of your house, 25 Cromwell Street, with a warrant to search the garden for the remains of your older sister you didn't know was dead. Bones are found and they are from more than one body. And so the nightmare begins. You are the daughter of Fred and Rose West.
'Mae, I mean this ... I'm not a good person and I let all you children down ...' Rose West, HM PRISON DURHAM
It has taken over 20 years for Mae West to find the perspective and strength to tell her remarkable story: one of an abusive, violent childhood, of her serial killer parents and how she has rebuilt her life in the shadow of their terrible crimes.
Through her own memories, research and the letters her mother wrote to her from prison, Mae shares her emotionally powerful account of her life as a West. From a toddler locked in the deathly basement to a teen fighting off the sexual advances of her father, Mae's story is one of survival. It also answers the questions: how do you come to terms with knowing your childhood bedroom was a graveyard? How do you accept the fact your parents sexually tortured, murdered and dismembered young women? How do you become a mother yourself when you're haunted by the knowledge that your own mother was a monster? Why were you spared and how do you escape the nightmare?



My Review

There isn't many people who haven't hear of Fred and Rose West nor at least some idea of their horrific crimes against their own kids and many who came along their path. This is written by one of their daughters, Mae, and it is brutally graphic. It is almost written as the way you do in a diary (NOT DIARY FORMAT) what I mean is you write for you and you are brutally honest, warts and all because you are being truthful to yourself. Well its written like that, very honest, shockingly so at times.

When you think you know their crimes and just how unhinged they are/were you honestly don't. I cannot imagine living in a house where a father threatens abuse (sexual) to his kids as is his right :O and him being the better/less threatening parent (her words). Honestly the book is something else, I have read a lot of true crime/case over the years and these two perverts are amongst some of the worst out there. I think Rose West is up there with Myra Hindley because we expect more/better from women, especially Rose as she was a mother and you expect them to protect their children, not use/abuse them.

Not for the feint hearted and even those seasoned readers of true crime, this one really knocks you. There is mention of animal harm and death too, there isn't any kind of abuse I don't think not mentioned in this book, approach with caution. Mae is a brave woman who has overcome so so much considering all she has survived and it also shows how difficult her relationship was with her mother and how strong the hold was on her even after her mother was incarcerated, 4/5.

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