The tag line of this book was “The true story of Satanic Panic in an Italian community”. I’m not sure it’s called a tag line, but cut me some slack. It’s the words under the title, and my poor tired brain can’t remember what that’s called! The tag line (or whatever!) should’ve been “The probably made up story of a bunch of kids who said their parents molested them and did semi-Satanic things”.
I was not satisfied with the conclusion of this book. It’s literally 98% of Pablo explaining the multiple instances of children allegedly being molested by their parents and neighbors. Then maybe less than 2% of conclusions. So many families were ruined, lives were lost, and childhoods damaged forever. I’m not entirely sure if any of it happened though? Like if any of the actual molestation happened I mean. Lots of parents and neighbors went to trial and were convicted, but throughout the book, they’re basically telling us it was all made up. I needed a more satisfying ending. The Italian Children Protective Services basically just took a random word from one kid and started everything down a rabbit hole.
Again, I’m not really sure what happened. There were some kids that claimed their parents took them to cemeteries at night and sacrificed children. No bodies or missing children were ever found though, and the kids were taken at their word. I feel like some of the psychologists and therapists involved in this fiasco were goading children and putting words in their mouths, but like I said I’m not really sure. Although the “tag line” sounds intriguing, I wouldn’t recommend this book. Also, what the heck does the title mean? They told tons of lies! Which lies didn’t they tell? Maybe it’s just a translation thing, because this was apparently originally printed in Italian. Who knows? Don’t read it. I’m giving it two stars because they did a lot of research.
